[Vivtek]

Nicely put. I was more aware (marginally) of his political activism and vaguely knew something of his past (I do really like his writing about web.py - and now that I'm reading it, all of his writing).

It seems to me he was driven by the need to score a coup, and move fast. To be the hero who liberated an entire database, instead of a contributor to a slower process that would have slipped past their defenses - which as I've said elsewhere, really would have gotten us something, instead of the nothing we have now.

I think that need was due to his need to recapitulate his early acclaim when he was 14. And in retrospect, that really sucks.

[koide]

What I don't understand is his rush. He could have gone for stealth mode: get a few laptops, program them to download at (largish) random intervals. Leave them operating a year or two. Check up on them every once in a while.

He wouldn't have been caught, at all.

[Vivtek]

I totally get it. I don't know how you originally got into programming, but imagine you were good at it during your early teens, like many of us, and like Aaron. Now imagine that when you met the outside world, people other than your parents were amazed at your ability - imagine you wangled your way onto a W3C committee at 14. Now imagine that by sheer blind following of the next interesting thing, and talking to the next interesting person, you wangled your way into Y Combinator and into the Reddit sale. You're damn good at programming, but it turns out that being great at writing and programming doesn't translate at all into being good at business.

When I was 14, I assumed that I was going to program computers and get rich, much like Gates or Jobs. Aaron got a hell of a lot further down that adolescent trajectory than I did - I had all kinds of intermediate small failures along the way to soften the blow when it turned out I wasn't good at business. Now, ten years later, I've learned to be better at business.

Aaron bounced off, apparently really hard. He longed for those days when - just by talking and thinking and coding - he was taken as a surprising genius by people he'd never met. He wanted to walk in and surprise people with the fait accompli, cut right to the chase of being admired.

Or so I imagine. Because I know that at his age I thought exactly that way. I even have depressive tendencies - never been bothered by suicidal ideation, but then I never failed so badly as he did after the Reddit sale, and I could certainly see that happening to me in that case.

I may very well be projecting. But essentially, when I look at this, I just think, there but for the grace of early failure and family commitments go I.

[kh1411]

Wow I really think you are projecting! You assume his life was a failure after Reddit ("I never failed as badly as he did after the Reddit sale").

I review his life, and it appears to me he started to find his true passions after reddit, and it wasn't about making $, or finding the next big .com, but rather achieving reforms in the areas where his passion(s) took him.

Sadly his final action ends his life but doubtful it ends his legacy. Because of his fame (regardless of any controversy surrounding it), so many are now more aware of needing to step up and "demand progress".

Edit: to fix hanging sentence