
Aleksey Vayner Has Died at 29 - ColinWright
http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/aleksey-vayner-death-video
======
_djo_
I met Aleksey at Yale a few months after the video had gone viral and found
him to be a nice enough guy who was intelligent and interesting to talk to,
though it was clear that he had serious emotional issues as even then after
all the ridicule he felt compelled to boast of unlikely achievements almost as
a reflex. He was not the arsehole the internet had prepared me for but a
decent and troubled person and I felt desperately sorry for him.

The communities and networks we have built online have proven to be
fantastically capable to creating and organising for good, whether it be
raising funds for disaster relief or catapulting some deserving person to
stardom, but we've all too often decided to ignore our power to tear down and
destroy with frightening speed. Aleksey Vayner's video may have been silly and
weird but it did not merit the public humiliation he received.

It would be too much to expect that large scale ridicule of an individual like
this will never happen again, human nature is what it is and cruelty and
anonymity go hand in hand. But as individuals we can at least prevent
ourselves from being a part of it by pausing before we forward, retweet or
share the next picture, video or meme and considering whether the person being
laughed at deserves to be destroyed for our amusement.

~~~
chimeracoder
I agree with your entire post except for this one clause

> cruelty and anonymity go hand in hand

Anonymity and cruelty are orthogonal concepts - there is nothing about
anonymity that implies or requires cruelty, and the connection runs the other
way just as often, but as human beings, we find it easier to focus on and
remember the negative more so than the positive.

~~~
cantankerous
Unrelated concepts, maybe, but by definition they are not orthogonal in the
real world, unfortunately. Statistically, I'd be willing to wager people act
worse when they think nobody is looking. Anonymity just extends this effect
elsewhere.

People are much less likely to be cruel when people they appreciate could be
made aware of it.

~~~
mpyne
Relevant: <http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19>

This has actually been studied academically (the "online disinhibition
effect"). Anonymity definitely seems to correlate with poor behavior, even if
it's not a causal relationship.

~~~
Ygg2
No, it doesn't. I remember an anecdote of a bagel delivery man that calculated
the percent of people (donations to the bagel plate were anonymous) that
screwed him up was only 15%.

So majority people are actually nice even when anonymous. And penny arcade is
a comic site, not a dispenser of truth.

~~~
qohen
_I remember an anecdote of a bagel delivery man that calculated_

I expect it was about Paul Feldman -- it was a very interesting story -- the
guy was an MIT-trained economist who, in frustration at getting nowhere at a
certain point in his career, gave it up to deliver bagels, etc. to companies
every day and he collected data on people's behavior when it came to leaving
payments.

The following NY Times Magazine article is by the Freakonomics duo about him
(the story made it into the Freakonomics book):

[http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/06/magazine/what-the-bagel-
ma...](http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/06/magazine/what-the-bagel-man-
saw.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm)

PDF of the same article from one of the authors (i.e. a non-nytimes.com link):

[http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/WhatTheBagelMa...](http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/WhatTheBagelManSaw.pdf)

------
anateus
The translation of the Facebook wall post seems incorrect. It's also in
Russian and not Ukrainian. Here's my go at it:

You damn egoist, pick up the phone. Who will take care of [your?] mother?! At
least sell your source code and fuck off to Costa Rica. The very same paypal
will give you 200-300 pieces [I think these might be pills rather than
dollars]. Pick up the phone bitch!

Edit: thanks for the corrections, indeed, that would most likely be
$200,000-$300,000. Although I'm a native speaker I didn't grow up in Russia so
my slang and colloquial language is pretty weak :>

~~~
xentronium
"piece" is a slang word for thousand. You got everything else right.

OP mistranslates the comment horribly.

~~~
ptmx
Yeah, the translation in the OP was almost completely wrong; I'm not sure
where they got the idea that there was a joke that said "kill yourself".
Actually, the depressing thing is that the real comment points even more
toward a suicide.

