The strange thing about Erik is that he was sweet, gentle and helpful in person. I spent a fair amount of time with him, and never once saw any of the behavior he was famous for on usenet.
He was highly intelligent but he had an odd childhood and was somewhat isolated socially, in the real world. It’s what ultimately killed him. At least outside of tech. Near the end he was almost a cult-like figure, at conferences especially. He would accumulate a hoard of fans. I’m unsure if he liked that.
He really loved coming to the Bay Area.
I definitely miss him irl.
Sorry for the ramblings. I’m on mobile and editing is hard.
I never got the chance to interact with, much less meet, Erik, but I think the thing people misunderstand about even his more vitriolic messages (his XML rant warms my heart to this day), is that he wasn't being an asshole, he was pursuing values people had increasingly abandoned. He was an impassioned idealist.
There was a time when technologists aggressively cared about the technically correct solution as a opposed to the "business correct" or "socially correct" answer. Erik's rants (which I'm more familiar with) didn't criticize the uninitiated, they attacked people who didn't care to know better.
He's the fundamental opposite of today's Twitter/X "shitposter", those who promote rage for clicks and engagement above understanding and thinking. He inspired you (or at least young me) to be good enough, to understand well enough, that when you spoke you wouldn't insight the rage of people like him. He was a warning to neophytes not to get too cocky before you learned the ropes. He was an object lesson that ego was far less important than understanding. Something lost on the most recent Twitter/X generation.
I'm certain anyone resembling Erik out there in the world would not have survived the tech industry the last 10 years and for me that is a tragedy. I hope Erik's name forever lives on in internet lore and at least some new people setting out secretly hope to understand their field enough not to invoke the rage of his lurking spirit.
He was highly intelligent but he had an odd childhood and was somewhat isolated socially, in the real world. It’s what ultimately killed him. At least outside of tech. Near the end he was almost a cult-like figure, at conferences especially. He would accumulate a hoard of fans. I’m unsure if he liked that.
He really loved coming to the Bay Area.
I definitely miss him irl.
Sorry for the ramblings. I’m on mobile and editing is hard.