The OP talks about how Aaron needed to be more pragmatic, like a Steve Jobs. I don't disagree...and as much as I admire his almost total-lack of self promotion and the minimalism on his sites, I wonder if Aaron would've felt more of a force had he more of the weight and attention of the world. Think of how much even digital media celebrities like David Pogue can make things happen (Remember how fast police in another state acted when he lost his iPhone? http://money.cnn.com/2012/08/03/technology/david-pogue-iphon...)...
Some tech prodigies have the desire to stay anonymous, but Aaron clearly wanted to be at the forefront of civic action, if not the "spotlight", so to speak. It's unfortunate that his accomplishments and virtues did not attract the celebrity that they deserved.
I most definitely do not despise Aaron. I think it's highly detestable that someone of his passion and skill gets less followers than an early-cut-contestant from American Idol.
We can argue that maybe he would've been less productive if he really got into tweeting or whatever. But he was hardly shy from talking about himself, and he shouldn't have been. It's a shame that didn't result in the kind of deserved following that would have gotten more public sentiment on his side.
His SOPA/PIPA campaign is a prime example. The reason why it succeeded when at first legislators ignored it was not because the merits of its argument became better over time, but because more people, beyond the choir, had joined the cause.
>I think it's highly detestable that someone of his passion and skill gets less followers than an early-cut-contestant from American Idol.
Every week reddit gives me the latest talking point jerks like Kim Dotcom or Ron/Rand Paul, yet its own guy was ignored by it until his death. PR is everything now. Social media is reputation media. Working on your image is just as important as your work, which sounds like something out of The Prince, but its truer in the age of instant communication. Christ, what a sorry world we live in where our actions are meaningless and we are nothing without good PR.
I wonder if "making something" as a tribute to Aaron would be appropriate. This article puts a lot of emphasis on "code as poetry" and that really resonates with me.
My tribute is to stop using twitter and other walled gardens so much and to start publishing my content to the open web again. Even for smaller things. I started by sharing my thoughts about Aaron's passing on my own website: http://benatkin.com/2013/01/12/rip-aaron-swartz/
I noticed that since he does the old style of blog comments, that if you ever left a comment on his blog, you can type a search like this into google:
"Ben Atkin" site:aaronsw.com
...you'll get a list of the comments you made on his site.
I don't think he ever wrote code just for the sake of code. I think he wrote it for a larger purpose.
Some tech prodigies have the desire to stay anonymous, but Aaron clearly wanted to be at the forefront of civic action, if not the "spotlight", so to speak. It's unfortunate that his accomplishments and virtues did not attract the celebrity that they deserved.