4 ms·

I always find it wierd, the phrase "Dies at xxx" like that defines something. "Born at 0" is odd.. Can't we focus on what they did? rather than the lenght of li

• elliotec 10y ago
  It's interesting. I appreciate it. It does define something. Think of Aaron Schwartz or something for contrast.
  • schoen 10y ago
    James Grimmelmann follows this style when writing obituaries; here's his obituary for Aaron. http://laboratorium.net/archive/2013/01/12/aaron_swartz_was_26 http://laboratorium.net/archive/2013/01/12/aaron_swartz_was_...
• blowski 10y ago
  It gives some context to the death, before I read the article. Knowing that he was born during the First World War tells me that he was already older me than me when he started working on ARPANET. If the whole article focused on his age, I'd be disappointed. But it's just in the headline, and the article does focus on his life.
• unethical_ban 10y ago
  You're suggesting a dichotomoy that isn't there. They assuredly focused on his life, not the length of it directly, in the article. It's simply customary as a suggestion of who and how someone died when it's particular ages.