~~~
VMG
I still don't get what's happening.

~~~
aeontech
The real comment sounds like someone knows that Aleksey was suicidal, and
says, in order:

"Nobody sell this guy any pills" (so he does not kill himself) "You selfish
bastard, who's going to take care of mom?" (if you kill yourself) "You could
always sell the source code and fuck off to costa rica" (an alternative to
killing yourself) "Paypal would pay you couple of hundred thousand for it"
(saying that the above-mentioned source code is very valuable) "Pick up the
phone bitch" (apparently he is ignoring the phone calls from his worried
friends, and they wish him to stop doing so).

Does that help?

~~~
VMG
Kinda - I still don't get what code they are talking about and what Paypal has
to do with it

~~~
aeontech
I don't think anyone knows that.

------
guylhem
I read the article, didn't know the details, but what I now see is :

\- somebody who has proofs of great achievements he did

\- a backstory showing how these achievements are compatible, possible and
repeatable for this young immigrant who is decided to succeess

\- during the vice.com video, apparently a self-reflective decent dude, whose
only mistake may have been to send a self promotion video to get the job he
really really wanted.

He didn't hate. He worked on himself and was pushed my a great internal drive.
He was trying to get the right to pursuit happiness _applied_ to his
situation.

I call that a success.

Then the haters showed up and hated him, for daring to pursuit dreams, his
dreams, thinks that they would certainly never get to do themselves, even in
their wildest dreams

These haters may have seen him as a show-off - and that's sad.

I call someone like this a beacon of hope on what we humans can achieve if we
really put ourselves to work.

Pay attention - these persons are quite infrequent, sometimes fragile (Aaron).
Help them if you can. But they're here on a mission to change the world.

If you are one, I advise you to _HIDE_ the good things you do.

Poeple are jealous. Any good dead you do, any investment on yourself you make,
any skill you have (breaking bricks for ex) - whatever. Consider that a dark
secret of yours and wait for the day when usual humans will no longer hate,
but welcome instead, humans with 'better' capacities.

RIP Aleksey, you seemed like a great man. The word unfortunately was not ready
to allow access to people like you... yet.

~~~
saraid216
According to his Wikipedia page, most of the claims he made were demonstrably
false. (I had never heard of him before this HN post.)

~~~
EvanKelly
I followed his resume story pretty closely when it broke simply for the
outrageousness of it all and this is correct. I can't speak to what he
achieved afterwards. The ones I remember distinctly:

\- Video of him skiing in the video is stock footage he bought on craigslist.

\- Video of tennis serve at 140 mph.

\- Plagiarized an economics paper in his resume

\- Claimed to be one of a limited number of people in Connecticut certified
for nuclear waste disposal

ivygateblog.com seemed to be the biggest follower of his and may still have a
lot of the articles and the paper resume.

~~~
droithomme
Some of these stories such as the nuclear waste one came from stories from
people who met him at Yale, and reported in the Yale campus tabloid Rumpus.
Jordan Bass, an acquaintance seems to be the source for several of the
outrageous ones which were told in the context of Bulldog Days, an official
Yale event featuring illegal underage drinking for high school seniors that
were accepted. It's pretty clear that most of what he said at this event,
assuming he said it at all, was intended as a joke. After it got written up in
the campus newspaper and people knew him for this it seems he continued with
the joke during his time there since people obviously greatly enjoyed it.

