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Diaspora Co-Founder Ilya Zhitomirskiy Passes Away At 21
- starpilot 15y agoConsidering loneliness is often associated with depression and suicide, it's interesting that his project was pure social networking.
- resnamen 15y agoMuch too young. The poor guy.
- zmanji 15y agoAnyone passing at such a young age is simply a massive tragedy.
- ksharp 15y agoI'm reminded of Gene Kan, but I am unsure if the circumstances are similar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Kan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Kan The similarities are that there was considerable press coverage of Diaspora and that they seemed, at least to me, destined to fail mostly just because it was a hard thing to do given their structure. It is a true shame that this individual took the failure personally as it wasn't at all his fault, again it was primarily structural in my opinion. Gene Kan I understand was somewhat susceptible for other reasons to depression.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- brimpa 15y agoTweets from ~12 hours ago suggest that the circumstances are indeed similar. https://twitter.com/#!/search/zhitomirskiyi https://twitter.com/#!/search/zhitomirskiyi
- DanBC 15y ago> It is a true shame that this individual took the failure personally Did you know him? Is this just speculation?
- MediaSquirrel 15y agoHow did he die?
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- olh 15y agoSuicide.
- dennisgorelik 15y agoHow do you know?
- tbrooks 15y agoBecause people don't say "he died suddenly" without saying the cause unless it was suicide.
- YmMot 15y agoNot really. There are several causes of death where this is the case, though admittedly suicide is one of them.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- pferde 15y agoIt could also be exhaustion from too much sex or something similarly private, and his family/friends wouldn't say anything about cause of death either. Give him the benefit of doubt, will you?
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- d3x 15y agoThis is really sad. My condolences to his friends and family.
- parfe 15y agoWhat purpose do stories like this serve? People consider asking for details to be rude. Other than tabloid style storytelling drama, why else should strangers care? This man died young, but so did the local 19 year old young woman killed just after midnight by a driver just after she rescued an injured dog from the road. You can already see someone saying the cause of death does not matter, but why does this death announcement matter? edit: Poster removed his admonishment regarding questions about the cause of death. People close to this person obviously will suffer due to their loss, but his death announcement gets posted here in some sort of limbo where no one (or very few) knew him. But we must respond with condolences to people we don't know about a person we only know though his involvement in a web application. edit2: Twitter messages directed at the deceased indicate suicide.
- par 15y agoHe was actively engaged in trying to spur change in the tech community which makes it something that can become newsworthy, especially when you consider the lost potential.
- incongruity 15y agoIndeed. It's exactly because of the work that he was doing that his passing is a meaningful thing to find its way to HN. Honestly, even if he wasn't doing any of that work, I'm of the mind that most people have a story in their lives and most are worth hearing, even if painful. In any case, I just donated to the project: https://www.diasporafoundation.org/donate https://www.diasporafoundation.org/donate – maybe something good can come from something so sad.
- mquander 15y agoNo, you must not respond; you are not obliged to make any comment on his death. In fact, it would be nice if you specifically refrained from making a comment arguing about whether his death was important in the middle of a thread where everyone else is offering their condolences; including, I would assume, some people who knew him personally. This is a matter of being human.
- vaksel 15y agowhat a senseless death
- k-mcgrady 15y agoThere is no point to speculating. If they don't want to say just leave it at that.
- vaksel 15y agoit's basic human nature to speculate that's why the news of Michael Jackson's death caused Twitter and even Google to crash
- rhizome 15y agoit's basic human nature to speculate Maybe, but it remains a choice whether or not to say something. Conventional manners tend to lean toward "not" in this context.
- steve-howard 15y agoI think we like to hold ourselves to a higher level of discussion here than your average tabloid.
- chc 15y agoIf you simply must speculate, you should at least try to remain tactful and be careful not to speculate too wildly (there are more likely and less slanderous reasons for a cause of death to be omitted than drugs or alcohol). Please remember, this is a person who was loved by many other people. Don't inflict pain needlessly.
- tibbon 15y agoHonestly, as someone who interacted with him via email, the cause didn't even cross my mind.
- SquareWheel 15y ago"that's why the news of Michael Jackson's death caused Twitter and even Google to crash" Google did not crash, an automated system blocked the queries as they looked like spam.
- k-mcgrady 15y agoVery sad to hear. My sincere condolences.
