I talked with Pieter at some length about his cancer, which he was very open and forthcoming about, and his ultimate decision for euthanasia. He was very stoic about the whole ordeal. He was somewhat depressed about it to start, but eventually came around to realizing the accomplishments and contributions he made throughout his life in both the technical realm and outside.

I say all that to mean that anyone being sad about his death is something that Pieter would not have wanted.

I was at his wake party in Brussels. He did that before he died, so he was there. I only have the most positive memories, even though it was complicated. To give you all a bit of insight into his wonderful way of reasoning with his end: there was a T-Shirt we all could sign. It read „I was at my own wake party and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt“. That was Pieter. I can never NOT end with a smile on my face whenever I think about him.

I can recommend his books, listed here: http://hintjens.com/books

Confessions of a Necromancer is his work biography, I was totally caught off-guard how relatable his stories turned out to be.

Even just the ZMQ guide is amazing: https://zguide.zeromq.org

After reading this I wanted to read everything by him - which I am still in the process of.

One of the things I am proud of is to be listed as a contributor in the ZeroMQ O'Reilly (paper) book -- just because Pieter was this generous dude who never doubted about spreading good will. I still miss him.

I learned an enormous amount about life, technology and myself from reading his blog posts.

Pieter teaches me a lot through his writing. The books ZeroMQ and Confessions of a Necromancer still sit on my bookshelf.

I met him once at a conference in 2013. One of the most fun and human people in greater tech I had the honor to talk with in person. I can highly recommend his writings.