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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

#171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where does it say that Ilya committed suicide?

It doesn't. People are assuming that the lack of explanation + his young age = suicide. It may end up being the case, but at the moment, people are just speculating.

It would say how he died if it were anything other than suicide.

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

#173
post #78
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'…

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…

speaking of YC, worth noting:

http://ycombinator.com/dan.html

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=859117

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

#174
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'd love to someday have a failure as awesome as NeXT.

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

#175
post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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] h…

Well at least suicide is a legitimate personal choice. Murder is not.

Just like how Depression is a choice and OCD is a choice and Schizophrenia is a choice.

Your views on mental health are a bit last century.

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

#177
post #9

What purpose do stories like this serve? People consider asking for details to be rude. Other than tabloid style storytelling drama, why else should strangers care? This man died young, but so did the local 19 year old young woman killed just after midnight by a driver just after she rescued an injured dog from the road. You can already see someone saying the cause of death does not matter, but why does this death an…

If suicide does turn out to be the cause of death, it is worth talking about. I won't say that there's nothing more tragic than suicide, but it is certainly senseless/needless in almost all cases. The more awareness of suicide, the risk factors, and how to not tread into that space, the better.

Talking about must be done carefully. Suicide appears to be "contagious": http://www.mindframe-media.info/site/index.cfm?display=84352 so special care should be taken about reporting it. There are some guidelines for the media, e.g. http://www.samaritans.org/media_centre/media_guidelines.aspx

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

#178
post #95

Ilya was an incredible person. His heart was truly driven by bringing about positive change in this world. Diaspora was only the beginning. He was genuinely one of the kindest people I've ever met. Along with that, one of the most driven and intelligent peers I've ever encountered. Any time I ever had a chance to converse with him, it was always a very pleasant experience. He was someone I felt I had truly connected…

I couldn't agree with you more. Ilya had the brain of a genius, an incredibly brilliant and extremely humble, which made him extremely unique. Ot top of that he was an idealist who also took action to create more good in the world. He had a big heart and a genius brain, I'm still struggling to accept that he's gone...

Just so. Ilya was one of the most creative and clear-eyed people I ever met. He had a gift for projecting possibilities into the future and condensing a great deal of thought into a few observations.

I was inspired by time spent with him, and my own ideas flourished as a result. It's painful to think that noone will get to talk or dream with him again, but I am grateful for the brief time I had.

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

#180
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no point to speculating. If they don't want to say just leave it at that.

it's basic human nature to speculate that's why the news of Michael Jackson's death caused Twitter and even Google to crash

"that's why the news of Michael Jackson's death caused Twitter and even Google to crash"

Google did not crash, an automated system blocked the queries as they looked like spam.

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