- hsparikh 15y agoVery sad news. My sincere condolences to his family and friends.
- DevX101 15y agoThe founders of Diaspora were in a really unenviable position. They started off with a wave of national press as well as solid financial support from grassroot users. As time went on, it became increasingly clear that they would not be able to accomplish the goal they originally set out to do. They had failed. Publicly. This can be very devastating psychologically to someone who has always 'succeeded' in life. I'm not saying this was the case for Ilya, or had any part in his death, but I know for me it would have been hard to swallow. There are many silent founders out there that gave up everything for an unrealized dream in the path to startup success and it has a real toll on psyches. Best wishes to his family & friends. EDIT: This appears to be a very controversial comment. The vote count seems to be oscillating up and down very rapidly. I don't want to make this out to be a discussion about Diaspora, so I won't comment further on that point. But the mental health of founders is a real issue and rarely discussed. Maybe there should be a more open discussion about this issue.
- beatpanda 15y agoWow, this strikes me as a really tone-deaf response to this news, especially considering that Diaspora is alive, kicking, and growing.
- tamersalama 15y agoI'm interested to know how they have been perceived as failure. I think this is all very relative, and failure is a strong word. Github still have 1 day old commit and the community is apparently still active.
- click170 15y agoFailure in this context likely means "is not attracting large swathes of Facebook users" though frankly I think that's but one measure of the success of a social networking website.
- hollerith 15y agoWell, a social network that is used by only a small fraction of one's friends and potential friends is not very useful.
- oomkiller 15y agoThere are rumors that his death was self-inflicted, which is quite sad. Every time we see a young smart kid die like this, it should remind us to remember others as we go through our lives. Too often we ignore other peoples feelings, and then something like this happens. Take a moment to talk to the people you love to make sure something like this doesn't happen to them. (If it turns out this is inaccurate, please excuse the speculation, but I still think this is important.)
- rdtsc 15y ago> Take a moment to talk to the people you love to make sure something like this doesn't happen to them. I think it makes it harder to do this for introverts, and there is a larger number of those in the tech community. Also, perhaps electronic communication is not always adequate for this. So take the time to meet and visit in person.
- dereg 15y agoSerious question, is "self-inflicted" a euphemism for "suicide"?
- nobody3141592 15y agoYes "self-inflicted" is a medical/legal term which includes suicide. In some jurisdiction there is a difference if "the balance of mind was disturbed" or if the coroner believed it was an attempted suicide (cry for help) that 'went wrong'
- mekarpeles 15y agoWe'll miss you, Ilya. Thanks for your guidance and friendship.
- ig1 15y agoThe death of the founder of any well-known startup merits mention here. The startup community is a close knit global one, we don't just meet each other at professional networking events, we share our lives with each other. Perhaps unlike any other profession we have a closeness that binds us, we socialize, we date, we make lifelong friends from within the startup community. Even if we don't know the startup founder directly we know of their work, their successes and their failures, their contribution to the story of the startup world. Speculation suggests that it may have been self-inflicted, even if it's not true, it's worth stepping back and appreciating the fact that startup founders often find themselves under immense pressure and often keep it quiet. When's the last time you asked someone how their startup was doing to get a reply "not so good", founders are expected to be eternal optimists and this expectation can make it harder for those struggling or suffering to ask for help from their friends (who are often from the startup world themselves). Maybe we need a Startups Anonymous to give founders a place where they can drop their public persona and be honest about the worries that are keeping them up at night.
- jasondrowley 15y agoFor what it's worth, I think something like Startups Anonymous is a fantastic idea.
- byr0nic 15y agoCompletely agree, and for that reason I started a meetup here in London recently called London Tech Founders Anonymous (http://www.meetup.com/LTechFA http://www.meetup.com/LTechFA); we've had two great sessions thus far, and indeed as you've noted, one of the points raised in support of the initiative by attendees present at the inaugural session was the liberation of the format due to the group's aims; viz., steering participants away from the ubiquitous "We're killing it!" in favour of actual truth and deeper bonding/learning that, in my opinion, seems underserved in the community generally. That being said, great initiatives like FailCon (http://thefailcon.com/ http://thefailcon.com/) do exist, however I personally don't believe a consumption-centric format (i.e. standard lecture/conference/meetup format) will cut it; deep interaction and open sharing on a regular basis is the only way. We in LTFA adhere to Chatham House rules (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatham_House_Rule http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatham_House_Rule), so there is confidence when unburdening ourselves... and that's a big part of it, tbh!
