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Comment by rsre | Hacker News Reader

First Aaron Swartz, now James Dolan. Sad to see good people like them leave us. Hope they inspire some other wonderful people to follow their steps.

EDIT: Well, obviously not all their steps.

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Let us not forget Ian Murdock, and all the others lesser well known.

Len Sassaman

Well... maybe not all the steps.

I'll admit I thought this was a repost from years ago - this is just incredibly similar.

Anything can be funny given the right person saying it at the appropriate time in the right context

Seeing a suicide joke from a person I don't know in the Hacker News thread about the death an individual I respect an hour after it's been released is not my idea of funny.

I see it as a word of caution for the bright eyed. Fighting for your ideals wears on you, and some are more resilient to its demands than others.

I wonder if the personal trait to see problems and act is because the problems seem bigger or because the "activation threshold" of that person is lower. If the former, I could see that the same trait also makes it more likely that the problems feel overwhelming.

Ignorance is bliss.

People cope with death in different ways. Avoid taking things strangers say very seriously.

I am all about dark humor, and it's true when dealing with death, there's no accounting for taste, but thanks for posting this. It's a very clear and sober comment, it doesn't admonish the parent, but shares how the comment made you feel. That is completely and totally appropriate and HN could use a lot more of this.

Humor is how many people cope with loss/sadness/etc.

Why did you immediately assume the post was a joke about suicide, rather than a clever and witty remark about the dangers of following your passions/ideals in the face of enormous opposition and psychological torment?

Because the post was a joke about suicide.

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