I'm going to go out on a limb and state a preference for Aaron to have been able to "man up and deal with the consequences of his actions" than to have killed h

I'm going to go out on a limb and state a preference for Aaron to have been able to "man up and deal with the consequences of his actions" than to have killed himself. It's a coarse phrasing[0], but think the sentiment is and was a valid and reasonable one for the HN zeitgeist to have espoused given what we knew and thought we knew. At the time of that request for donations, Aaron himself was writing "a series of pieces on getting better at life" including such advice as "Look at yourself objectively"[1] and "Lean into the pain"[2]. These are not obviously the writings of someone who will shortly commit suicide, and those closest to him have been vocal about how well he seemed to the end. Maybe there is a lesson that we should be nicer to everyone in general, but I have a really hard time feeling like there should be some kind of communal shame over having drawn imperfect conclusions from incomplete information. [0] With the benefit of hindsight, I might phrase it as "I wish that he had been emotionally equipped to handle the situation he was in". [1] http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/semmelweis http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/semmelweis [2] http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/dalio http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/dalio