- click170 15y agoVery sad news indeed. I hope the passing of a co-founder doesn't result in the passing of the project as well.
- Geekette 15y agoThis is too sad. Only 21 for goodness sake; his life was just beginning. Even without having known him, this feels painful and I cannot imagine what his family and friends are going through. I'm reminded of a Yoruba (West African language) saying to "kill someone alive", i.e. effect of something so painful on a person such that although technically alive, for all intents and purposes, he/she is dead. How does one possibly (if ever) recover from losing a child/sibling/friend in this way? My condolences to all who knew him.
- xtoxikx 15y agoThis is extremely shocking! He was much too young! :(
- tibbon 15y agoWow. I never met Ilya in person, but I spoke with him several times via a private mailing list of people doing social network research. This is incredibly unfortunate. In my limited interactions with him he was always incredibly intelligent and willing to help out others.
- ggwicz 15y agoSo sad. Rest in peace.
- alle 15y agoso sad :(
- ggwicz 15y agoWhy don't we wait for official comment before speculating on the cause of his death. The last thing his family/friends/coworkers need is false rumors. Not saying they're necessarily false or correct, I just think we should wait out of courtesy. I know I'd hope people do that if I died...
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- robertk 15y ago"We shall have to work faster." http://yudkowsky.net/other/yehuda http://yudkowsky.net/other/yehuda Even if it was suicide, this too we will overcome.
- Newky 15y agoThings like this often give me pause for thought. Often this community, and indeed myself, drive myself to attain better results, and generally push towards a wealthy career, so often we can forget what is truly important. I'm a religious person, so often this translates to worrying about how I'm prepared should I also meet an early grave, but its important that in times like this that we also see the importance of others in our lives, our family, relationships etc. Easy to forget that the thing we work so hard for can be wiped away in a split second. My deepest sympathies to all involved.
- spencerfry 15y agoRest in peace.
- adrianwaj 15y agoVitamin D levels affect state of mind, and if you're coding through the night and sleeping through the day, you're probably low on Vit D levels - or rather, you could be a lot higher if you wanted to.
- robg 15y agoI used to get Seasonal Affective Disorder every year around this time. Since starting on Vitamin D, the symptoms have yet to return. It's also improved my sleep patterns.
- matthewcford 15y agoMe too, bought a SAD light or a happy light as I like to call it. Seems to help in the British winters.
- pjscott 15y agoThere was a double-blind study which showed very significant improvements in healthy college students' self-reported cheerfulness when they took >=400 IU of vitamin D in the winter. The results were surprisingly strong: http://www.springerlink.com/content/padt0xj3xk26llh3/ http://www.springerlink.com/content/padt0xj3xk26llh3/ So, I would say that taking vitamin D in the winters is a good idea.
- lupatus 15y agoI commented above that low cholesterol is a risk for suicide as well. [1] A diet of Red Bull and Doritos contains very little of the healthy fats that your body needs. [1]http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evolutionary-psychiatry/201103/low-cholesterol-and-suicide http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evolutionary-psychiatry/...
- jaequery 15y agothis somehow reminds me of the movie "Antitrust" ...
- tlrobinson 15y agoYoung programmer working on an open source competitor to large company suddenly dies. Insensitive perhaps, and I don't believe anything similar happened, but FWIW I had the same thought.
- jhuni 15y agoWho let people start dying this fall!!?!
- newobj 15y agoHolding out hope here... but this whole ball started rolling with one tweet like 14 hours ago. I haven't seen a single source confirm anything yet. Any chance the net is getting punk'd right now?
- 21echoes 15y agoas his roommate i can confirm that he has indeed passed away. i thank you for your hope and optimism, but sadly these things can only go so far sometimes. life and death are very real and very sudden things, and i hope that his memory spurs you to fight for what you believe in while you can. goodness knows he did.
