Remembering Aaron Swartz (November 8, 1986 – January 11, 2013), an internet freedom activist who believed knowledge should be free and not behind a pay wall. He helped build RSS spec, Creative Commons and reddit to name a few.
He hanged himself after being cornered by a few overzealous federal prosecutors while MIT stood passively (when it could have stood up for its ideals).
Tim Berners Lee said it best, "Aaron dead. World wanderers, we have lost a wise elder. Hackers for right, we are one down. Parents all, we have lost a child. Let us weep."
Note that his blog is still online. It's an interesting read. E.g. when he talks about depression (he had depression himself):
> As George Scialabba put it, “acute depression does not feel like falling ill, it feels like being tortured … the pain is not localized; it runs along every nerve, an unconsuming fire. … Even though one knows better, one cannot believe that it will ever end, or that anyone else has ever felt anything like it.”
> The economist Richard Layard, after advocating that the goal of public policy should be to maximize happiness, set out to learn what the greatest impediment to happiness was today. His conclusion: depression. Depression causes nearly half of all disability, it affects one in six, and explains more current unhappiness than poverty.
>Depression causes nearly half of all disability, it affects one in six, and explains more current unhappiness than poverty.
Really now? So it's somehow more of a problem for happiness than over 1 billion people still living in grinding poverty worldwide, or for health than the numerous endemic diseases, many treatable, that kill millions each year and the of millions of hideously dangerous jobs still done daily by hundreds of millions of people, possibly billions?
Color me dubious of what seems like a very bubbled analysis of specific causes for problems in the world. Not to take a single thing away from Aaron Schwartz or the problems he was put through, but in material ,circumstantial terms, there are literally billions of people in the world who live lives far worse than his ever was in material terms.
No it's not. Again, im not shitting on the suffering that people with depression go through, but if we're talking about the context of the original comment, whic places it among the world's major problems, i'm sorry but it as a clinical condition just doesn't compare. Hundreds of millions of people worldwide live in grinding situations of misery that are caused by changeable conditions of their economic and social lives. These are people who would either be normally adjusted or at least not die early if their circumstances weren't the case. Thee mortality levels among them are much greater and objectively more of a problem than those caused by clinical depression, which in the last 23 years has directly killed nowhere near as many people [1] as say, malaria alone, or malnutrition do.
>It's something you really shouldn't pretend to understand outloud.
The only way by which you can get people to sympathize with your beliefs is by having them understand them, and the only way by which people might come to agree with you is if they do exactly that: ask questions out loud and debate the matter. Nothing should be outside that.
People literally kill themselves for being depressed. Not because they want to, but because depression is so bad. It's like severe chronic pain. Poverty has many definitions, and some are quite compatible with being moderately happy.
>Poverty has many definitions, and some are quite compatible with being moderately happy.
Yes, but whether millions of the people in poverty are unhappy or decently happy in their daily lives, the condition of being extremely poor itself still often kills, and in much greater numbers than depression does, regardless of how ugly the latter feels to the person suffering it.
The question is then how many person life years are lost due to poverty, and how many person life years are spent suffering from depression, and how bad those are in comparison. Would you rather have a shorter, happier life, or a longer, depressed one?
I am upset he was taken from us, we will never know how Aaron was going to lead us or what the world could be like if he could iterate more on his ideas. What a phenomenal powerhouse. I used to get angry because I didn’t understand why he let them win when he was on the right side, but now I try to be inspired instead.
Seriously, lol.
I always tell new people who are struggling to find jobs to just go build something. You have the skills to build whatever you want. If you don't, figure it out. Either income will come from your endeavors, or a super impressive project will come out that you can show those employers.
It's unfortunate that in most of the discussions about him, the focus tends to be on him, and little is said about the hundreds of thousands who rot in prison based on similar corrupt practices.
> most of the discussions about him, the focus tends to be on him
Duh. They are about him. Want to discuss others, then start discussions about others. This ain't rocket surgery; Be the change you want to see, but stay on topic.
I found out about Aaron's work and his life story from an unusual place - I was doing research for my Master Thesis on contemporary literature and came across his piece on Infinite Jest: http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/ijend
Tim Berners Lee said it best, "Aaron dead. World wanderers, we have lost a wise elder. Hackers for right, we are one down. Parents all, we have lost a child. Let us weep."
http://www.rememberaaronsw.com/memories/