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Chris Seaton has died

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Re: Chris Seaton has died

#181

Post by jvm___ »

themaninthedark wrote: post #62
Lio wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would speculate that the societal stigmatisation of suicide is a form of social "guard-rails" that might keep someone from stepping to far in the wrong direction during a moment of weakness. It might be the last thing that saves them when they are not in their right mind and have lost all hope and perspective. In that moment anything that can be done to protect them should be done because there is always hope, even…

One of the things I often hear said about people who attempt suicide but fail by jumping is that they have a moment of clarity on the way down that their problems are not a big deal and are solvable except the current one of imminent death. Not sure if this is true in all cases and what the outcome for these people is after time passes, do they still feel depressed or are things better for them. But, if that is the g…

Bojack horseman has a poignant poem entitled The View from halfway down.

The View from Halfway Down

The weak breeze whispers nothing

The water screams sublime

His feet shift, teeter-totter

Deep breath, stand back, it’s time

Toes untouch the overpass

Soon he’s water bound

Eyes locked shut but peek to see

The view from halfway down

A little wind, a summer sun

A river rich and regal

A flood of fond endorphins

Brings a calm that knows no equal

You’re flying now

You see things much more clear than from the ground

It’s all okay, it would be

Were you not now halfway down

Thrash to break from gravity

What now could slow the drop

All I’d give for toes to touch

The safety back at top

But this is it, the deed is done

Silence drowns the sound

Before I leaped I should’ve seen

The view from halfway down

I really should’ve thought about

The view from halfway down

I wish I could’ve known about

The view from halfway down

Re: Chris Seaton has died

#182

Post by beachy »

rootusrootus wrote: post #164
nkurz wrote: post #159

Apologies if this is the wrong time to ask, but there probably won't ever be a better one. I didn't know him, but often read his comments here. I frequently found them to be... frustrating. He seemed to have a particularly literalist bent, and would often seem to focus on small seemingly irrelevant inconsistencies rather the bigger argument. He usually wasn't wrong, but it made me wonder whether he was autistic, or o…

I will admit that when I put 2 and 2 together and realized who he was here (in my mind, for whatever reason, I've always read his username in my head as Chris Eaton, not Chris Seaton), I was conflicted. The image I built up from years of his commentary did not match the portrait painted today by people who knew him much better. I think there's a lesson there. Comments are just that, comments. Try not to read too much…

> Assume good faith

One of the HN rules, and one that I think would vastly improve on line discourse if others followed it. I have to go on FB from time to time (since that's where a community I follow is based) and it's horrifying how quickly and often things spiral out of control, when the protagonists are probably pretty OK people IRL.

Even if someone is being a jerk, responding in this way can often make them pull their head in.

I wish I was better at this.

Re: Chris Seaton has died

#183

Post by tutmeister »

khazhoux wrote: post #177
swader999 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah and it is especially hard for high achievers to ask for help or even consider that they should ask for help. I think its completely foreign to them.

Citation needed Sorry, not trying to be a jerk, but unless there is actual comparative evidence, I don't think one can just assert that high achievers struggle in getting help any more than others.

It should be common knowledge by now, as the problem has been documented for decades and discussed here many times.[1][2][3][4]

As far as an actual citation: "Studies from Kjølseth et al. (2009), and our own findings (Szücs et al., 2020), suggest that older adults who die by suicide or have late-onset (mostly high-medical lethality) suicide attempts are often high-functioning throughout most of their life, and characterized as controlling, rigid, high-achievers, also high on orderliness (a conscientiousness subcomponent)."[5]

[1]https://www.nytimes.com/1996/05/01/us/higher-suicide-risk-fo... [2]https://www.deseret.com/1988/9/13/18777827/30-percent-of-tee... [3]https://www.depts.ttu.edu/research/scholarly-messenger/2016/... [4]https://everymindatwork.com/high-achievers-and-mental-health... [5]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7655527/

Re: Chris Seaton has died

#184

Post by swader999 »

tutmeister wrote: post #183
khazhoux wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Citation needed Sorry, not trying to be a jerk, but unless there is actual comparative evidence, I don't think one can just assert that high achievers struggle in getting help any more than others.

