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Diaspora Co-Founder Ilya Zhitomirskiy Passes Away At 21

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Re: Diaspora Co-Founder Ilya Zhitomirskiy Passes Away At 21

#101

Post by tptacek »

away wrote: post #92
tptacek wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't take a special person, so much as it's simply the case that no matter who you are, your startup is likely to fail. When I was much younger and starting my first (fundably doomed) startup, one of my cofounders liked to say, "yeah, most businesses fail, but those statistics include companies trying to sell soft drinks to Eskimos and combination Chinese food/pizza restaurants". Then we'd all chuckle, knowing…

I believe there is a reason something succeeds and there is a reason something fails.

Jobs did fail, at Next, and that's STEVE FUCKING JOBS.

Re: Diaspora Co-Founder Ilya Zhitomirskiy Passes Away At 21

#102

Post by lucasjung »

darkmethod wrote: post #54
DanBC wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The more awareness of suicide Suicide has a strong triggering effect; see "Werther effect". Talking about suicide has to be done carefully to avoid triggering further suicidal behaviour; especially after someone has just completed suicide. I'd agree that more awareness of suicide prevention is very important.

Excellent response. This is surely a worthy topic to discuss yet must done carefully as I'm sure many can relate to this tragedy in some aspect. http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ I'm not affiliated. Please use use this service if you are even remotely affected by this discussion in a negative way. I fear this will escalate and push a reader over the edge who doesn't think they have an alternative. They do. If…

Keep their number in your phone. Hopefully you'll never need it, but IMO it's the second most important number after 911. Even if you have had a little bit of training, helping a suicidal person can be very bewildering and difficult, so if you find yourself unable to act effectively, you can pull out your phone, dial this number, and get help from an expert. I know people who are alive because somebody else (in one case a complete stranger) had this number in their phone:

1-800-273-TALK (1-800-273-8255)

If you find yourself dealing with a suicidal person and you don't have this number handy, dial 911.

Re: Diaspora Co-Founder Ilya Zhitomirskiy Passes Away At 21

#103

Post by thomasgerbe »

motters wrote: post #94
DevX101 wrote: post #25

The founders of Diaspora were in a really unenviable position. They started off with a wave of national press as well as solid financial support from grassroot users. As time went on, it became increasingly clear that they would not be able to accomplish the goal they originally set out to do. They had failed. Publicly. This can be very devastating psychologically to someone who has always 'succeeded' in life. I'm no…

Actually I don't believe that Diaspora failed. The fact that I'm using it on a daily basis, and not using Facebook, is pretty much a win as far as I'm concerned. Diaspora still has some way to go, but it's usable.

I have a hard time seeing Diaspora overtaking Facebook or G+ for that matter, especially with the former becoming more entrenched with site authentication.

Certainly, success is subjective but I think the expectations for Diaspora was to be a legit alternative to Facebook and now G+. And while it is an alternative, it's not popular enough for most people to switch over. Furthermore, Diaspora got widely criticized with regards to their funding and subsequent releases... specifically people expecting much more for the amount of investment.

Re: Diaspora Co-Founder Ilya Zhitomirskiy Passes Away At 21

#104

Post by tptacek »

Tycho wrote: post #85
tptacek wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't take a special person, so much as it's simply the case that no matter who you are, your startup is likely to fail. When I was much younger and starting my first (fundably doomed) startup, one of my cofounders liked to say, "yeah, most businesses fail, but those statistics include companies trying to sell soft drinks to Eskimos and combination Chinese food/pizza restaurants". Then we'd all chuckle, knowing…

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't YC focussing on relatively high-risk ventures in the hope of hitting it big? If they picked a roster of less ambitious projects, but with the same quality of personnel, then surely the failure rate would drop.

I'm not making a comment about YC.

Re: Diaspora Co-Founder Ilya Zhitomirskiy Passes Away At 21

#105

Post by einhverfr »

felipemnoa wrote: post #58
temphn wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very important comment. The biggest risk in doing a startup is not the financial risk per se. It's the psychological risk of knowing you really, really tried -- and still failed. That is the hard part, because everyone goes in with Dilbert/mass media notions of how easy it is to be a CEO or (just as bad) Social Network illusions of how easy it is to grow meteorically while fighting off lawsuits. The truth is that it'…

>>The possibly healthier (?) way of dealing is to convince yourself that it was bad luck, or the other guy cheated I think it would be healthier to accept that failure is normal and to rather enjoy the road to Ithaca [1]. Life without challenges/failures would be too boring. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_P._Cavafy#Ithaca

Failure is a stage on the path to success.

Re: Diaspora Co-Founder Ilya Zhitomirskiy Passes Away At 21

#106

Post by nobody3141592 »

dereg wrote: post #96
oomkiller wrote: post #27

There are rumors that his death was self-inflicted, which is quite sad. Every time we see a young smart kid die like this, it should remind us to remember others as we go through our lives. Too often we ignore other peoples feelings, and then something like this happens. Take a moment to talk to the people you love to make sure something like this doesn't happen to them. (If it turns out this is inaccurate, please ex…

Serious question, is "self-inflicted" a euphemism for "suicide"?

Yes "self-inflicted" is a medical/legal term which includes suicide.

In some jurisdiction there is a difference if "the balance of mind was disturbed" or if the coroner believed it was an attempted suicide (cry for help) that 'went wrong'

Re: Diaspora Co-Founder Ilya Zhitomirskiy Passes Away At 21

#107

Post by clarkevans »

On a flight from San Francisco to New York I had the good fortune to run into this gentleman. He was kind, thoughtful, and had a very deep sense of commitment to those who had donated funds and had put their hopes into Diaspora. His picture is one I expected to see again, just not like this.

Re: Diaspora Co-Founder Ilya Zhitomirskiy Passes Away At 21

#108

Post by robg »

edw519 wrote: post #89

Horrible. This news is so tragic I really can't focus on anything else now. Which is probably the way it should be. Our community stresses the importance of achievement, success, and technology so much that it's easy to forget what's really most important: each other. Sometimes it takes terrible news like this to jerk us back to that reality. I never knew Ilya, but if any of his friends of family visits this forum, p…

It's not just our community. There are twice as many suicides as homicides in the U.S.[1] Yet, every nightly newscast is sure to cover the murders. How many talk about the suicides? Worse, suicide is the leading cause of death among college students [2]. It's an epidemic that no one talks about. We've already lost two freshman at MIT this year.

[1] http://www.freakonomics.com/2011/09/01/suicide-vs-homicide-b...

[2] http://www2.dailyprogress.com/news/2011/nov/07/uva-study-sui...

Re: Diaspora Co-Founder Ilya Zhitomirskiy Passes Away At 21

#109

Post by Tycho »

tptacek wrote: post #104
Tycho wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't YC focussing on relatively high-risk ventures in the hope of hitting it big? If they picked a roster of less ambitious projects, but with the same quality of personnel, then surely the failure rate would drop.

I'm not making a comment about YC.

But you were using YC as an example to support a point about startups in general.

Re: Diaspora Co-Founder Ilya Zhitomirskiy Passes Away At 21

#110

Post by robg »

adrianwaj wrote: post #82

Vitamin D levels affect state of mind, and if you're coding through the night and sleeping through the day, you're probably low on Vit D levels - or rather, you could be a lot higher if you wanted to.

I used to get Seasonal Affective Disorder every year around this time. Since starting on Vitamin D, the symptoms have yet to return. It's also improved my sleep patterns.
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