What if this engineer was really the person behind the San Bernardino hack...Apple sets up a shell company, they are pretty good at that. FBI pays the shell company to hack the phone, Apple assigns the task to a single engineer. Media reports FBI paid company "xyz" to hack the phone, it blows over, no one knows Apple helped, consumers keep consuming. This poor guy can't live with his conscience.
He obviously premeditated that he wanted to do it at Apple hq...so whatever was his issue(s), it is clear he believed Apple was responsible.
Not necessarily. It could just be that some stressor at work was the last straw on top of any number of other issues.
Some suicides, at least, can include an element of wanting to make a very public comment, in which case it would hard to find anything much more likely to bring widespread attention than doing it at Apple.
Not unlike something like jumping off the Golden Gate bridge. The bridge was unlikely to be thought of by would be suicides are responsible for their problem.
Although the cause of death has not been released, one cannot entirely dismiss the possibility of trouble within Apple having driven this young gentleman over the edge. That remains true even if pressure and stress doesn't cause "most people" to take their lives. Consider a software engineer suicide from Apple's past...
Although SIRI may have had nothing to do with this recent death at all, SIRI is in many ways is terribly flawed, not too unlike handwriting recognition on the Newton. The pressure within Apple to create the insanely great may very often drive the engineering geniuses behind it to the edge of sanity.
I don't usually post here for fear of getting attacked like you. But this time I need to step out of the shadows and say something. I am confused at why so many here have quoted your post only so they can then go on a rant about posts like yours. What you wrote is basically true, for goodness sake. I for one appreciate the link to that past suicide. Not that there's any connection, of course. I just never knew that. Thank you for your post. And please don't feel depressed over what others here think of you. You have an important voice too.
If we are to help others who many be contemplating taking their life, we need to show some kindness toward each other, not hate. We don't need to name-call and cast "moron" as a stone against others. "The dumbest post I've ever read" is another stone. And we wonder why some people take their lives! Live and let live. Try to love others as you love yourself, which is very hard to do I might add.
Somebody talked about "respect for the dead." Well, the dead don't care about respect because they are, well, dead. What we really mean when we say that is have respect for people who know the dead. But since I don't think many of those people are here, we should never get this upset over what others post. It's not like anyone here has tried to humiliate or debase the deceased. And we certainly shouldn't resort to name-calling. If anything is "unbelievable" it is the vitriol I see in this forum, with a few forum members slamming other forum members. As Rodney King once said, "Can't we all just get along?"
What the dead person did was pretty disrespectful towards Apple.
People like this in the US who value profit and corporations above humanity and have lost any sense of compassion are what have prevented me from ever wanting to move there and contribute my skills to a society which I find absolutely disgusting. Keep smiling and faking that you're laughing with others while, underneath the facade, you have zero interest in those around you and simply care about getting as much as you can for yourself. Every time I travel to the US, I constantly have my guard up because any time I interact with someone, I feel like they're only interested in me as so far as they can get the money out of my pocket. Not enjoyable whatsoever because there's almost no humanity left. It's all been stripped away in the pursuit of the almighty dollar. Pretty much my definition of hell on earth. Good for you, you win the game of capitalism -- doesn't make any difference in the end. And what will you remember when that time comes? I guess it doesn't matter if you never reflect on anything anyways.
It sucks that this person felt bad enough that suicide felt like his only choice. I fully appreciate that life can get like that. It apalls me how people act so clueless about human misery and suicide; like they just cannot comprehend it. It's either an act to fit in with the hostile anti-suicide culture, or they're really privileged, or they're so antipathetic that they criticize anyone showing emotion (other than anger).
Emotion isn't weakness. It's humanity. Our culture is extremely toxic and depression isn't some mystical "chemical imbalance" or brain defect. Antidepressants are actually known to increase suicidality. (SSNRI/SSRI drugs reduce impulse control) It's on the damn labeling required by law. So when life gets lousy, our culture tells people that they're "mentally ill" and gives them drugs that don't do anything to treat the cause (and often worsen the symptoms and create physiological addiction). Lovely society.
Notice that Apple has a cultural disregard of suicide: autocorrect and spell check on iOS pretends that "suicide" and "abuse" aren't even real words (at best, they don't get marked as incorrect but there's no further reaction to them). What's that about, Apple?
PS: that comment by "Apple ][" is exactly the kind of antisocial, antipathetic commentary I've come to expect from him. Gross, man. Really gross. I make some occasional poor taste comments, but damn; yours just seems utterly heartless.
I don't usually post here for fear of getting attacked like you. But this time I need to step out of the shadows and say something. I am confused at why so many here have quoted your post only so they can then go on a rant about posts like yours. What you wrote is basically true, for goodness sake. I for one appreciate the link to that past suicide. Not that there's any connection, of course. I just never knew that. Thank you for your post. And please don't feel depressed over what others here think of you. You have an important voice too.
