[HN Gopher] The Death of Zappos Tony Hsieh: A Spiral of Alcohol,...
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The Death of Zappos Tony Hsieh: A Spiral of Alcohol, Drugs and
Extreme Behavior
Author : harambae
Score : 71 points
Date : 2020-12-06 20:51 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.wsj.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.wsj.com)
| v64 wrote:
| Some of the speculation in this thread [1], originally flagged as
| hearsay, seems to be confirmed by this article, namely his use of
| nitrous oxide.
|
| [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25235843
| pcunite wrote:
| On a flagged and down-voted into oblivion comment, no less. A
| small taste of what sharing hard truths here at HN is often
| becoming like. I hope we can rise above this and allow
| discussion, even topics we don't think we need to hear.
| reaperducer wrote:
| _On a flagged and down-voted into oblivion comment. A small
| taste of what sharing hard truths here at HN is often like._
|
| There's also the twin concepts of tact and good taste.
|
| If someone wants to dig into a dead person's dark side, go
| ahead. But not immediately after his death. There's nothing
| wrong with a little restraint. It's not like knowing bad
| things about him two weeks later changes anything at all.
| paul7986 wrote:
| The singer, Jewel who was a friend sounded an alarm in August
| https://people.com/music/jewel-wrote-to-tony-hsieh-before-hi...
|
| She's pretty credible.
| yevpats wrote:
| RIP. It's really sad. Mental health problems are often dismissed
| or not caught in time.
|
| I read his book "Delivering Happiness" after I heard about his
| death and before reading this article about mental health
| problems. As I read it I saw some interesting stories and ideas
| about the businesses that he built but I also read stories which
| put way too much focus (imho) on various nights and parties which
| don't really relate to entrepreneurship or business. The first
| thing that popped into my mind is depression, drugs and alcohol
| overuse.
| s5300 wrote:
| This is so incredibly saddening. Some people seem to truly be too
| kind and empathetic to cope with this modern world. I'll be
| forever wondering why he didn't make an extreme decision to do
| something such as literally disappearing into rural nowhere
| Asia/Europe or somewhere and attempt to live the simplest of
| lifestyles for some time. I want to think something of that
| nature may have helped reset things a bit, but what do I know.
| Life is so incredibly grueling for those that wish to help others
| so much as he seemed to want to in our now completely globalized
| and arguably scarily downtrending world.
| cvhashim wrote:
| Drugs are bad, be careful kids.
| tempsy wrote:
| As an aside: I hadn't bought anything off Zappos for years, and
| checked it out when the news hit and surprised that it still
| basically looks the same as I remember it maybe 10+ years ago.
| Certainly looks and feels like an eCommerce website from the late
| 2000s/early 2010s.
|
| I'm curious if this was an intentional choice or a sign the
| website has been on cruise control since the acquisition. It
| certainly makes me wonder what Hsieh was doing as CEO as late as
| this summer either way, which is to say while he was certainly a
| pioneer in the 2000s I'm not sure what about Zappos in the 10+
| years post-acquisition feels cutting edge.
| PaulWaldman wrote:
| Audible maintainted their pre-Amazon aquisiton site for quite
| some time as well. Their mobile app still has the same look and
| feel. Maybe this is a reflection of being aquired by Amazon?
| underseacables wrote:
| Careful, this community does not like it when you tear down their
| heroes.
| kepler1 wrote:
| I mentioned this below in the other thread about it.
|
| Sounds like he was rebelling hardcore against an overly
| restrictive, maybe typical (?), 1st generation immigrant parent
| background?
|
| _" Ultimately happiness is really just about enjoying life," he
| wrote in the 2010 book..."_
|
| This is often what you hear from someone who has doesn't have
| much of a sense of higher calling, or doesn't quite know what to
| do with his capabilities other than go for satisfaction in the
| short term. And leaves you feeling empty and unsure of what your
| life should be when work evaporates as your sense of self?
| [deleted]
| disordinary wrote:
| Oh crap, I had no idea he'd died - I met him once when he was on
| his happiness tour, really interesting, genuinely nice, and
| driven guy. He took the idea of selling shoes and somehow morphed
| it into spreading happiness including touring it to markets that
| Zapos didn't operate in (like NZ where I met him), which
| obviously had limited direct benefit to his company. Only really
| visionary people would be able to pull off something like that
| and connect those dots.
| throwaway2016lv wrote:
| I visited Zappos HQ with a university group in 2016. As part of
| the tour, we visited the executive area, where they all sat in
| cubicles/rows like anyone else's. They even pointed out Tony's
| desk, though he wasn't around at the time.
|
| I came away from that tour with two distinct impressions: 1 -
| Zappos had an amazing company culture; everyone seemed to get
| along and really enjoy their work. 2 - Tony Hsieh had a
| surprisingly large collection of half-empty liquor bottles at his
| desk.
|
| Tony's death is certainly a tragedy for his family and the
| communities he helped build. I hope even during this pandemic we
| can all maintain those key relationships in life that keep us in
| check.
| Scoundreller wrote:
| > After a therapist recommended a "digital detox" this spring,
|
| Yeah, uhhh, I'm sure a lot of us here could benefit from a
| digital detox, but unless the plan also includes "go to
| australia", this doesn't seem like the right year for this
| advice.
| danhak wrote:
| I couldn't think of a better year for this advice.
| da39a3ee wrote:
| https://archive.is/SkjZg
| ssalazar wrote:
| Captcha is cutoff/ unable to be completed on mobile :|
| Scoundreller wrote:
| I keep getting that too. Turning my phone landscape makes it
| full viewable again.
|
| But I also find that I get taken to a blank screen after
| solving captcha and need to submit the link I'm trying to
| archive and won't get the captcha again.
|
| Maybe archive.is is forwarding us the captcha that is being
| requesting by the site to-be-archived and can't do it as a
| seamless workflow?
| steffan wrote:
| I encountered this and was able to switch to landscape mode
| and complete the captcha
| da39a3ee wrote:
| Um, downvotes? Are you saying that that link is not to the full
| contents of the article? Or are you saying that you think it is
| bad to give people access to data? Or are you saying that one
| should not circumvent the paywall of the WSJ because it is
| stealing?
| sergiomattei wrote:
| Thanks for the link! Much appreciated.
| zaroth wrote:
| I find the best place for the archive.is link is at the very
| bottom of the comments. Easier to find that way.
| wgjordan wrote:
| Thanks for the link. For the downvoters, note that HN allows
| posts to paywalled articles only if they have a workaround,
| and users usually post workarounds in the comment thread.
|
| See:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10178989
| fortran77 wrote:
| > But please don't post complaints about paywalls.
| detaro wrote:
| Words immediately before that:
|
| > _it 's ok [...] to help other users do so._
|
| In which category does an archive.is link fall more,
| complaint or help?
| freefaler wrote:
| thanks for the link da39a3ee, it's appreciated.
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(page generated 2020-12-06 23:00 UTC)