8 ms·

If it’s important, people will figure something out; if it’s not important, who cares? When my dad passed away, I looked through all his files (fortunately he

If it’s important, people will figure something out; if it’s not important, who cares? When my dad passed away, I looked through all his files (fortunately he had one password he used everywhere), but in the end there really wasn’t anything important. There where a bunch of proposals, half finished projects, gigabytes of various data files, but following up on any of that stuff would just be a lot of work and require time that I don’t have. I think that 99% of my data/code/digital footprint is only valuable because of me; when I pass away, most of my stuff will become worthless, and that’s okay.

hendler 9y ago
The value isn't in the items themselves, but in their perceived value. Especially valuable is the optionality. How would you feel if you could not have reviewed your father's files? What if you couldn't access critical financial accounts or didn't know they exist?
- saurik 9y ago
  > What if you ... didn't know they exist? FWIW, if I really don't know that they exist, I would probably not feel anything about them ;P.
  - mattnewton 9y ago
    He means you would be wondering about them, causing angst.
    - saurik 9y ago
      In which case you might as well be wondering about them already: your father might very well have a bank account in another country, or a chest of gold dubloons buried in the back yard, or a bunch of stock certificates for some company he invested in fifty years ago... you really never know!
- Sangermaine 9y ago
  >What if you couldn't access critical financial accounts or didn't know they exist? There are already procedures for an executor or heir to assume control of a deceased's financial accounts and assets, and part of that process is determining what accounts the deceased had.. You don't need to dig through Dad's Gmail for that. Like the first poster said, anything actually important either already has procedures in place or will be figured out in the probate process or otherwise.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - davidbanham 9y ago
    Don't you? Many people aren't great at record keeping, especially as they get older. It can often be difficult to figure out exactly what accounts and investments exist, let alone how to access them to clean them up. Trawling through browser histories and correspondence is often the only way to get a reliable picture of what's going on.
    - ams6110 9y ago
      Equifax, for as much as they are maligned, will tell you what open credit accounts the deceased person had. Last year's tax return will probably identify any significant investments, at least those that are producing income.
      - davidbanham 9y ago
        https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:World_population_percentage.png https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:World_population_percen... I, along with 95% of the world's population, do not live in a place where Equifax exists. Tax returns capture some things. They also don't get filed for several years sometimes. They don't capture assets like cryptocurrency or off market shares. Life is messy and death more so.
        Sangermaine 9y ago
- oij82asd38 9y ago
  > How would you feel if you could not have reviewed your father's files? This is subjective. My dad has zero assets, and oodles of debt. People are trying to use economics as a way to avoid uncertainty, it seems. It's like hoarders that store decades of Readers Digest. "Everything has a potential value!" fingers tips rapidly tapping against each other "Yes it's so obvious! This Beanie Baby collection is mine!" The reality is, things only have economic value if you can sell them. And they only have personal value if the people in question give a shit. There's no law of physics here.
jbob2000 9y ago
That's a shame that you think that. Our digital footprints are the maps of our lives. I will happily give every password I own to a website that scrapes all the services and constructs a timeline of my life. You think its mundane, but our identity lives in the work we do, half finished or not. I love re-reading notebooks from elementary school not for the content, but for the little scribblings I did in the margins. TimeHop kind of does this for social media, but it would be cool to open up my email accounts and iMessage. I think my loved ones would value opening up an app and saying "What was jbob doing on this day 2 years ago..."
- magic_beans 9y ago
  "I love re-reading notebooks from elementary school not for the content, but for the little scribblings I did in the margins." But when you're dead, there's no guarantee your descendants or next of kin will have any interest whatsoever in the minutia of your digital life.
  - zimpenfish 9y ago
    > there's no guarantee your descendants or next of kin will have any interest whatsoever in the minutia of your digital life. Easy to fix - leave a note telling them you have huge wealth hidden away and the only way to find is it to solve the puzzles sprinkled throughout the minutia of your digital life.
    - EADGBE 9y ago
      The worst kind of betrayal is the kind you inflict after your own death.
- fsloth 9y ago
