[HN Gopher] On the Loss of a Cofounder
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On the Loss of a Cofounder
Author : bekind
Score : 129 points
Date : 2020-11-22 19:43 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (ouegner.medium.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (ouegner.medium.com)
| vntok wrote:
| In a similar vein, this story about Cloudflare's cofounder:
| https://www.wired.com/story/lee-holloway-devastating-decline...
| doopy1 wrote:
| I remember reading this when it was published. It's so
| terrifying and sad. At least he had money to afford near
| constant care towards the end, but how many folks have
| illnesses like these and are hung out to dry due to poor
| finances?
| simonbarker87 wrote:
| This is such an alien concept as a non-American. Lack of
| money should not mean lack of medical care in any developed
| nation, let alone the "richest and greatest"
| troelsSteegin wrote:
| This should open by stating the fact of death of Christian Brink,
| and the author's nominal relationship to him (cofounder). The
| piece refects on the author's sense of loss, as expressed through
| the experience of their relationship. I sympathize. But,
| editorially, the first thing we should know is that Christian
| Brink, his cofounder at Audm, died on day X.
| sbarre wrote:
| Seriously? That's your feedback? You're going to back-seat-edit
| a goddamn eulogy?
|
| What is wrong with you
| sneak wrote:
| I'm sorry for your loss.
|
| Regarding your article, the title as well as the term "gone" left
| me wondering if he had died or (probably more common in
| startups?) ghosted you/your company until the fifth paragraph.
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| It's a story about a human relationship. I think that co-worker
| relationships can get complicated (and deep), with co-founder
| relationships being a lot more intense.
|
| To be fair, there are a lot of other working scenarios, where you
| can have similar types of relationships, like military duty,
| police, firefighters, etc.
|
| In the US, men can be discouraged from talking about these kinds
| of relationships, but we have them. They are deep and wide. We
| often mask them behind bravado.
|
| I have a number of friends that are/were in the police and fire
| service in New York. I also had an employee whose sister was
| killed in the towers during 9/11.
|
| The firefighters were hit the hardest. Many of them continue to
| have deep depressions, even this many years later, in August and
| September.
| dvt wrote:
| This is heartbreaking. My condolences go out to Christian's
| family and friends. This post is really a testament to just _how_
| intimate co-founder relationships are. I loved this passage:
|
| > A cofounder relationship can be a competitive one. The question
| of who is more "formidable" comes up a lot. Who will be the point
| of contact with investors? Who will represent the company to the
| outside world? Who will have the final say at an impasse?
| Navigating these questions can easily lay waste to your ego. The
| only reason he and I avoided this pitfall was because we
| addressed our insecurities to each other directly, rather than
| let them simmer beneath the surface. I soon came to learn that
| one of the most valuable opportunities of an experience like this
| was that your cofounder's strengths could become your own.
| justicezyx wrote:
| I still could not figure out what happened to the "gone"
| cofounder? Dead?
|
| I cannot help to point out that today's online writing is so much
| wordy. They dont want to write at the beginning of what going on,
| or the authors could not realize how wordy their writing has
| become, possibly trained by the all-powerful need to market your
| company and organization.
| hasty wrote:
| Looks like a car accident: https://hudsonvalleypost.com/man-
| killed-in-hudson-valley-aft...
| grzm wrote:
| From the article:
|
| > "In the few short days since he died,"
| justicezyx wrote:
| My condolences.
|
| But I must point out that that's an implicit statement buried
| roughly the last 1/3 of the article. That's not how to
| describe an event.
| bigiain wrote:
| It's not a technical document. It's a story. Intentionally
| writing ambiguity into your API documentation would be
| insane, but building on ambiguity to later resolve it is a
| powerful way to add meaning and emphasis to a story.
|
| If you want to read "descriptions of events", read the
| coroners report, not personal Medium posts.
| mgkimsal wrote:
| Per the article, it seems the writer's cofounder Christian
| probably would have improved it with a rewrite.
| tmilard wrote:
| I feel deeply sad for his child(ren) and wife. We often think the
| urgency is to succeed and grow our startup. It is.
|
| But the Tik tok of the clock is there to remind us that we are
| not just founders but also humains, humains living a short life
| in the big timeline of history of innovation.
|
| History will forget us, but our close relative will always have
| this page open at this tragic day.
| zuhayeer wrote:
| This is incredibly sad to hear about, my condolences to
| Christian's family and friends. Christian and I had a phone call
| back in 2017 about a potential internship at Audm. While it
| didn't work out, we really enjoyed talking to each other over the
| phone and have followed each other on Twitter ever since. We'd
| catch up occasionally, and engage with each others tweets and
| have some good conversations.
|
| What stood out to me was how open and kind he was. He was willing
| to take a call with me as a student in college and offered to
| help me out with my projects - won't forget that. Wild to think
| how fleeting life is. Rest in peace, Christian.
| newbie578 wrote:
| First, condolences to the family!
|
| It is interesting to read about co-founder relations, reading it
| made me think of Paul Allen and Bill Gates.
|
| If anyone hasn't read Paul Allen's Idea Man, please do! One of
| the best biographies I have ever read, such a loving read.
|
| Reading this article reminded me how Paul Allen described the
| early days of coding with Bill when there were just two of them..
| They would spend the entire day coding, then at evening eat pizza
| and then watch whatever was on in theaters that day...
|
| Reading that story and seeing how Paul Allen fondly looked back
| on it made me truly respect them.
|
| The days are long, but the years are short!
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