[http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/10/23/061023ta_talk_mc...](http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/10/23/061023ta_talk_mcgrath)

* taught tennis to Jerry Seinfeld and Harrison Ford

* a specialist in Chinese orthopedic massage

* the Dalai Lama wrote his college recommendation

* he is an action star

* he is an espionage expert

* he is a professional athlete

* he practices on the C.I.A. firing range

* he participates in martial-arts competitions in a secret system of tunnels underneath Woodstock, New York

* he competes at skiing competitions in Switzerland

* he worked for the Russian Mafia forging passports

* won two games in a tennis match against Pete Sampras

* founded a charity for troubled kids

* wrote a book called "Women’s Silent Tears: A Unique Gendered Perspective on the Holocaust"

* is a professional male model

* must register his hands as lethal weapons at airports

* is one of four people licensed to handle nuclear waste in the state of Connecticut

* has killed two dozen men in Tibetan gladiatorial contests

My take? He was an awesome guy.

~~~
guylhem
I can not comment on things I did not see. As I said, I read the article (and
the posted video), didn't know the details or the story beforehand. I'm not
usually interested in gossip - but with the news, it was interesting to try
and understand the reasons of what looks like another suicide.

In the video, I see him breaking bricks and lifting weights, armwrestling etc.

All this is quite possible for me, and no reason to be ridiculed against.
Physical prowess is a good thing!

The rest I don't know, and considering the "media fame" and joking aspects you
mention, unless the claims are directly attributed to him by verifiable
sources, I would call them hearsay.

~~~
saraid216
> As I said, I read the article (and the posted video), didn't know the
> details or the story beforehand.

I went straight to Wikipedia, which at least tends to have decent citations to
follow. While it doesn't seem like anyone has a copy of his resume, the at-
the-time President of Charity Navigator [1] says he literally lied on it [2].
I don't really see why Stamp would weigh in unless such a claim had actually
been made, and Stamp's call for expulsion doesn't appear to have been
rescinded.

[1]
[http://web.archive.org/web/20071012124658/http://charitynavi...](http://web.archive.org/web/20071012124658/http://charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.view&cpid=19)

[2]
[http://web.archive.org/web/20070929071909/http://www.trentst...](http://web.archive.org/web/20070929071909/http://www.trentstampstake.org/2006/10/im-
not-laughing.html)

~~~
droithomme
Here's his résumé, which you ask about:

[http://web.archive.org/web/20070222123930/http://www.ivygate...](http://web.archive.org/web/20070222123930/http://www.ivygateblog.com/images/vayner.pdf)

Here's an article about his sister, who has been successful since age 22
investing in real estate:

[http://money.cnn.com/2005/03/04/real_estate/investment_prop/...](http://money.cnn.com/2005/03/04/real_estate/investment_prop/tycoongarber/index.htm)

She's relevant because an address she owns was used as the address of the
charity. There's no evidence she knew what he was up to.

Students who know him considered it all to be a joke or at least not
malicious:

[http://web.archive.org/web/20080422030103/http://www.yaledai...](http://web.archive.org/web/20080422030103/http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/18308?badlink=1)

> But Won Chai ’07 said that while Charity Navigator has a right to be upset
> with Vayner, he thinks the humor of Vayner’s resume should be appreciated.

> “I think clearly he was trying to play a practical joke or just trying to
> draw attention to himself,” he said. “Whether or not it was a good thing or
> not, I couldn’t say. People seemed to be enjoying it. I-bankers are
> forwarding this stuff to each other. Maybe it’s good for a laugh now and
> again.”

> Pieter Morgan ’09, who has lifted weights with Vayner, said he thinks Vayner
> often makes seemingly unbelievable claims because he genuinely believes them
> to be true. Morgan said he thinks Vayner is a genuine person, despite his
> penchant for seemingly implausible stories.

> “I think it’s like in ‘A Beautiful Mind’ with Russell Crowe,” Morgan said.
> “When he tells you these stories, it’s completely genuine, which is what is
> completely amazing. He’ll tell you with a completely straight face that he
> knows the Dalai Lama, and he is completely serious. I think he is
> fundamentally a nice guy.”

Here's his charity site which seems to only have been active in November 2006.
There was a web comment that mentioned that he used these sites to get girls
and was apparently quite a player.

[http://web.archive.org/web/20061129145614/http://www.empower...](http://web.archive.org/web/20061129145614/http://www.empowerachild.org/web/)

------
danabramov
I'm so glad none of the bad judgements I made ever came back to haunt me. I'm
sure we all sometimes make bad judgements. I distinctly remember doing very
stupid things when I was a teenager.

When I was 14 years old, my mom took my iPod to a repair shop because it
refused to turn on. In a week, when they said they fixed it, I went to this
shop with my friend. Although I had the address, I couldn't locate the
building, and we spent an hour searching for it in the cold. We passed an
internet café and a wonderful idea popped into my head. I sent them this
email:

    
    
        My fingers are freezing.
        Been looking for your motherfucking shop for an hour.
        Barely writing. Wait for me, assholes.
    

Of course actually meeting the guys who fixed my iPod wasn't exactly fun—I'm
glad they had some sense of humor. But they also called my mom and advised her
to teach me some manners.

What came as a surprise to me is that the same minute I walked into the store
I realized that sending this email—heck, even stopping to write it—was a grand
silly idea. Self-WTF. I couldn't remember just _why_ I did this. It was like I
had this silly little brother who did it, but it was me who had to face the
consequences. But then, just five minutes ago _this seemed like a really
clever and fun thing to do!_

In such moments I did not just embarrass myself (and my mom) in front of
people I don't know, but I also made my family extremely puzzled because I was
the “smart” kid who has been learning programming by books since twelve, knew
OOP and stuff, moderated a large internet forum dedicated to programming, and
this kind of behavior just didn't fit together with what they knew about me.

Sometimes people do very silly things they later regret. And usually they do
them because they try their best at a given moment, with all the knowledge and
context they are given, and make a wrong decision. Such decisions I never
regret.

But sometimes people do their worst for no apparent reason, and then they WTF
at themselves. Their judgement fails them, something blinds them and they do
unimaginably stupid stuff, and later they feel even more embarrassed because
they don't just see how misguided they were—but that it was so _painfully
obvious_ from the start.

I think it's important to understand this distinction this before judging
people in any way.