  'I think my loved ones would value opening up an app and saying "What was jbob doing on this day 2 years ago..."' Having in recent years lost more than one close relatives - no, I don't really need. I wouldn't do this even if I could. If you want to be there for your loved ones be there today. Instead of coming up with a novel data vault scheme come up with a way to delight them tomorrow, when you are alive. I love nerding about but if one is dealing with serious things like relationships, I would focus on pre-death interactions rather than post death mausoleums.
neves 9y ago
No family photos? Digital books and music?
- matt_wulfeck 9y ago
  Is that not already digitized and shared with family?
- khedoros1 9y ago
  My grandfather's were on his PC and cameras (those that weren't hard-copy photos that he developed himself). For my own, some are online, but most are around the room, copied onto various storage devices (redundantly, and on devices that my wife knows about, and that other family members could easily find, if we were collectively hit by a bus). In terms of ebooks and non-CD digital music, there's maybe a couple hundred dollars worth. Almost all of my digital video is on DVD/Blu-Ray. The photos would have more value, anyhow. For software: Meh. My projects are mostly for my own entertainment. If someone wanted to fork them, it's not like they'd be fighting for control of a community, or something.
rabboRubble 9y ago
That's a really, really bad idea. I watched an hour long video about a youngish technologist who died in auto accident. His wife lost control of their i-devices. Some of his encrypted devices that he maintained for clients were also equally inaccessible. The only way the wife regained control of her own digital and financial life was to tap technologist friends who called in favors with Google / Apple. Even they could not decrypt the miscellaneous client owned devices. Neither could the clients. [Edit: I searched for this video and unfortunately could not locate it.] I put my parents on 1Password. Begged them actually. I quote "how about we just try it for like a week while I am here? if you don't like it, I won't ask you again." My Dad had a crazy so-called method that was supposedly simple to follow, but every time he tried to explain it to me as executor of his & my mom's estates, it was incomprehensible. After 1 week, Dad was a convert and Mom had her first reliable access to the joint online bank accounts. For myself, I have a technical hand over plan for somebody to follow to break the encryption on my devices. I also give an accounting of my data, what is where, both financial and sentimental. Most data can be immediately deleted, but some thing like my photography and music collections may be wanted by somebody in the family. The executor of my estate gets the financial records.
- EpicEng 9y ago
  >The only way the wife regained control of her own digital and financial life was to tap technologist friends That sounds very unlikely. This isn't a new problem, and there are procesing in place which discover any and all financial account belonging to the deceased and transfer ownership to the estate's executor. I don't believe for a second that this woman couldn't get into some financial account belonging to her husband without inside help.
  - rabboRubble 9y ago
    This was a video lecture (like a TED talk, but not) and was notable for me because I was doing my estate plan at about the same time. Ran across the video maybe in 2015... I will continue the hunt for the video. The issue wasn't getting into a financial account per se, rather getting into all the devices the husband controlled. She didn't know the passwords. In the old days, estate executors would monitor physical mail to make sure they found all bank accounts. With many tech savvy people moving away from physical mail, the only notification about which accounts are out there are arriving by email to an account an executor does not have access to. How to know which accounts need to fall under the estate if you don't know the account exists? Anyway, I will keep up the search for the video. I tweaked my personal technology plan a bit to deal with some of the issues that video raised. In addition to a physical list of key passwords, 2FA recovery keys, and encryption keys, I also included specific recovery scenarios like: 1) me dead, all laptops / phones / 2-factor fobs destroyed 2) me dead, phone missing, but still have laptop & fobs 3) me dead, laptop missing, but have phone & fobs 4) me dead, fobs missing but have laptop & phone As a courtesy to clients, I also noted what client assets and data I controlled, where I kept the object, how to decrypt if necessary, and who to contact to arrange hand over.
firefoxd 9y ago
I beg to differ. Just today i was watching this story unfold https://twitter.com/ColinLevy/status/971124112440487936 https://twitter.com/ColinLevy/status/971124112440487936 He was lucky all his grand father's note were on paper.
thinkMOAR 9y ago
oofff... wipes a tear (honestly) i still have the computer of my father, i can't get myself to power it up and go through it. I'm saving it for a day i do feel up to it.
- wgoodall01 9y ago
  You might want to do that soon-ish, just because of the flakiness of most hard drives. Take a solid backup of the files and put it somewhere reliable. Although it's hard to look through personal files like that, it's even worse if you had the opportunity to, didn't do it, and the hard drive failed.