It should be common knowledge by now, as the problem has been documented for decades and discussed here many times.[1][2][3][4] As far as an actual citation: "Studies from Kjølseth et al. (2009), and our own findings (Szücs et al., 2020), suggest that older adults who die by suicide or have late-onset (mostly high-medical lethality) suicide attempts are often high-functioning throughout most of their life, and charac…

This fits what I've seen unfortunately. Thanks for posting all those links.

Re: Chris Seaton has died

#186

Post by sitkack »

coletonodonnell wrote: post #162
nkurz wrote: post #159

Apologies if this is the wrong time to ask, but there probably won't ever be a better one. I didn't know him, but often read his comments here. I frequently found them to be... frustrating. He seemed to have a particularly literalist bent, and would often seem to focus on small seemingly irrelevant inconsistencies rather the bigger argument. He usually wasn't wrong, but it made me wonder whether he was autistic, or o…

Seems that the testimonials from others on here show that he was nothing but lovely, I don't think that making observations like that on a post like this is terribly appropriate though.

I don't think Chris would have minded.

Re: Chris Seaton has died

#187

Post by ohadrau »

Years ago when I was around 14, I stumbled upon Chris's Katahdin project and thought it was such a cool idea I had to try it out. I spent quite a bit of time trying to get set up with it, and not knowing much about C# couldn't really figure it out myself. I ended up reaching out to Chris before giving up on it, not expecting much. To my surprise, Chris spent several hours helping me out and answering my (probably very dumb) questions. I was shocked at how helpful and welcoming he was. Despite the relatively brief encounter I can easily say Chris was one of the kindest programmers I've had the pleasure of interacting with.

It's hard for me to express how much this title hit me when I read it. Like many in this thread, Chris had an enormous impact on my path as a programmer and I'm quite sad that I never got the chance to properly thank him. RIP, Chris

Re: Chris Seaton has died

#188

Post by karianna »

Chris was also well known in the London Java Community and contributed to multiple events, conferences, bringing his expertise in a thoughtful and kind way to folks who were often 1-2 stacks above the runtimes and compilers space .

My conversations with him about JVM design, GraalVM and Ruby were some of the most memorable and fun times I’ve had running around the conference circuit.

Thank you Chris for unselfishly sharing so much with us and leaving the world a better place, you will be missed.

I’m off to go and hug loved ones now.

Re: Chris Seaton has died

#189

Post by justin66 »

coletonodonnell wrote: post #162
nkurz wrote: post #159

Apologies if this is the wrong time to ask, but there probably won't ever be a better one. I didn't know him, but often read his comments here. I frequently found them to be... frustrating. He seemed to have a particularly literalist bent, and would often seem to focus on small seemingly irrelevant inconsistencies rather the bigger argument. He usually wasn't wrong, but it made me wonder whether he was autistic, or o…

Seems that the testimonials from others on here show that he was nothing but lovely, I don't think that making observations like that on a post like this is terribly appropriate though.

This:

> Seems that the testimonials from others on here show that he was nothing but lovely

is because people behave like this:

> I don't think that making observations like that on a post like this is terribly appropriate though.

Re: Chris Seaton has died

#190

Post by TedDoesntTalk »

savryn wrote: post #168
philosopher1234 wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depression might not even really be about love. Seems like aggression plays a big role in it too.

yeah the old analysis thing about aggression turned outwards --> anger aggression turned inwards --> depression i wish some of these super smart people weren't so afraid of the harmless 'woo' that costs next to nothing, like read some old 70s book on primal scream into a pillow or try a radical keto meat diet or weird mental re-framings from people who are total quacks The internet is full of 60 plus years of this st…

I’ve found people like Dr Paul Jenkins on YouTube hello with “reframing” significantly.
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