~~~
sliverstorm
My theory is screwing up like you did with your email generally gives us the
experience to avoid screwing up in the future on much more serious counts,
which is why most of us are not forever haunted by serious screwups.

This is in the general case, of course. It doesn't cover how the internet
sometimes makes a big deal about fairly silly things.

~~~
rhizome
"Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement."

------
hkmurakami
I am looking at his wikipedia page (in particular the "other details section
[1]) and see a prolific amount and variety of "accomplishments". Coupled with
HNers in this thread suggesting that many of these claims by Aleksey have been
proven false, I am wondering if he suffered from _Pseudologia fantastica_
(pathological lying) [2].

I once worked with someone in his 50's who was undoubtedly a highly
intelligent with an intense attention to detail -- super productive. However,
he was known for claiming, among other outrageous things, that he was (1) a
former Army Ranger, (2) a former Navy Seal, (3) a former Marine, (4) former
Secret Service tasked with protecting Ronald Reagan, (5) Grandson of a 4 star
general, (6) Leg press 800 lbs, (7) broken 3 aluminum "forks" on bikes (the
part connecting your front wheel to the frame). This really is only a tip of
the iceberg of the things he claimed. After several months, I found out that
"pathological lying" is an actual psychological condition. The moment I found
out, I was convinced that this coworker suffered from this condition.

I wonder if Aleksey was the same. My coworker was unusually bright, physically
strong, and was good soul. I couldn't understand why he would _need_ to
inflate himself through lies, given such obvious strengths of his -- until I
found out about this psychological condition. Aleksey seems to have been the
same way.

[1][http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impossible_Is_Nothing_%28video_...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impossible_Is_Nothing_%28video_r%C3%A9sum%C3%A9%29#Other_details)

[2]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudologia_fantastica>