hendler 9y ago

The value isn't in the items themselves, but in their perceived value. Especially valuable is the optionality. How would you feel if you could not have reviewed your father's files? What if you couldn't access critical financial accounts or didn't know they exist?

saurik 9y ago
> What if you ... didn't know they exist? FWIW, if I really don't know that they exist, I would probably not feel anything about them ;P.
- mattnewton 9y ago
  He means you would be wondering about them, causing angst.
  - saurik 9y ago
    In which case you might as well be wondering about them already: your father might very well have a bank account in another country, or a chest of gold dubloons buried in the back yard, or a bunch of stock certificates for some company he invested in fifty years ago... you really never know!
Sangermaine 9y ago
>What if you couldn't access critical financial accounts or didn't know they exist? There are already procedures for an executor or heir to assume control of a deceased's financial accounts and assets, and part of that process is determining what accounts the deceased had.. You don't need to dig through Dad's Gmail for that. Like the first poster said, anything actually important either already has procedures in place or will be figured out in the probate process or otherwise.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- davidbanham 9y ago
  Don't you? Many people aren't great at record keeping, especially as they get older. It can often be difficult to figure out exactly what accounts and investments exist, let alone how to access them to clean them up. Trawling through browser histories and correspondence is often the only way to get a reliable picture of what's going on.
  - ams6110 9y ago
    Equifax, for as much as they are maligned, will tell you what open credit accounts the deceased person had. Last year's tax return will probably identify any significant investments, at least those that are producing income.
    - davidbanham 9y ago
      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:World_population_percentage.png https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:World_population_percen... I, along with 95% of the world's population, do not live in a place where Equifax exists. Tax returns capture some things. They also don't get filed for several years sometimes. They don't capture assets like cryptocurrency or off market shares. Life is messy and death more so.
      - Sangermaine 9y ago
oij82asd38 9y ago
> How would you feel if you could not have reviewed your father's files? This is subjective. My dad has zero assets, and oodles of debt. People are trying to use economics as a way to avoid uncertainty, it seems. It's like hoarders that store decades of Readers Digest. "Everything has a potential value!" fingers tips rapidly tapping against each other "Yes it's so obvious! This Beanie Baby collection is mine!" The reality is, things only have economic value if you can sell them. And they only have personal value if the people in question give a shit. There's no law of physics here.

jbob2000 9y ago

That's a shame that you think that. Our digital footprints are the maps of our lives. I will happily give every password I own to a website that scrapes all the services and constructs a timeline of my life. You think its mundane, but our identity lives in the work we do, half finished or not. I love re-reading notebooks from elementary school not for the content, but for the little scribblings I did in the margins. TimeHop kind of does this for social media, but it would be cool to open up my email accounts and iMessage. I think my loved ones would value opening up an app and saying "What was jbob doing on this day 2 years ago..."

magic_beans 9y ago
"I love re-reading notebooks from elementary school not for the content, but for the little scribblings I did in the margins." But when you're dead, there's no guarantee your descendants or next of kin will have any interest whatsoever in the minutia of your digital life.
- zimpenfish 9y ago
  > there's no guarantee your descendants or next of kin will have any interest whatsoever in the minutia of your digital life. Easy to fix - leave a note telling them you have huge wealth hidden away and the only way to find is it to solve the puzzles sprinkled throughout the minutia of your digital life.
  - EADGBE 9y ago
    The worst kind of betrayal is the kind you inflict after your own death.
fsloth 9y ago
'I think my loved ones would value opening up an app and saying "What was jbob doing on this day 2 years ago..."' Having in recent years lost more than one close relatives - no, I don't really need. I wouldn't do this even if I could. If you want to be there for your loved ones be there today. Instead of coming up with a novel data vault scheme come up with a way to delight them tomorrow, when you are alive. I love nerding about but if one is dealing with serious things like relationships, I would focus on pre-death interactions rather than post death mausoleums.

