Aaron Swartz

wrote this a while ago, meant to finish it, never did:

For those who missed the news, Aaron Swartz committed suicide recently. For those who don't know who that is... all you really need to know is that he has impacted your life, which is more than you can say about most people. He was one of those people who everybody recognized as a genius... who lived up to the label. He was famous in tech circles by the time he was fifteen. He cowrote the RSS specification as well as reddit's engine, but his largest contribution to society was in his advocacy for an open internet and his impact on helping to prevent SOPA from getting passed.

I related with this web entity, and supported his causes and applauded his contributions to the internet, but it wasnt until a year or two ago when I read a writeup of his contributions to the fight against SOPA did I really investigate his character and become emotionally invested in his life. I related with practically everything he had done, and reading his blog entries revealed that despite his proactive contributions and web celebrity he was a grounded individual who had very similar thought process to my own. For a time Id hoped to be able to meet him and maybe discuss philosophy.

and actions which garnered him fame, many of his views on the world highly aligned with my own. His ability to push forward and impact change at such a young age and his seemingly fearless attitude of pushing forward regardless of the odds against him inspired me.

Looking back, I had an inkling that he was naive, but I brushed it aside as letting my fear about risking myself, and

: to continue:

I guess I was gonna get preachy, and hopefully motivated, but ... failed. young guy died because the government was terrible, harkens to where my head is at at this point. contribute to society in a way that I deem important. hopefully make an impact. Education / the dispersal of information over the internet.... thats about where my heads at, but its not specific.