This is obviously a very sad and tragic story – no warm-blooded person could dispute that.
But it's a private matter to be dealt with by police and his loved ones.
No doubt people are generally well-intentioned in thinking that having this case discussed here may be beneficial, but for other people the interest is likely to be voyeuristic, and for it to be a topic of public discussion is insensitive and risks causing further distress to his family.
I think it was beneficial, if it helped or not. I think it shows many of the 'money first' people on here what it can do to you and how you can make bad (as in ultimately, life threateningly bad) decisions with startups and investments. I think it does belong here.
Seconded. Suicide and depression is all too often swept under the carpet as being too hard to deal with, or some sort of taboo, even in these enlightened times.
We hear too much of the "overnight success zillionaires who came out of nowhere with a killer web app" or the couple of 14 year old kids who coded a mobile game in their spare time and now make $50K per day on the app stores.
But what we don't hear for every one of those is the thousands who slog away, burn through their life savings, run out of mortgage options and feel the frustration of building something with zero customers - just like Dennis did in the lead up to this terrible event.
When all you hear is the good stuff, and you are struggling, then it can seem like the problem is entirely YOU, and the abject feelings of failure are strong indeed.
But speaking to others who are running the same grind, you suddenly realise that you are NOT alone, and you are NOT doing everything wrong. There still may be no easy solution, but the problems shared are indeed problems halved.
Ask me how I know? I've been there and back several times. It is not nice.
I would hope that HN starts a trend for open honesty in this industry.
Honesty is great, but let's be honest about our own experiences, not someone else's tragedy that we randomly encountered on the internet and are in no position to make claims about. Otherwise we reduce that person to raw material for an argument. That's not right.
I understand the shock of encountering something like this, and how it can spur us to reflect more deeply on our own situation. Those are natural and good reactions. But we need to be careful about going any further, and large internet communities aren't capable of being careful that way.
Well explained. I understand, and rescind my plea in my former post. I had lost sight of the fact that we would be dragging someone into this discussion who is no longer here to give his consent or defend his decision.
> I think it shows many of the 'money first' people on here
That interpretive spin illustrates why we shouldn't have such discussions here. Treating someone's suicide as grist for internet arguments just can't lead anywhere good.
