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Aaron Swartz commits suicide

tech.mit.edu

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Re: Aaron Swartz commits suicide

#441

Post by Gigablah »

pinaceae wrote: post #350
Gigablah wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps ironically, you exhibit the same behaviour as parodied in the comic.

by responding to a 'my god i am so special, no one is like me' post with a simple webcomic that succinctly points out that this is laughably wrong I am myself exhibiting the same behavior? interesting piece of logic.

Yes. The main point of the comic is that everyone fancies themselves to be more worldly-wise than the next person.

You could accuse me of the same, but at least I'm not dripping with contempt.

Re: Aaron Swartz commits suicide

#442

Post by pfortuny »

pretoriusB wrote: post #290
pfortuny wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, no you do not understand at all. Depression cannot be dealt with just with an 'ordinary and structured life': it is an illness. It has existed always. The fact that there are specialists means that today, we have accepted is as what it its: a disease whose symptoms, professionals can, at least, try to decrease or even eliminate. Do not mistake 'tiredness', 'a season of bad temper', 'the normal stress during a cri…

> Oh, no you do not understand at all. Depression cannot be dealt with just with an 'ordinary and structured life': it is an illness. It has existed always. While there are cases of physiological depression (an actual illness) in the staggering majority of cases it's not an illness but an easy cop-out to deny any major wrong with societal structure and the modern way of life. "The fact that there are specialists" jus…

Well, it depends on what you understand by the word. It is obvious that in most cases, when one says "I feel depressed", he is just saying "I feel low", like "I'd like the Earth to swallow me", nobody means "I'd like to die" literally.

However, I just wanted to point out that there are REAL depressions, as you acknowledge (my fear was that you were not acknowledging even this).

So I see we agree but I had my fears.

Re: Aaron Swartz commits suicide

#446

Post by bambax »

jacquesm wrote: post #159

Man this so sucks. If you hit someone with enough felony counts sooner or later something can snap. This in response to those that claim the DOJ didn't have anything to do with Aaron killing himself. For some people the mere fact of being suspected of a crime they didn't commit is enough to push them over the edge. When you're placed in a holding cell the police will remove your laces from your boots so you don't han…

Adversity, even extreme adversity, doesn't cause suicide; if it did, many, many people on earth would kill themselves.

I would even argue that it's often the opposite; adversity gives motivation and meaning; meaninglessness is more dangerous.

People I knew who committed suicide did it when they enjoyed a limited level of success. For instance, twenty years ago I was an actor in a play by an author who had been trying to make it for years. This play was a (moderate) success. Two days after the last show, the author jumped out of a window in his grandmother's apartment.

It baffled everyone around him, but I think the reason is that success didn't bring him the joy he thought it would bring. There wasn't anything left to look forward to.

Re: Aaron Swartz commits suicide

#447

Post by orangethirty »

Rest in peace, Mr. Swartz.

As life moves as the currents in the ocean, some of us find ourselves in tropical paradises, whilst others are gifted the horrible cold of the artic. There are some who manage to hang on to another current and make headway towards warmer climates, there are some who do not. The world is now saddened to learn that you were caught up in the harsh artic cold of life. We could ask questions as to why did you not swim harder or faster, but none of us were in your place.

Your short life was anything but worthy of such tragic end. You decided to leave too early, too soon. Still, your presence still lives through your work, the community you helped build, and the people you touched.

Farewell.

Re: Aaron Swartz commits suicide

#448

Post by montogeek »

beadmomsw wrote: post #252

Thank you all for your kind words and thoughts. Aaron has been depressed about his case/upcoming trial, but we had no idea what he was going through was this painful. Aaron was a terrific young man. He contributed a lot to the world in his short life and I regret the loss of all the things he had yet to accomplish. As you can imagine, we all miss him dearly. The grief is unfathomable. Aaron's mother

Sorry for your loss.

Re: Aaron Swartz commits suicide

#449

Post by chimeracoder »

tesmar2 wrote: post #354
konstruktor wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aaron Swartz did something he knew was morally right but very probably illegal in some way, and, him being a prodigy, I'm very confident he was aware of this. It is called activism, and is a very brave and noble thing to do, something most people don't have the guts for. Governments often try to break activists who threaten their agenda (or in this case, that of a dying industry), and it seems they have succeeded wit…

This is terrible news, but, not knowing much about the case, how was it morally right to download a bunch of pay-for documents?

Someone on Reddit explained this better than I can, but JSTOR is basically a scam. It pockets the money that it receives and doesn't pay anything back to the authors. As an author, you yourself have to pay for access to your own work (or your university does, via a subscription).

JSTOR has scholarly articles dating back centuries - when you consider that that information deserves to be free, and the societal cost of keeping that information and research hidden, JSTOR's mere existence is practically a crime.

CERN has been very clear in their opposition to JSTOR's practices, from what I know.

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