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Diaspora Co-founder Dies At 22

phaedrus5001 writes "Tech Crunch is reporting that one of the co-founders of Diaspora, Ilya Zhitomirskiy, has passed away. He was only 22. At the moment, the cause of his death is unknown."

14 of 312 comments (clear)

  1. Re:So... by Shikaku · · Score: 5, Funny

    Not to be (deliberately) insensitive, but murdered just like reiserfs.

  2. Let this be a lesson by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    To all young, horny, self-absorbed, invincible little gods of the internet: you're never too young. The cosmos cares not for you.

    Value your health. Value your safety.

    Accomplish something while you still can, just as Ilya did.

    1. Re:Let this be a lesson by inflex · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Very true words... health is one of those things that gets stolen away from you almost literally overnight and from there it's a major struggle to get back to normality. Most of us as kids would screw up our faces when our parents would say "You've got your health" when we moaned about not having anything - sadly, as with so many things, you don't realise how true that is until you're older.

      The trouble is, you trip up with something, that later causes something else...and so on... you find yourself snowballing down into the pit of death .

    2. Re:Let this be a lesson by Archibald+Buttle · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Value your health. Value your safety.

      Accomplish something while you still can, just as Ilya did.

      Value your mental health.

      Working flat-out at all costs to accomplish something can be extremely detrimental to both your physical and mental health. The line between sane and insane is much narrower than many imagine. Whilst you may write some cool code, what use is that if you end up losing your sanity, or worse your life?

  3. Re:Causes? by Toy+G · · Score: 5, Informative

    Some Twitter posts (pre-dating the "official" announcement by more than 12 hours) mentioned suicide.

    --
    -- Let's go Viridian.
  4. Suicide Apparently Was the Cause by DISKOTeCH · · Score: 5, Informative

    For those wondering. Doing a simple Twitter search of @zhitomirskiyi, brings this recent tweet directly mentioning him: https://twitter.com/#!/micahdaigle/status/135613279618871296 "@zhitomirskiyi, founder of @joindiaspora, has committed suicide. :(" about around 24 hours ago, long before it was announced on Techcrunch. Then someone else mentioned suicide as well, but they delete their tweet, not before it was retweeted however: https://twitter.com/justinherman/status/135619350538358784 "@amoration Found out colleague killed himself. Sending serenity in the passing of @zhitomirskiyi" Sad to hear it. R.I.P. Ilya Zhitomirskiy. Thank you for your work.

    1. Re:Suicide Apparently Was the Cause by foniksonik · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What? Life didn't even get interesting until I was at least 22. The best years of life are in you 30s when you have money, friends who are more than just coincidental classmates. I pity your children.

      --
      A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
    2. Re:Suicide Apparently Was the Cause by Fzz · · Score: 5, Insightful

      By the time you're 20 you kinda get the plot, and it usually doesn't get any better after that.

      I disagree strongly with that. I'm in my mid-40s, and so far I have to say that life has got better with each passing decade. Not necessily easier, mind you, but certainly better. My job has never been more interesting, and my kids are getting old enough to be not just fun but interesting to have deep discussions with. Perhaps most importantly, I know myself, my strengths and weaknesses better than I ever used to, I've got far more confidence than when I was younger, I'm happy with who I am, and I know how to apply myself and to work with the people around me to get stuff done.

      Life is what you make of it. Whatever age you are.

  5. Sad by tekgoblin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is sad, he had a bright future. I wonder what was bothering him enough to commit suicide assuming thats what actually happened.

    1. Re:Sad by Riceballsan · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I cannot believe I had to scroll down this far to find the first post that wasn't a brazen insensitive mockery or a joking jab at an assassination. Not that they normally bother me, but really even the announcement of Steve Jobs' death was at least 50/50. Maybe the project that he had didn't take off, but his ideals and his heart were in the right place, and if he did indeed take his own life, that makes it even more tragic.

  6. What is Diaspora? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Please, guys, I know only a moron like myself doesn't know what this Diaspora project is, but couldn't you put a link or a two-word explanation? Yes, I know Google is my friend. Feel free to mod me down now.

  7. Re:Well... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As an educated (BS in SE), 25 year old male who has attempted suicide twice (and failed by chance/luck/bad luck), in general we do send out cries for help. They get dismissed or go unnoticed. They aren't "I'm going to kill myself tonight. Don't try to stop me." but more like "I don't really care" or "I just cause problems" along with a passive shrug cause you don't want to make the other person feel bad too.

    Personally if someone had noticed my attempts, I think I would've been better off. The ones that are vocal about it get help, the ones that are discovered before death get help, but the ones that are barely strong enough to keep from going all the way just linger on in quiet misery without being able to get help or end it.

    My respect to the guy. Humans die easily, but it takes a lot to kill yourself. He was stronger than me.

  8. Re:Causes? by The+Askylist · · Score: 5, Informative
    When you're in such a state that you're actively considering ending your life, rational consideration of the feelings of others isn't at the top of your list of capabilities. It's a confusing and frightening place to be.
    .

    Trust me on that - I've had Bipolar type 2 for the last 30 years or so. When I'm functioning properly, I can see the effect the illness has had on those around me - when I'm on a major down, nothing apart from the endless spiral of negative introspection exists.

    It's not selfish - it's mental hell caused by $deity knows what. Meds help, but if it's the first big down then you don't even seek help (I didn't seek help until I was 40, and that was only through having a partner who knew what was happening).

    Applying rational criteria to what is a most irrational condition is pushing the bounds of rationality itself. :-)

  9. I'm not really anyone to you by circletimessquare · · Score: 5, Interesting

    And I make no pretense to know what it is like to want to commit suicide.

    But I've always wanted to say to someone who was considering taking their life: why not just take your "life" instead?

    And what I mean by that is, your situation in life. It obviously is not working, so abandon it. Take a plane to a far flung location on the globe, without any money or means of support, change your name, dissolve all ties to your previous existence, preemptively sabotage any way anyone could trace you, and live off trash or stolen mangoes from a tree, until something better comes along.

    And become another person. Someone who might be happy someday.

    Effectively "kill" yourself: all the identities you have with your current existence, the sum of all your relationships that aren't working, the job that fills you with nothing but misery, all of the reality around you that cages you about how you think about yourself. "Kill" all of the signifiers about who you currently are and how you think about your place in life.

    And maybe the challenge and novelty of that will put you in a new frame of mind. And then you can be happy someday.

    Of course, I know, the fear is you carry the seed of your depression around inside you, and even in a new life, the despondency will return. But I think, for many people, it is a combination of nature and nurture, and you, who you are, had your life gone another path, you might not be so depressed. We all are depressed at times, we all carry the seed of depression, and major depression too, were the situations in our life and how we come to think about ourselves had evolved a different way. So write a new story. Yes, you carry a seed of it inside you. We all do, and we aren't committing suicide because our seed never grew. So cut down the tree your seed has grown into, and move to new soil where the seed can't grow.

    So restart the story. A lot of people talk about reinventing themselves, in ways they consider major, but are really minor. Consider the most radical reinvention possible, instead of suicide.

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it