4 ms·

Why is everybody so fascinated by this? You can be both smart, weird and a sociopath.

vouaobrasil 3y ago
I think because in a way, we are all weird more or less due to the incredibly strange society we live in, and Reiser was one of the few that blew up. So there are two levels of fascination: on one level, we are looking for insights about ourselves in his breakdown, and we also hope that we are different than him, which gives us hope that we can live through this society and not fall apart like he did.
- konschubert 3y ago
  He lied to their kids and told them that their mother had abandoned them.
  - lelanthran 3y ago
    > He lied to their kids and told them that their mother had abandoned them. You think that's the most notable thing out of all the other things he did? Parents do that all the time to their kids after divorce, there's probably even a Wikipedia page about parental alienation
    - Snow_Falls 3y ago
      That he did it after murdering the mother is what makes it particularly galling.
    - lazide 3y ago
      [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parental_alienation https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parental_alienation]
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
  - vouaobrasil 3y ago
    Yes, what Reiser did was horrendous. But that was my point: at the same time, people do such things every day all around us. It's only that Reiser went further and committed murder. It is indeed an horrible act, and the only practical thing to do is lock up muderers, but I also think we should look at society's role in producing people like Reiser as well.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
jongjong 3y ago
I think maybe because it seems paradoxical that someone would work on an open source project, giving away their time for free for the good of society, and yet be selfish to the point of being a murderer. As an open source developer myself, I don't understand how it's possible. Why would you give away your labor for free if you don't feel empathy towards others? My general level of empathy for people I don't know has declined significantly over the past decade and my open source contributions have also declined in line with that. I just don't see the point anymore. I met some very good people through open source but, overall, the experience has taught me that most people on earth range from neutral to horrible. Open source probably represents the best kind of environment to meet the best of humanity. The smartest of the good people... But it's still disappointing.
- lelanthran 3y ago
  It's not about selflessness or empathy, it's about being unable to control ones emotion. We all get mad at our spouses, but we don't kill em
  - jongjong 3y ago
    Still weird how someone who can't control their emotions can spend hours sitting calmly in front of a debugger while coding over many years. I feel like developers have exceptional self control compared to most people. Personally I still feel empathy towards people even when I'm angry at them. If rational people act like complete assholes to me, I start thinking that maybe they were molested or something really nasty must have happened to them.
    - pgeorgi 3y ago
      The debugger is a relatively simple environment: you have a program, you have inputs, and one of these leads to weird behavior. When you encounter people, they might be in a bad mood for a thousand reasons you can't know about and that you can't inspect like you can in "computer + program + data", leash out at you (verbally) for no discernable reason at all (and that they themselves may not even be aware of) When you never learned about that messiness of a system as complex as people, it can feel arbitrary and hostile. If you're the type who needs method and order to feel safe, computers are wonderful, people much less so.
wegfawefgawefg 3y ago
Maybe he is, or he could just be a real asshole. For the record I think most killers probably are not sociopaths. This was true 100k years ago, and its probably still true now.
- konschubert 3y ago
  His kids lost their mother. And he told them that she ran away. If you are able to do this to your kids you are a special kind of human.
  - wegfawefgawefg 3y ago
    Thats exactly the kind of common assumption im advocating agaisnt. Evil behavior is not unique to sociopaths/psycopaths.

I think because in a way, we are all weird more or less due to the incredibly strange society we live in, and Reiser was one of the few that blew up. So there are two levels of fascination: on one level, we are looking for insights about ourselves in his breakdown, and we also hope that we are different than him, which gives us hope that we can live through this society and not fall apart like he did.

konschubert 3y ago
He lied to their kids and told them that their mother had abandoned them.
- lelanthran 3y ago
  > He lied to their kids and told them that their mother had abandoned them. You think that's the most notable thing out of all the other things he did? Parents do that all the time to their kids after divorce, there's probably even a Wikipedia page about parental alienation
  - Snow_Falls 3y ago
    That he did it after murdering the mother is what makes it particularly galling.
  - lazide 3y ago
    [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parental_alienation https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parental_alienation]
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- vouaobrasil 3y ago
  Yes, what Reiser did was horrendous. But that was my point: at the same time, people do such things every day all around us. It's only that Reiser went further and committed murder. It is indeed an horrible act, and the only practical thing to do is lock up muderers, but I also think we should look at society's role in producing people like Reiser as well.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]

jongjong 3y ago

I think maybe because it seems paradoxical that someone would work on an open source project, giving away their time for free for the good of society, and yet be selfish to the point of being a murderer. As an open source developer myself, I don't understand how it's possible. Why would you give away your labor for free if you don't feel empathy towards others? My general level of empathy for people I don't know has declined significantly over the past decade and my open source contributions have also declined in line with that. I just don't see the point anymore. I met some very good people through open source but, overall, the experience has taught me that most people on earth range from neutral to horrible. Open source probably represents the best kind of environment to meet the best of humanity. The smartest of the good people... But it's still disappointing.

lelanthran 3y ago
It's not about selflessness or empathy, it's about being unable to control ones emotion. We all get mad at our spouses, but we don't kill em
- jongjong 3y ago
  Still weird how someone who can't control their emotions can spend hours sitting calmly in front of a debugger while coding over many years. I feel like developers have exceptional self control compared to most people. Personally I still feel empathy towards people even when I'm angry at them. If rational people act like complete assholes to me, I start thinking that maybe they were molested or something really nasty must have happened to them.
  - pgeorgi 3y ago
    The debugger is a relatively simple environment: you have a program, you have inputs, and one of these leads to weird behavior. When you encounter people, they might be in a bad mood for a thousand reasons you can't know about and that you can't inspect like you can in "computer + program + data", leash out at you (verbally) for no discernable reason at all (and that they themselves may not even be aware of) When you never learned about that messiness of a system as complex as people, it can feel arbitrary and hostile. If you're the type who needs method and order to feel safe, computers are wonderful, people much less so.

wegfawefgawefg 3y ago

Maybe he is, or he could just be a real asshole. For the record I think most killers probably are not sociopaths. This was true 100k years ago, and its probably still true now.

konschubert 3y ago
His kids lost their mother. And he told them that she ran away. If you are able to do this to your kids you are a special kind of human.
- wegfawefgawefg 3y ago
  Thats exactly the kind of common assumption im advocating agaisnt. Evil behavior is not unique to sociopaths/psycopaths.