~~~
mindcrime
_(6) Leg press 800 lbs,_

That's actually pretty trivial for anybody who lifts weights even semi-
seriously. I could leg press 600lbs as as skinny 160lb high-school senior. Now
if somebody claimed to be able to _squat_ that much, they'd be making quite a
claim, as that's possibly near world-class range depending on their weight.
(At one time the world record back-squat was right around 1000lbs, but I'm
pretty sure that's been broken)

 _(7) broken 3 aluminum "forks" on bikes (the part connecting your front wheel
to the frame)._

That gets another _meh_ from me. Breaking frames and forks isn't that
uncommon, at least in the mountain biking world. An XC bike that isn't
designed for handling big drops might break if you ride off a 3ft drop, for
example (bodyweight would also be a significant factor in this).

The other stuff though, especially taken all together, is, yeah, fairly
incredible.

~~~
hkmurakami
Agreed on both counts, when taken in isolation. It's when all these things
converge, that even these independent data points become suspect.

(I myself could back squat 350lbs at my peak so I understand that leg pressing
800 lbs on a machine isn't particularly unfathomable. However, _usually_ you
don't find power lifting and road cycling -- which was the subject of the
conversation at that time -- in the same person, especially riding enough
miles to stress fracture three different aluminum forks [1]. I'd certainly
consider switching to steel at that point.)

[1] Although I myself am a powerlifting cyclist :P

~~~
dredmorbius
BB back squat 360# 1RM.

45 degree inclined leg sled: 1010# for 10 reps, when my squat was ~250#.

The press gives you a _lot_ of mechanical advantage (1.7x), removes
stabilization requirements, and subtracts out bodyweight (part of your total
squat lift).

Power lifting and road cycling is actually a very good training complement:
<http://articles.latimes.com/2009/feb/16/health/he-cycling16>

------
BornInTheUSSR
What an unkind title. Rest in peace Aleksey and thank you for the countless
hours of entertainment you gave the internet. Impossible is nothing, sometimes
we just need to be reminded.

Edit: looks like the title has been updated

~~~
fastball
My curiosity has overcome my propensity for courtesy, so I must ask: what was
the original title?

~~~
glhaynes
It referred to him as an "Internet laughing stock".

------
look_lookatme
It is definitely worth watching the video in the OP. He has clearly spent a
lot of time thinking about what happened to him and placing it in a framework
that has helped him understand it and cope with the aftermath. It seems
clinical at times but also healthy (which aren't exclusive of course). It
would be sad if it wasn't enough for him in the end.

It makes me wonder if there are counselors specializing in this domain and
sociological research into how this kind of stuff happens and how it affects
all people involved. These events are quite sad but also a bit fascinating and
novel.

------
charlieok
Long before the name change reported in the article to Alex Stone, and long
before the video resume, there was an earlier name change to Aleksey Vayner
from Aleksey Garber.

Before the spike in notoriety from the video resume, there was a much smaller
burst of unflattering notoriety for Aleksey in the May 2002 edition of Yale's
Rumpus magazine [1] by one Jordan Bass titled “Craaazy Prefrosh Lies, Is Just
Weird”.

It starts out like this:

“Maybe, once, you lied about your age, or your weight, or your location the
night your unfaithful boyfriend was stabbed to death. Maybe you lied about
your criminal record when applying for a job, or your sexual history when
donating blood. Little things. Everybody does it, right? What's the harm?
Maybe your slight deviations from the truth even give you a little thrill, a
mild buzz gained from subverting the truth and risking discovery. You're a
badass, right?

Aleksey Garber, who has been accepted to the Yale class of '06, is not
impressed. When you're a guy who tells the truth about as often, and with the
same reluctance, as the average person goes to the dentist, you've got no
regard for those who dabble in tall tales.”

It ends like this:

“What can you say to that, really? This is the man’s life, as he tells it. Is
any of it true? Well, what is truth? [...] In the end, all we can really say
is that “Truth” is to be understood as a system of ordered procedures for the
production, regulation, distribution, circulation and operation of statements,
and if you look at it that way, then it’s all true. We who have encountered
him should feel privileged that Aleksey Garber has deigned to include us in
the epic adventure that is his life. I know I certainly do.”

