Comment by charlesj on Farewell Aaron Swartz (1986-2013) · 2013-01-15T00:39:06.259Z · LW · GW

First post, though long time lurker. One thing that has been bothering me about this: Aaron was familiar with the methods. He was a member of this community. He had a brilliant mind. How was he willing to take this action? I find myself confused, for these seem to be completely contradictory facts.

As someone with a history of mental illness, I have found certain comfort in rationality. Using the tools of rationality, I believed I've been able to notice when my thinking starts to go wonky and depression begins to kick in, and I'm able to take action against it. I believe that I will never again consider suicide a possibility.

But this happened. It doesn't change anything about my practices or actions, but it is a piece of evidence that rationality isn't enough, and that bothers me. I can read through his writing, like the post mentioned in another comment (fix the machine, not the person), and see how it directly contradicts the idea of suicide. But evidently, that was not enough.