neves 9y ago

No family photos? Digital books and music?

matt_wulfeck 9y ago
Is that not already digitized and shared with family?
khedoros1 9y ago
My grandfather's were on his PC and cameras (those that weren't hard-copy photos that he developed himself). For my own, some are online, but most are around the room, copied onto various storage devices (redundantly, and on devices that my wife knows about, and that other family members could easily find, if we were collectively hit by a bus). In terms of ebooks and non-CD digital music, there's maybe a couple hundred dollars worth. Almost all of my digital video is on DVD/Blu-Ray. The photos would have more value, anyhow. For software: Meh. My projects are mostly for my own entertainment. If someone wanted to fork them, it's not like they'd be fighting for control of a community, or something.

rabboRubble 9y ago

That's a really, really bad idea. I watched an hour long video about a youngish technologist who died in auto accident. His wife lost control of their i-devices. Some of his encrypted devices that he maintained for clients were also equally inaccessible. The only way the wife regained control of her own digital and financial life was to tap technologist friends who called in favors with Google / Apple. Even they could not decrypt the miscellaneous client owned devices. Neither could the clients. [Edit: I searched for this video and unfortunately could not locate it.] I put my parents on 1Password. Begged them actually. I quote "how about we just try it for like a week while I am here? if you don't like it, I won't ask you again." My Dad had a crazy so-called method that was supposedly simple to follow, but every time he tried to explain it to me as executor of his & my mom's estates, it was incomprehensible. After 1 week, Dad was a convert and Mom had her first reliable access to the joint online bank accounts. For myself, I have a technical hand over plan for somebody to follow to break the encryption on my devices. I also give an accounting of my data, what is where, both financial and sentimental. Most data can be immediately deleted, but some thing like my photography and music collections may be wanted by somebody in the family. The executor of my estate gets the financial records.

EpicEng 9y ago
>The only way the wife regained control of her own digital and financial life was to tap technologist friends That sounds very unlikely. This isn't a new problem, and there are procesing in place which discover any and all financial account belonging to the deceased and transfer ownership to the estate's executor. I don't believe for a second that this woman couldn't get into some financial account belonging to her husband without inside help.
- rabboRubble 9y ago
  This was a video lecture (like a TED talk, but not) and was notable for me because I was doing my estate plan at about the same time. Ran across the video maybe in 2015... I will continue the hunt for the video. The issue wasn't getting into a financial account per se, rather getting into all the devices the husband controlled. She didn't know the passwords. In the old days, estate executors would monitor physical mail to make sure they found all bank accounts. With many tech savvy people moving away from physical mail, the only notification about which accounts are out there are arriving by email to an account an executor does not have access to. How to know which accounts need to fall under the estate if you don't know the account exists? Anyway, I will keep up the search for the video. I tweaked my personal technology plan a bit to deal with some of the issues that video raised. In addition to a physical list of key passwords, 2FA recovery keys, and encryption keys, I also included specific recovery scenarios like: 1) me dead, all laptops / phones / 2-factor fobs destroyed 2) me dead, phone missing, but still have laptop & fobs 3) me dead, laptop missing, but have phone & fobs 4) me dead, fobs missing but have laptop & phone As a courtesy to clients, I also noted what client assets and data I controlled, where I kept the object, how to decrypt if necessary, and who to contact to arrange hand over.

firefoxd 9y ago

I beg to differ. Just today i was watching this story unfold https://twitter.com/ColinLevy/status/971124112440487936 https://twitter.com/ColinLevy/status/971124112440487936 He was lucky all his grand father's note were on paper.

thinkMOAR 9y ago

oofff... wipes a tear (honestly) i still have the computer of my father, i can't get myself to power it up and go through it. I'm saving it for a day i do feel up to it.

wgoodall01 9y ago
You might want to do that soon-ish, just because of the flakiness of most hard drives. Take a solid backup of the files and put it somewhere reliable. Although it's hard to look through personal files like that, it's even worse if you had the opportunity to, didn't do it, and the hard drive failed.