

If I get hit by a truck... - artursapek
http://www.aaronsw.com/2002/continuity

======
sakopov
After reading a few of his blog posts from previous years, it almost seemed
like he saw it coming years ago. Depression is a terrible thing. Most
experience it in mild states. Only unlucky few contemplate suicide on daily
basis. Some succumb to it within weeks. Others suffer years. Regardless, it's
very sad to see someone so bright take their own life. Before you pull the
trigger, tighten that rope around your neck or take those pills think of your
loved once. Think of your parents. How miserable their life is going to be
without the only being they cared for their entire lives. Then think twice
about your life. When you kill yourself you kill others around you. This had
stopped me once before and i hope it will help others. We all have a purpose
here.

Rest in peace, Aaron.

~~~
charlieok
How much worse is a situation like this when you are literally faced with the
threat of decades in prison?

"I have a chance to end it now that I may not have in a few months"

------
wging
It was incredibly unsettling to see this as the top link on Hacker News, then
skim down the list to see 'Aaron Swartz', 'Aaron Swartz', 'Aaron Swartz', and
feel my suspicions grow.

(Yes, I conveniently missed the details of the second link, "Reddit cofounder
Aaron Swartz commits suicide".)

------
brainless
The "I'm not dead yet!" felt like a bullet through my head. I never knew him,
but being just a human being, I can feel a loss I can not describe.

~~~
martinced
And he specifically wishes that that footer be replaced with a link (I take it
a link pointing out that he's now death).

That guy obviously had a sense of humor.

R.I.P.

~~~
sjwright

      > I take it a link pointing out that he's now death
    

Sadly, this isn't the Family Guy universe.

------
hkmurakami
_> "Oh, and BTW, I'll miss you all."_

We miss you too, Aaron.

------
dreeves
I have a question for the community here. Aaron writes "I ask that the
contents of all my hard drives be made publicly available." Should we unmask
his secret Beeminder goal? <http://beeminder.com/aaronsw> (Assuming it's
nothing embarrassing, or even helps shine light on what's happened.)

~~~
jmillikin
I would vote against exposing his goal because we don't know why he had marked
it private, unless there's some explicit indication that he would also like
all of his online accounts made public.

You could contact Sean B. Palmer, as specified on the linked page: " _For
other stuff, email Sean. I'm sure he'll do something reasonable._ "

Regardless of whether you open his goal, you should freeze his account in some
way to prevent someone from logging in.

If the contents of his hard drive are made publicly available, that will
expose his login cookies (and potentially passwords), which means members of
the general public would be able to access his Beeminder account. They might
also gain access to email, which could be used to do a password reset and thus
gain access.

~~~
dreeves
Smart, done. Thanks so much, John. (Now I'm dreading the skull and crossbones
watermark that's going to appear when he derails on his public goal --
especially for how that will look to people not familiar with Beeminder. Maybe
I'll suppress that too.)

------
manojlds
Did he write that when he was 16? Makes me sad that he had already
accomplished so much at that age, and is not there anymore.

~~~
jakub_g
I felt suspicious about it so I opened <http://www.aaronsw.com/2002/> : "/2002
is a home for random things I want to publish." So it doesn't seem to be the
publication year.

~~~
sciolistse
Web archive has it at Jan 2003, so it seems to be awfully close.

~~~
jakub_g
Right. Given the time to index, it could indeed come from 2002.

------
artursapek
Looking through a website that was made by someone who is dead now feels very
weird.

~~~
moepstar
Especially the "I'm not dead yet!" note on the bottom of the page :(

~~~
speeder
Kinda creepy.

Since he wrote that awesome online will, I wonder if he prepared the passwords
so people can execute his will.

