Top all-time · #53
Aaron Swartz
Personal blog · aaronsw.com/weblog · on HN as aaronswprogrammingculture
Aaron Swartz's personal blog at aaronsw.com covers programming and culture. Since 2007, 568 different Hacker News readers have linked it 835 times, most often “I Hate the News (2006)”. The last post was in 2012, but the archive is still widely read.
Sometimes recommended · 15 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Swartz's blog for his essay on avoiding the news, often called timeless advice, and for his essays on books, films, the web and Reddit.
- Recommended for · 15 comments
- Called "must-read" and "timeless advice", mostly on news avoidance; a commenter says Raw Nerve had "a massive impact".
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- I Hate the News (2006)80 people · 99 mentions · first linked 2008-04-10
- Rewriting Reddit (2005)32 people · 35 mentions · first linked 2008-06-29
- HOWTO: Be more productive (2005)21 people · 24 mentions · first linked 2007-05-08
- Raw Nerve by Aaron Swartz21 people · 22 mentions · first linked 2012-09-05
- Who Writes Wikipedia?20 people · 23 mentions · first linked 2009-01-03
- Believe you can change 16 people · 30 mentions · first linked 2012-08-20
- Aaron Swartz: How I Hire Programmers13 people · 14 mentions · first linked 2009-11-29
- Look at yourself objectively12 people · 18 mentions · first linked 2012-08-27
- Squaring the Triangle: Secure, Decentralized, Human-Readable Names12 people · 16 mentions · first linked 2011-01-06
- Fix the machine, not the person12 people · 12 mentions · first linked 2012-09-25
What Hacker News says?
Agreed. But do want to say being a HN community its good to observe/"hack" his life and learn from this. As one big question arises: Was his death to make a statement, give up, or escape this life. Food for thought: Reddit life: "I was miserable. I couldn't stand San Francisco. I couldn't stand office life. I couldn't stand Wired. I took a long Christmas vacation. I got sick. I thought of suicide. I ran from the pol…
Comment linking /weblog/verysick
on “Aaron Swartz commits suicide”Submitted If I get hit by a truck... as a story · 651 points
HN discussionI was very saddened to hear this news. I posted my thoughts to my blog. http://benatkin.com/2013/01/12/rip-aaron-swartz/ He accomplished a lot, and taught us a lot, and I think most of us can still learn from him. http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/archive
Comment linking /weblog/archive
on “Aaron Swartz commits suicide”Submitted Rewriting Reddit (2005) as a story · 345 points
HN discussionSad. Terrible news. I was just reading 5ish year old comments on reddit about him and suicide http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/1octb/reddit_cof... which lead my to this blog post of his describing a suicide http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/dying I lost a friend to suicide. It is and was the worst thing ever. I still miss him dearly about 1.5 years on. Breaks my heart. My love and condolences to his friends a…
Comment linking /weblog/dying
on “Aaron Swartz commits suicide”Submitted Look at yourself objectively as a story · 294 points
HN discussionI only met Aaron once, in 2000, when he looked like this: http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/000291 I was always amazed that the wunderkind with the pizza stain on his shirt that visited us at Arsdigita University accomplished so much. He was reserved, but focused, forthright at such an early age. I couldn't help but feel he was a little disappointed in the rest of us, but he never showed it. RIP, Aaron. We'll miss you.
