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TraderJoe comments on Replaceability as a virtue - Less Wrong
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"The graveyards are full of indispensable men" - De Gaulle.
History is full of collapsed empires, failed projects and lost battles. The loss of an indispensable person does not itself prove they were not indispensable. It may just mean you're screwed.
I interpret the quote as meaning somewhat that people kid themselves about how irreplaceable they are.
The graveyards are full of everyone who has ever lived up until ~1850 (and a lot of people born after that).
I kind of assumed that was the anonymous author's point. (I've seen it attributed to many different French.)
It may have been the original author's point, but that makes it kind of a non sequitur comment to this post, at least to my first reading of it. Yes, indispensable people die. People who try to make themselves replaceable also die. The people left behind are better off if the deceased is "more replaceable" in at least a practical sense.
...On further thought, I think I automatically interpreted the comment as disagreeing with the article, because my brain seems to assume that most one-like comments are going to be disagreements. If I interpret it as agreeing with the article, then it makes perfect sense.