------
Mz
For those basically judging Aaron for his action, let me suggest that if you
are so against suicide, you should stop lecturing and judging others. Instead,
be compassionate, accepting, caring, patient, help people carry their burdens,
turn the other cheek, be the bright spot in their day. People who attempt
suicide are generally people who cracked under the strain. You generally don't
know what burdens they bore, how you and others made the burden more instead
of less. If you think people should choose to stay in this world, work on
making it a choice worth making for more people. Be kinder, gentler, more
generous. Or stfu when someone decides "enough is enough".

~~~
Mz
I see my above comment is still getting upvotes. If anyone is interested, I
did end up writing a blog post as well:

[http://www.novemberwest.com/blog/2013/01/13/suicide-
social-a...](http://www.novemberwest.com/blog/2013/01/13/suicide-social-and-
physical-factors/)

I did submit it to HN earlier. It hasn't inspired discussion, which is no
surprise.

~~~
coconutrandom
Thanks for writing that.

~~~
Mz
Sure, no problem.

------
hdra
I didn't know much about him aside from the fact that he is one of the
founding member of reddit before this. I came to know about all his
achievements and contribution to the things that matters a lot to me
personally which he did at such young age after this incident.

Even though I almost never heard of him before, I still feel that we lost a
big one. Never before I felt this way because of a stranger, and to be honest,
even kinda feel weird myself. May he rest in peace.

------
josephpmay
The "I'm not dead yet" at the bottom gives me chills.

~~~
Sami_Lehtinen
To me it in strange way tells that maybe he had considered something like that
at so early point? Because people usually do not prepare for things they
really do not expect to happen.

~~~
foxylad
You don't have a will? I've had one since I had anything worth passing on,
including physical and virtual possessions.

I'd equate it's importance with an effective backup strategy - something every
diligent person does. So I wouldn't read anything into the existence of this
page other than he was a diligent person.

------
feniv
I think it's incredible that he had the foresight to consider the morbid
possibility of death at such a young age and take appropriate actions to
manage his responsibilities even beyond the grave.

~~~
egwor
I've thought it but never taken any action. In real life I set up my relevant
payments (life insurance) and made a will. Everyone should make a will because
of the consequences/issues that happen as a result of a lack of a will

------
giis
I don't know much about him until today,as i read more and more about him. I
feel very sad. I couldn't believe some 16 yr guy writing

"Source Code Copyright for my GPLed source code should revert to the Free
Software Foundation. They seem to have a reasonable policy about letting
people use the code."

So far, i thought only Indian judiciary system is so stupid compared to US
judiciary system. Now I don't see a difference between them. RIP.

------
hn-miw-i
The need for a digital probate policy seems very important.

He based this his from esr, and the link to esr is now broken. Is there a
central clearinghouse for thes documents? A digitally signed will should be
far harder to forge and could be legally binding. To see ones digital wishes
be fulfilled from the afterlife should set some tormented spirits to rest.

------
jbrooksuk
Was this page not noticed before? Surely if it had been, someone would've
spoken to him about the possibility of him suicide? I feel like the Internet
could've done a lot more for him.

R.I.P Aaron, you achieved a massive amount in the short time you were here.
Remember that, wherever you are.

~~~
mscarborough
It seems like a pragmatic web page. Plenty of us try to reduce the 'hit by a
(bus|truck|car)' factor but we don't do much more than pushing to github
regularly.

------
blackjack160
Days like these, I can't help but share some Pooh:

<https://quip.io/q/awa>

Disclaimer: I am a founder of the above entity, this is just my expression of
solidarity for Aaron.

------
pknerd
The line _I'll miss you all_ said everything.

------
benjlang
What a brilliant man he was, so sad. Do people still make these types of pages
these days?

------
nQuo
Saddened to see someone so talented and young take their own life.

It's never worth it.

------
chuckreynolds
..damn.... kinda weird reading that after the news i just heard. RIP man.

------
Techasura
EPIC AARON! hats off buddy!

------
Evbn
Oops, dead link: <http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/continuity.html>

~~~
dchest
<http://www.catb.org/esr/continuity.html>