If we are to help others who many be contemplating taking their life, we need to show some kindness toward each other, not hate. We don't need to name-call and cast "moron" as a stone against others. "The dumbest post I've ever read" is another stone. And we wonder why some people take their lives! Live and let live. Try to love others as you love yourself, which is very hard to do I might add. As Rodney King once said, "Can't we all just get along?"
That was nice to read. I don't understand why so many people are so hateful all the time... I can't imagine that bashing others over something that doesn't even concern them can make someone feel happy about themselves
No one is worked to death. He could have simply quit.
Tell that to the average salaryman in Tokyo. Some of us as professionals work 50-60 hrs a week, 80 hrs a week to meet deadlines and do not have the luxury to quit. It would not surprise me that engineers at Apple literally are at work most waking hours, but they are likely paid very well, but also feel a lot of pressure and need to be perfect in everything they do.
No one knows what goes through a persons head to drive them to suicide. What may seem trivial to most could drive a person over the edge. Thoughts and prayers to his family and friends.
The chinese put a suicide net around their apple facility to prevent employees from leaping to their deaths. Maybe the cupertino facility needs to figure out how to keep guns away from their employees.
By choosing to commit suicide at their own workplace out of all places and making a spectacle of things. Very unprofessional to say the least.
Making comments like this on a public forum without any direct knowledge of the situation is far more unprofessional. I hope you don't makes such biased/irrational decisions for whatever companies you're involved with. Otherwise you could be jeopardizing the profitability of those companies. /s
You know nothing about this you man's life; you know nothing of his mental state. You know nothing about what happened to him in the preceding hours/days/weeks/months/years that drove him to take his own life. If he left a note or a message that indicates Apple is responsible then I expect Apple to investigate the matter fully and see if there is anything they can do to prevent this happening again. But again, this is unclear. The only thing that is 'clear' is that you don't know what you're talking about.
Folk, I understand that a lot of you hate Apple with a passion that my meagre intellect cannot ever hope to fathom, but let's remember that a young man has died here. Trivialising this man's death by using it as a stick to gleefully beat Apple shows that perhaps you need as much help as he did.
I dealt with a lot of software engineers (code monkeys) in my previous job and many of them were socially and personally troubled.
Software Engineers aren't actual engineers with ABET accredited degrees. They are either Computer Science degree holders, a subset of Electrical or self-taught programmers.
The industry lost a lot of respect to me and lots of my colleagues when Software Programmer was converted to Software Engineer by folks with Liberal Arts, Biology, Psychology, you name it degrees. It's a title that should not exist.
My personal most loathed one is Software Architect, a.k.a., the guy/gal who outlines the requirements technical writing with very loose classifications that lower level folks turn into working APIs. They get paid the most and do the least.
Comments
Some suicides, at least, can include an element of wanting to make a very public comment, in which case it would hard to find anything much more likely to bring widespread attention than doing it at Apple.
Not unlike something like jumping off the Golden Gate bridge. The bridge was unlikely to be thought of by would be suicides are responsible for their problem.
Emotion isn't weakness. It's humanity. Our culture is extremely toxic and depression isn't some mystical "chemical imbalance" or brain defect. Antidepressants are actually known to increase suicidality. (SSNRI/SSRI drugs reduce impulse control) It's on the damn labeling required by law. So when life gets lousy, our culture tells people that they're "mentally ill" and gives them drugs that don't do anything to treat the cause (and often worsen the symptoms and create physiological addiction). Lovely society.
Notice that Apple has a cultural disregard of suicide: autocorrect and spell check on iOS pretends that "suicide" and "abuse" aren't even real words (at best, they don't get marked as incorrect but there's no further reaction to them). What's that about, Apple?
I hope Tim ensures this never happens again.
/s
Yes, clearly.
And all the people who throw themselves on train lines must have a serious beef with the line operators.
And all the people who jumped from the terrace of this restaurant:
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/man-plunges-80ft-to-death-from-roof-garden-of-top-city-restaurant-coq-d-argent-a3158911.html
all had a problem with the chef.
You know nothing about this you man's life; you know nothing of his mental state. You know nothing about what happened to him in the preceding hours/days/weeks/months/years that drove him to take his own life. If he left a note or a message that indicates Apple is responsible then I expect Apple to investigate the matter fully and see if there is anything they can do to prevent this happening again. But again, this is unclear. The only thing that is 'clear' is that you don't know what you're talking about.
Folk, I understand that a lot of you hate Apple with a passion that my meagre intellect cannot ever hope to fathom, but let's remember that a young man has died here. Trivialising this man's death by using it as a stick to gleefully beat Apple shows that perhaps you need as much help as he did.