News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Tell HN: Aaron Swartz died today, 8 years ago by manfredo on Monday January 11, 2021 @01:34PM (#25733617)
A substantial number of people commit suicide following loss of one's job. Would you feel it's fair to say that their bosses drove them to suicide?

I'd say no. Most of such cases, like Swartz, had existing mental conditions that are primarily responsible for their decision to commit suicide. Loss of a job may have been the event that ultimately prompted the act, but the driving factors were mental conditions. Saying that these people were driven to suicide conflates these cases with like this where someone is actively driving someone else to suicide: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Conrad_Roy

Re:Tell HN: Aaron Swartz died today, 8 years ago by _jal on Monday January 11, 2021 @02:08PM (#25734472)
People are obsessed with blame. Get over it. This isn't about blame or guilt. It is about cause and effect.

I think it is "fair" to describe action B as following from action A, when there is good reason to consider them related.

If you revise your observations of reality based on what you fear might happen later, you're not observing reality.