4 ms·

I agree that the lionization of Aaron is maybe getting a little out of hand. He was an accomplished and notable young person, few would deny this, but let's kee

I agree that the lionization of Aaron is maybe getting a little out of hand. He was an accomplished and notable young person, few would deny this, but let's keep it realistic.

hyperbovine 14y ago
The easiest way to be born a genius is to become rich or die.
Natsu 14y ago
Which statements, specifically, do you see as being unrealistic? Edit: I'd like to know what the downvoter is thinking, too, but I wonder if I'll get any answers.
- fatbird 14y ago
  Greatest prodigy of his generation is one such example of hyperbole.
  - clicks 14y ago
    He authored the RSS spec at age 14. He may not be the greatest prodigy, but as far as I can tell he's one of the greater prodigies. I do not think it is a hyperbole at all to label him the 'greatest prodigy' of our generation. He made great contributions in the effort of making information free, with his work on the commons and all. That is a profoundly big endeavor that pushes humanity forword, do not be so quick to look past that.
    - fatbird 14y ago
      I think the broader point is that lionizing Swartz and demonizing Ortiz turns the whole episode into a morality play in which we want to see Ortiz lynched because Jesus was crucified. The issues raised are systemic issues and require systemic solutions, in the long term. Focusing on the individuals involved obscures that. If all that happens is that Ortiz is scapegoated by the DOJ, then we'll have failed to capitalize on the moment to enact real, useful change.
    - jstevens85 14y ago
      Authoring the RSS spec may be an exaggeration. A history of RSS can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS Basically, it seems like the original RSS spec (RSS 0.9) was authored by two guys at Netscape, and released in March 1999, followed by RSS 0.91 in July 1999. At this point, it looks like Netscape lost interest in RSS, and the project was forked into two competing versions, one lead by Dave Winer, and the other by the RSS-DEV Working Group. Dave Winer published the specs RSS 0.91 (different to Netscape's), 0.92, 0.93, .94 and then 2.0 between 2000-2002. In August 2000, a competing fork was started by Rael Dornfest, who posted a draft of RSS 1.0, which appears to have been written by himself. He asked for interested parties to join a working group, of which Aaron became a member. This group became known as the RSS-DEV Working Group, and 1.0 was published in December 2000. It's hard to say how much involvement Aaron had in this working group (I haven't read through the archives), but RSS had certainly existed for some time before Aaron became involved.
  - kragen 14y ago
    Do you have any other candidates in mind for that title? The inventor of the Web called Aaron his mentor.
  - Natsu 14y ago
    How many other 20-somethings can you name who have impacted the world for the better as much as he has?
    - fatbird 14y ago
      None. But until Swartz committed suicide, I couldn't have named him either.
      - Natsu 14y ago
        I could have. I'm on one of the mailing lists he founded and I followed both prosecutions of him.
  - biot 14y ago
    The article says "one of the greatest" which isn't inaccurate; we're all among the greatest 7 billion people on the planet.

I agree that the lionization of Aaron is maybe getting a little out of hand. He was an accomplished and notable young person, few would deny this, but let's keep it realistic.

hyperbovine 14y ago

The easiest way to be born a genius is to become rich or die.

Natsu 14y ago

Which statements, specifically, do you see as being unrealistic? Edit: I'd like to know what the downvoter is thinking, too, but I wonder if I'll get any answers.

fatbird 14y ago
Greatest prodigy of his generation is one such example of hyperbole.
- clicks 14y ago
  He authored the RSS spec at age 14. He may not be the greatest prodigy, but as far as I can tell he's one of the greater prodigies. I do not think it is a hyperbole at all to label him the 'greatest prodigy' of our generation. He made great contributions in the effort of making information free, with his work on the commons and all. That is a profoundly big endeavor that pushes humanity forword, do not be so quick to look past that.
  - fatbird 14y ago
    I think the broader point is that lionizing Swartz and demonizing Ortiz turns the whole episode into a morality play in which we want to see Ortiz lynched because Jesus was crucified. The issues raised are systemic issues and require systemic solutions, in the long term. Focusing on the individuals involved obscures that. If all that happens is that Ortiz is scapegoated by the DOJ, then we'll have failed to capitalize on the moment to enact real, useful change.
  - jstevens85 14y ago
    Authoring the RSS spec may be an exaggeration. A history of RSS can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS Basically, it seems like the original RSS spec (RSS 0.9) was authored by two guys at Netscape, and released in March 1999, followed by RSS 0.91 in July 1999. At this point, it looks like Netscape lost interest in RSS, and the project was forked into two competing versions, one lead by Dave Winer, and the other by the RSS-DEV Working Group. Dave Winer published the specs RSS 0.91 (different to Netscape's), 0.92, 0.93, .94 and then 2.0 between 2000-2002. In August 2000, a competing fork was started by Rael Dornfest, who posted a draft of RSS 1.0, which appears to have been written by himself. He asked for interested parties to join a working group, of which Aaron became a member. This group became known as the RSS-DEV Working Group, and 1.0 was published in December 2000. It's hard to say how much involvement Aaron had in this working group (I haven't read through the archives), but RSS had certainly existed for some time before Aaron became involved.
- kragen 14y ago
  Do you have any other candidates in mind for that title? The inventor of the Web called Aaron his mentor.
- Natsu 14y ago
  How many other 20-somethings can you name who have impacted the world for the better as much as he has?
  - fatbird 14y ago
    None. But until Swartz committed suicide, I couldn't have named him either.
    - Natsu 14y ago
      I could have. I'm on one of the mailing lists he founded and I followed both prosecutions of him.
- biot 14y ago
  The article says "one of the greatest" which isn't inaccurate; we're all among the greatest 7 billion people on the planet.