2011/11/14 Praveen A <[email protected]>: > Late last night, word began to spread around the tech community that > one of Diaspora‘s four co-founders, Ilya Zhitomirskiy, had passed > away. With much sadness, we’ve now confirmed this terrible news with > the Diaspora team. > > The news is incredibly jarring, to the point that much else I could > say escapes me. Ilya was just 21. To see any member of our community > pass is sad, but for one so young to go is absolutely crushing. The > cause of death is currently unconfirmed. > > Our sincerest condolences to Ilya’s family, friends, and the entire > Diaspora team.
Sarah Mei, one of the diaspora developers and mentor for the young team wrote this, https://joindiaspora.com/posts/850422 This is the eulogy I delivered on Friday for Ilya at his funeral. Ilya was my friend, and I miss him. I want to tell you what was epic about Ilya. When we went to clean out his apartment on Sunday, to pack his things and send them back to his parents, we discovered his room was about 50% sticky notes by weight. He made thousands of to-do lists - he always had one stuck to the back of his phone. Most of them were standard day-to-day stuff and shopping lists, but he also made lists of the longer-term things he wanted to do. They were things like: go skydiving go to burning man start a company party with the Amish He got some of them done. Many were still unchecked. There was one to-do list item I particularly loved. It said, "sneak into a company and rearrange everything in their filing cabinets." It was NOT checked off! But if your work has a filing cabinet and you knew Ilya, you might want to just give it a once over on Monday. :) That was SO Ilya. He was a brilliant kid, trying to navigate his transition to adulthood in a way that felt authentic, and irreverant, and a little subversive. He went too soon. He left way too many of his to-do items unchecked. But he has inspired me to try to check off a few more of my own. And out of all his undone to-do list items, the one that I'm adding to MY list - definitely - is "party with the Amish." And not just because it sounds funny! For me, it's symbolic. Ilya liked to meet, and to try to understand, all different kinds of people. He invited them ALL to his epic parties. He even invited me, though I am old enough to be his mother, have two kids of my own, and normally couldn't make the stars align enough to actually go. I did go to a few, though, and they were, seriously: EPIC. Ilya's willingness to make that connection with people who seemed so different from him is ultimately what I will remember about him. The world needs more of that kind of empathy and courage. And it just crushes me that he's gone. So what I'm adding to MY to-do list is really the following: a reminder that we're all human, that we all need that connection, and that a connection that comes from someplace unexpected is an amazing gift. That is what was truly epic about Ilya. -- പ്രവീണ് അരിമ്പ്രത്തൊടിയില് You have to keep reminding your government that you don't get your rights from them; you give them permission to rule, only so long as they follow the rules: laws and constitution. -- "Freedom is the only law". "Freedom Unplugged" http://www.ilug-tvm.org You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ilug-tvm" group. To control your subscription visit http://groups.google.co.in/group/ilug-tvm/subscribe To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For details visit the google group page: http://groups.google.com/group/ilug-tvm?hl=en