Comment linking /weblog/000291
on “Aaron Swartz commits suicide”Submitted Believe you can change as a story · 294 points
HN discussionIn this blog article, he speaks a little about his illness - http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/verysick
Comment linking /weblog/verysick
on “Aaron Swartz commits suicide”Submitted Aaron Swartz: How I Hire Programmers as a story · 276 points
HN discussionAaron, thank you for all you've done. It's had a tremendous impact on my life. Aaron had a really interesting blog post on pain worth reading called, "Leaning into the Pain". It's worth considering that pain doesn't just impact the individual. Try to let others help. http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/dalio
Comment linking /weblog/dalio
on “Aaron Swartz commits suicide”Submitted Aaron Swartz: The Book That Changed My Life as a story · 274 points
HN discussionhttps://www.google.com/search?q=doj+presecute gives me : DOJ Will Not Prosecute Goldman Sachs in Financial ... - ABC News 9 Aug 2012 – The Justice Department has decided it will not prosecute Goldman Sachs or its employees for their role in the financial crisis... http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/productivity Share the load Even if your friends aren’t cheerful, just working on a hard problem with someone else makes it…
Comment linking /weblog/productivity
on “Aaron Swartz commits suicide”Submitted Aaron Swartz's Thoughts on djb (2009) as a story · 271 points
HN discussion> Oh, no you do not understand at all. Depression cannot be dealt with just with an 'ordinary and structured life': it is an illness. It has existed always. While there are cases of physiological depression (an actual illness) in the staggering majority of cases it's not an illness but an easy cop-out to deny any major wrong with societal structure and the modern way of life. "The fact that there are specialists" ju…
Comment linking /weblog/nummi
on “Aaron Swartz commits suicide”Submitted HOWTO: Be more productive (2005) as a story · 259 points
HN discussionIf anyone is still in doubt about how the DOJ impacted Aaron's life, it may be interesting to have a look at his last published blog post ( http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/tdk , discussion on http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5047421 ). Aaron makes a parallel between the Batman movie and his own struggles, highlighting the corruption of the system and how the Joker was actually the only "sane" person in an insane wo…
Comment linking /weblog/tdk
on “Aaron Swartz commits suicide”Submitted Aaron Swartz: What Happens in The Dark Knight as a story · 257 points
HN discussionAaron Swartz did something he knew was morally right but very probably illegal in some way, and, him being a prodigy, I'm very confident he was aware of this. It is called activism, and is a very brave and noble thing to do, something most people don't have the guts for. Governments often try to break activists who threaten their agenda (or in this case, that of a dying industry), and it seems they have succeeded wi…
Comment linking /weblog/productivity
on “Aaron Swartz commits suicide”Submitted How Google keeps employees by treating them like kids (2006) as a story · 228 points
HN discussionI never met Aaron Swartz but always wanted to. His work has had a profound impact on my life. His blog was thought-provoking. http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/ His work on the RSS 1.0 Specification enabled richer, more efficient information consumption. http://web.resource.org/rss/1.0/spec His work on Markdown enabled intuitive, unobtrusive formatting and structuring of information in plaintext and conversion to HTML.…
Comment linking /weblog/rewritingreddit
on “Aaron Swartz commits suicide”Submitted Aaron Swartz shows his FBI file as a story · 224 points
HN discussionAaron Swartz was an excellent programmer and writer. I have bumped into his code and writings often. The raw nerve series ( http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/rawnerve ) have been especially influential in shaping my thinking. Above all, he was a wonderful human being: the world is a bit worse off and a sadder place without him. Rest in peace, Aaron.
Comment linking /weblog/rawnerve
on “Aaron Swartz commits suicide”Submitted I Hate the News (2006) as a story · 222 points
HN discussionI didn't know aaronsw personally but I have just checked out his web.py that others have been praising and it's really neat because it's so simple. What an amazing piece of work. For others who may not be aware, just see this brief tutorial [1]. His writings on life and how to get better at it are also phenomenal [2] It's very sad that aaronsw is no longer with us for he was very gifted and talented. May he rest in…
Comment linking /weblog/rawnerve
on “Aaron Swartz commits suicide”Submitted I hate the news as a story · 213 points
HN discussionShit! one of the most brilliant minds of all time, his series raw nerve http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/rawnerve has inspired hundreds of people including me to overcome life pain and depression. how could he just do that ? Aaron, you should have not done that .. I'm sure thousands of people of this community would have fought for you to get you out of your problems .. your contributions will always be remembered .. i…
Comment linking /weblog/rawnerve
on “Aaron Swartz commits suicide”Submitted Aaron Swartz on illness and depression as a story · 212 points
HN discussion> he reveals himself to be a sensitive, seemingly grateful, and thoughtful person. Definitely. He wrote a bunch of blogposts last year on improving life, called "Raw Nerve": http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/rawnerve Wonderful writing.
Comment linking /weblog/rawnerve
on “Aaron Swartz commits suicide”Submitted My Life Offline as a story · 206 points
HN discussion