[1] <http://www.yale.edu/rumpus/archives/pdf/rumpus_02may.pdf>

------
bitwize
This reminds me strangely of L. Ron Hubbard, who claimed similar superhuman
achievements throughout his life that he couldn't live up to. Hubbard
desperately wanted to be seen as awesome, and that alone may have contributed
the larger part of the motivation for the founding of Dianetics and
Scientology.

My current guess is that Vayner killed himself but not in a Swartz-like way:
he simply OD'd on recreational drugs (something a lot of egoists, including
Hubbard to say nothing of HN's friend John McAfee, make a hobby of).

------
DigitalJack
The article implies suicide, but doesn't actually say that explicitly. Does
anyone know what the case is?

~~~
dullcrisp
Yeah, the article half tries to paint a story which doesn't really make sense
without a cause of death.

Also, the cryptic comment is clearly in Russian. That, or some unlikely
intersection of Russian and Ukrainian. More likely, they figured the guy was
Ukrainian, so the comment must also be in Ukrainian.

~~~
danabramov
The comment is in Russian. Many Ukrainians speak Russian as primary language.

~~~
geoka9
Right, there are a handful of grammatical errors and colloquialisms that a
person who knows some Russian may take for Ukrainian. But it's Russian.

------
bcx
You guys should watch the video: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9P-NMygTekQ>

It really doesn't paint him in that bad of light. (I know nothing of the rest
of his history, but I find the video pretty motivating)

------
mblake
It's pretty sad, but not because I knew him in any capacity, or actually have
heard of him until now.

It's sad because he clearly had a psychiatric issue and only if people were
more educated on this matter, they could've reached out to him and offered him
help to get his problem under control, instead of just laughing at him.

To an uninformed, uneducated person, it's likely that this is all he was: a
pathetic, over the top compulsive liar.

I presume he died because he killed himself, which is something someone would
do after at least temporarily snapping out of the psychosis that made them do
all of those things and realizing it wasn't something they would ever be able
to take back or sweep under the rug, thanks to the 'wonders' of the internet.

------
octonion
There appears to be a culture of bullying among a certain segment of the Ivy
League. See, for example, this piece on Evan O'Dorney:
<http://verynoice.com/2011/09/the-fresh-five-part-two/>

------
uladzislau
Probable cause of death - drug induced heart attack, according to this
<http://m.nydailynews.com/1.1247410>

------
michaelochurch
I feel like Aleksey Vayner got hit by a confluence of factors.

Most of us do stupid things in our early 20s to establish ourselves. The
problem for him is that he applied to jobs in investment banking. In 2006, IBD
analyst programs were _the_ destination career for 25th-percentile graduates
of elite colleges. So there was this huge crowd of douchebags that wanted to
be bankers and were falling over themselves to get in the door.

So when Aleksey Vayner's video resume was leaked, he was immediately typecast
as a douchebag and ridiculed. People no longer saw him as a person, but just
as some pathetic, arrogant pre-banker. In retrospect, it's evident that he
didn't deserve that.

I have the sense that being ridiculed on the Internet is becoming "just a
thing" that almost everyone goes through on the way to accomplishment. It's
like being heckled for stand-up comedians. The first time it happens, it's
extremely unsettling. Then you figure out a way to deal with it-- there are
the Jimmy Carr, George Carlin, Louis CK, and Steve Hofstetter approaches-- but
it takes some time to get good at that.

------
odRvb
4:08 "He passed away from cervical cancer..."

~~~
yeison
Yea, I had to go lookup what a cervix is because that didn't sound right...

------
pms
Why on earth this is the first news on the front page? In the end this article
is rumor-like and just speculating on the cause of his death...

~~~
danilocampos
'Cause 87 people thought it should be.

