Aaron Swartz is what I wish I was. Please don't compare yourself to anyone else. It's pointless, disempowering, and generally a waste of time. Your "best you"

Aaron Swartz is what I wish I was. Please don't compare yourself to anyone else. It's pointless, disempowering, and generally a waste of time. Your "best you" is what I wish you wished you were. I am a bright technologist... You are not alone. There are many of us here, like you and like Aaron. ...but I've never built anything of note. The things you build do not have to be famous to be "anything of note". Do people use the software you have written? Do they benefit from it? If yes, then it is most certainly "of note". I have strong opinions about how to improve this world, but I've never acted to bring them to pass. That doesn't mean there's anything wrong with you. That means you're normal. 99% of us are in exactly the same boat. We go about our daily business, taking care of ourselves and those close to us, making the world a better place in a thousand little ways. Think of it this way. We're all just one great big football team. The Aaron Swartzs and Steve Jobs of the world are the quarterbacks and ball carriers whose names are in the press all the time. But they would accomplish little if it wasn't for those of us around them who block and tackle all day long. Don't be upset that, up to this point, you've been a blocker or tackler. Be proud. And realize that your turn to carry the ball has yet to come. I have thoughts every day that I would share with the world, but I allow my fears to convince me to keep them to myself. Congratulations. You have just taken the first step toward addressing that issue with that statement here on Hacker News. Now please take Step 2. Start a blog. If it's anything like this post, then I want to read it. And others, I'm sure, will want to also. If I were able to stop being afraid of what the world would think of me, I could see myself making every decision that Aaron made that ultimately led to his untimely death. You don't know what really led to Aaron's untimely death. No one does. The decisions you make are just one input to a complex process we still don't understand. So go easy on yourself and don't jump to unnecessary conclusions. I am upset that we have a justice system that would persecute me the way it did Aaron. Many of us are upset about this and a lot of other things too. But we won't allow any of them to stop us from living our lives fully. You can be upset about things in background and still have a wonderful happy life in foreground. Give it a try. I am upset that I have spent 27 years of my life having made no discernible difference to the world around me. I bet if I asked those close to you if the felt they same way, I'd get a resounding "No!" Maybe you should, too. Most of all I am upset that Aaron's work here is done when there is so much more he could have accomplished. Agreed. I guess that means that each of us now has a few more things to add to our own To Do Lists. Thanks, John, for the great post. Best wishes for feeling better and getting on with it. Ultimately, that's what we hackers always do.