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RIP: Tech Advocate and Obama Advisor Jake Brewer
SpaceGhost writes: The BBC reports that Jake Brewer, a 34-year-old senior policy advisor in the White House Chief Technology Office, has died while participating in a charity bike race on Saturday. Some of his work included global policy and external affairs at change.org, the White Houses TechHire initiative, and the administration's efforts to expand broadband connectivity. Brewer's death has triggered emotional tributes from many in the worlds of politics and technology. Brewer was well known for his work on Change.org, and in his role at the White House as an advocate for education, access to technology, and intelligent use of data to make government more effective.
We are meant to bask in the glow of fluorescent lighting in cubicles or basements. The sunlight weakens us and makes us vulnerable. Add exercise to the mix and you are flirting with disaster.
According to the article, he lost control and got hit by a car.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
He was such a great advocate for tech. I mean his global policies and external affairs will go down in history as some of the greatest of this century. And broadband connectivity has exploded due to his hard work. And the TechHire initiative has been so successful! A good use of taxpayers $100 million. Plus he advocated education and made the government so effective! He will be missed.
Summary reads like natural causes.
TFA reads like:"Obama 'heartbroken' as White House employee killed"
Was he dead before or after the car hit him?
It sounds to me Brewer was an excellent networker, businessman, power broker, and manager, as well as a nice guy to hang out with. I don't see what he actually did in or for technology. And I have trouble agreeing with the vision of democracy embodied by his work (e.g., on change.org).
Queue the conspiracy theories!
At the risk of coming off as hopelessly pedantic: The event that this gentleman tragically died while engaging in was not a 'race', it was a non-competitive charity bicycle riding event. It was not a sanctioned, ranked USA Cycling event requiring a valid racing license, it was open to anyone, which includes purely recreational riders that very often have not have done any specific training of their bike-handling skills. This is in contrast to competitive riders, who, even at the amateur level, typically train all through the year, and their training includes specific work intended to give them a superior level of skill in handling the bike safely and competently in a variety of circumstances and at high speeds.
It is extremely tragic, and I am always deeply saddened when I hear of a fellow cyclist losing his life while riding. However I don't want people erroneously demonizing road cycle racing as 'too dangerous' when they don't know to differentiate between an actual 'race' and 'just a ride'.
>> intelligent use of data to make government more effective
Well, that didn't work. How about just trying to make it more efficient?
Now he can be replaced with a woman or transgender...
34 y/o senior advisors reminds me of the Carter administration. They couldn't get anything done either.
That job description sounds like payback for fundraising
Our society relatively healthy and safe compared to previous generations. So early death is rare and tragic. I myself never directly witnessed a death until my 40s and I know some older people still havent either.
I don't care that cyclists have the same rights as cars, from a physics standpoint you will lose every time. Man up and buy a cheap car already. Your loved ones will thank you.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
Maybe your expectations of what prez can accomplish is unrealistic. The middle east has confounded them all, for example. Either a prez should quit meddling over there, or be honest that failure is likely. They don't appear ready for (stable) democracy, which leaves either iron-fisted dictators, or roaming zealotic hordes.
And economic downturns seem to happen roughly every 10 years no matter what's done. Bubbles and the "business cycle" have existed for at least 400 years. It's a bug in capitalism that nobody knows entirely how to fix.
The only known partial solution is to save up during the good times so there's spending money during the down times (Keynes). However, politicians are expected to fix the here and now and are judged on the here and now, not the next decade. (The prez who exits during the "up" phase gets undo credit.)
We could perhaps have a constitutional amendment to force saving up, but that requires objectively defining "good times" and "bad times", which is a sticky request.
The same pattern of problems keep appearing and we keep blaming them all on the prez. Perhaps it's because they always promise to fix these things, but the fact they keep failing suggests we should not expect the prez alone to fix them regardless of what they claim. Spank the voters for once.
Table-ized A.I.
Correction: should be "undue credit" not "undo credit". Writing too much tech doc ingrains certain words.
Table-ized A.I.
young guy dies, which is tragic at the least. and most comments are smart ass or asshat...
fuck this place has really gone to shits
The government runs the site petitioning them? You can't play judge, jury, and executioner. Change.org feels like a scam because the white house still picks what to respond too
A hard lesson learned, but the ass-hat "road bikers" pick the road over the dedicated bike trail they parallel, preferring, instead to dodge traffic on a busy small road with no lines and no shoulders.
Presidential candidates have only themselves to blame, really. For once, I'd love to have a president's campaign promises include only things that a president actually have power to do. Instead, they promise like a monarch and then deliver like a president.
Poor driver will have to live with that for the rest of her/his life even though it's not their fault. If it's anyone fault it's organizers who did not secure the road properly.
I'm thankful each and every day that this site is actually somewhat honest, unlike Hacker News. It means that people here will express differing opinions, even if some of them might be deemed "rude" or "offensive".
Hacker News is actually a rather disgusting place. It's full of people like you, who want everyone to toe some feel-good line. It's a pathetic form of tyranny. Over there, anyone who dares to express any sort of an original thought is rapidly gang-downmodded out of existence.
Face it, some people here just don't give a fuck that some political figure they don't personally know ended up dying. If you can't accept that, then you need to grow up.
Millennials need to realize that the world isn't all pretty snowflakes and rainbows and cotton candy. Bad stuff happens, lots of people won't give a fuck that it happened, and you'll need to suck it up and accept that fact.
I see the usual hate squad has assembled to celebrate death. Nice going, guys.
That's why techie's should never exercise. They work their brains, eyeballs, fingers, mouths and stomachs, nothing else. Try and you will die. 'nuff said.