- grusk 15y agoCan you tell us how? My condolences. I was watching a couple interviews with Ilya on Youtube and it's clear he was a very bright kid with a lot of potential.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- Pistos2 15y agoSarah Mei, currently a member of the core dev team, posted this: > I've lost a friend, and it's been techcrunched. https://diasp0ra.ca/posts/3415 https://diasp0ra.ca/posts/3415
- edw519 15y agoHorrible. This news is so tragic I really can't focus on anything else now. Which is probably the way it should be. Our community stresses the importance of achievement, success, and technology so much that it's easy to forget what's really most important: each other. Sometimes it takes terrible news like this to jerk us back to that reality. I never knew Ilya, but if any of his friends of family visits this forum, please know that many thoughts and prayers are with you. I have no idea what was behind this, so just a few (possibly related) thoughts: - Let's never forget that everything we do is for other people. They outrank all the ones and zeros. Go hug someone important to you. - If you ever believe the possibility of something like happening is > .00001, do something, anything. If you don't know what to do, contact me (see my profile) and I'll help in any way I can. Nothing can be more important. - This was the ultimate failure. I'm so sorry to hear this and hope that Ilya's family and friends somehow find peace.
- baby 15y agoNothing to do with prayers. RIP Ilya.
- rdtsc 15y agoPlease, this is not the time.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- robg 15y agoIt's not just our community. There are twice as many suicides as homicides in the U.S.[1] Yet, every nightly newscast is sure to cover the murders. How many talk about the suicides? Worse, suicide is the leading cause of death among college students [2]. It's an epidemic that no one talks about. We've already lost two freshman at MIT this year. [1] http://www.freakonomics.com/2011/09/01/suicide-vs-homicide-by-state-per-100000/ http://www.freakonomics.com/2011/09/01/suicide-vs-homicide-b... [2] http://www2.dailyprogress.com/news/2011/nov/07/uva-study-suicide-leading-cause-death-us-college-s-ar-1442361/ http://www2.dailyprogress.com/news/2011/nov/07/uva-study-sui...
- TomGullen 15y agoPoor man. I've been through some of what he must have experienced to come to his conclusion and it's very unpleasant. I hope his family and friends are all OK.
- goo 15y agoFuck everything about this piece of news. I knew him. I can't believe I'm finding this out by logging into HN. Fuck.
- puredemo 15y agoSorry man.
- yeison 15y agoIlya was an incredible person. His heart was truly driven by bringing about positive change in this world. Diaspora was only the beginning. He was genuinely one of the kindest people I've ever met. Along with that, one of the most driven and intelligent peers I've ever encountered. Any time I ever had a chance to converse with him, it was always a very pleasant experience. He was someone I felt I had truly connected with. I only wish I could tell him that now. Take care buddy. Thank you for enlightening me.
- danielsiders 15y agoReally awesome guy, and there were so many other projects on the horizon. Truly sorry he won't be there to be a part of them.
- fbishara 15y agoI couldn't agree with you more. Ilya had the brain of a genius, an incredibly brilliant and extremely humble, which made him extremely unique. Ot top of that he was an idealist who also took action to create more good in the world. He had a big heart and a genius brain, I'm still struggling to accept that he's gone...
- metasj 15y agoJust so. Ilya was one of the most creative and clear-eyed people I ever met. He had a gift for projecting possibilities into the future and condensing a great deal of thought into a few observations. I was inspired by time spent with him, and my own ideas flourished as a result. It's painful to think that noone will get to talk or dream with him again, but I am grateful for the brief time I had.
- clarkevans 15y agoOn a flight from San Francisco to New York I had the good fortune to run into this gentleman. He was kind, thoughtful, and had a very deep sense of commitment to those who had donated funds and had put their hopes into Diaspora. His picture is one I expected to see again, just not like this.
- jtchang 15y agoI just met Ilya a few weeks ago at Noisebridge. As a community we rarely talk about the darker side of a startup. We make it seem like ancient Roman warriors on the quest to glory. In reality it can be a dark, depressing road. Depression is real and can hit harder than anything you've ever experienced. How many people talk about how depression? How at times things will seem so hopeless that you won't have anywhere to turn? It is certainly not the most popular topic.
- josscrowcroft 15y agoRIP. So young :/ not that it makes much of a difference now, but I hope it was peaceful.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- Nessuss 15y agoI hope he had a cryonics contract. .... In reading the above, some people might think it insensitive to 'peddle' this here, and I almost censored myself because of that. But that's not helpful at all. People are dying unnecessarily because they don't understand physics, cognitive neuroscience, and the possibilities the future allows. May he live again conditional on him being cryo-preserved. Otherwise, it is sad news that yet another human has been annihilated.
- billpatrianakos 15y agoYou should've censored yourself anyway. That is insensitive. What if it was your mother and some stranger said that? Come on, that's something you talk about when a person is alive, not when people are grieving. No one wants to learn about the science or pseudoscience of cronies when in mourning. Just, come on.... Really?! I shouldn't have responded to this. Should've let it die and get buried but that kind of upset me.
- pjscott 15y agoIf cryonics does work out, then bringing it up at inappropriate times could save lives. Please don't be angry at an honest attempt to prevent some people from dying.
- Nessuss 15y agoThis isn't the funeral for the fella. Being able to discuss taboo subjects is what makes it great to be an intellectual after all - why are they taboo? is the reason a good or illogical? In this case, death is bad, very bad. Something to resist with all our might, and cryonics is one just one tool in saving lives (yes, you are not dead until your actual neurons irrecoverably die). No need to go into the details of information theoretic death, just look into it yourself. The point is, people deal with the concept of death in ways to prevent the unpleasant thought that you WILL die. One of these ways is to celebrate what a great life this person had, how sad it is that they have died but they had a good life. It's slightly more obvious that this person did not in fact have a good life (he only had 21 years), but the argument applies to all ages. It's precisely why I decided to not self-censor here. I wanted to point out that we shouldn't celebrate death. Don't let death become something slightly more inevitable in your mind, fight it!
- alecco 15y agoIf rumors are true, my finger is pointing to the get-rich-easy self-promotion advocates like [you know who]. There are many kids in the coming generation who took their nonsense too seriously, sometimes like a cult. Just to make a few bucks selling books. No harm done, right?
- rooshdi 15y agoRest in peace.
- chefsurfing 15y agoI am touched by the loss of Ilya. Kipling's "IF" seems an appropriate addition to the discussion thread tonight. --- IF..... IF you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise: If you can dream - and not make dreams your master; If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools: If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!' If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, ' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch, if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son! --- Thank you Ilya.
- _THE_PLAGUE 15y agoBaruch dayan H'emet. This is very tragic. Nothing else to say. Rest in peace.
- Praveens 15y agoExtremely sad over the untimely death at a very young age. May his soul RIP. Prayers and condolences to all his near and dear ones.
- samgranger 15y agoI find it very saddening that so many people here are speculating that Ilya committed suicide. It's disrespectful to speculate, especially in such a case. Get a life.
- evanprodromou 15y agoSo sorry to hear that Ilya's gone. I only had a chance to meet him a few times, but I found him intelligent, thoughtful and friendly. I don't know the circumstances of his death, but I do hope that his family and colleagues get to see what an impact it's had on the hacker community. I look forward to hearing ways that they'd like us to honour his passing; until then I'm going to do it the way I know best -- keep hacking.
- tomelders 15y ago22 years. That's no time at all, not on this planet.
- Legion 15y ago"Zhitomirskiy committed suicide, a source close to the company confirmed to CNNMoney." http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/14/technology/diaspora_cofounder_died/ http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/14/technology/diaspora_cofounde...
- tripzilch 15y agoIn case the other thread won't bubble to the front page (though I expect it will): CNN confirmed it was suicide: http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/14/technology/diaspora_cofounder_died/ http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/14/technology/diaspora_cofounde...
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- Tycho 15y agoThis is now the top story on the front page of Yahoo UK, with a large picture of Ilya. I'm not sure what to make of that. I suppose one thing we can learn here is to be more sensitive about other peoples' work. Sometimes tech-related articles/comments/rants take a very harsh tone, and even though it might be valid criticism, it's easy to forget that some developer might have poured his/her heart and soul into what you're dismissing (or even ridiculing).
- teeja 15y agoSometimes deep (non-organic) depression can be a clue to the revelation that you've been untrue to your own nature. The depression is an opportunity to review what you've been doing, what you've been missing, and make plans to recreate your life in a way that's more positively rewarding. It's awful to see young lives wasted in this way... whether they're 'promising' in conventional ways or not. Many people have made it through The Abyss to go on to great things - which can include things that are completely unimportant to society at large. No need to be engulfed by the values of others. Be true to yourself.
- kirbyspit 15y agoRegarding telling suicidal people to think about the people who care about them before taking their lives...some suicidal people don't have anyone who cares about them. That's why they're suicidal.