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Comment by failwhaleshark | Hacker News Reader

I loved that guy, his writing and his shows. His end made me sad and it seems like an enigma. Perhaps he had everything material but felt isolated from meaningful human connections, like with his daughter. Undiagnosed/untreated depression, an existential dark place, didn't want to grow old alone, and/or didn't want to stick around for the way the world was headed. It's hard to say what goes on in someone's mind if they don't talk about it.

The problem with suicide is it eliminates all future good possibilities and it's likely that this is the only life.

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You could see some of the despair setting in over the last few seasons of his show on CNN. Basically, he had been so many places in the world so he was revisiting a lot of places and was basically in mourning over the fact that they’re all the same now. Even places like Hanoi that shouldn’t be. There’s a lot of mourning over “the old ways” over those last few seasons.

If you watch some of his early shows, he was enchanted by the street food scene in Asia. But places like Bangkok and Shanghai cracked down hard on unlicensed street vendors over a decade ago, and the places that were lively environments in the mid-2000s have been gone for a long time.

Anecdotally, I tried to find street food in Shanghai and the only places were a few vendors next to the train station. I was told by the guide I hired that there really wasn’t much anymore and that western diets were all the rage among the under-40 crowd. In its place were sterile food courts with bright signs and cartoon mascots.

Often, the good just can’t cancel the bad. It doesn’t work that way.

I understand that suicide is hard on the people left behind, but I also understand that some people don’t want to continue to suffer to prevent others from suffering.

Suicide is a very hard step for people and although Futurama style suicide booths are a step way too far, there should be more humane avenues guided by medical professionals for people who are ‘done’.

Please if you do have suicidal thoughts, at least go to the doctor hand have a that about it, they can help you further.

At least in the US, seeking help can have seriously drastic consequences on your freedom. Involuntary psychiatric holds, red flag seizures, and worse. I do not think it will ever be worth the risk to seek help, because the potential costs are more than I am willing to pay. My freedom is worth more than my life.

I saw him in an airport - this tall, lanky man walking very slowly with his suitcase behind him, head down. He looked so weary and worn down with a heaviness over him and a face that looked much older than his age.

We see the beautiful end result of his work but I suspect much of it all was an endless grind he couldn’t get out from.

> didn't want to grow old alone

Didn't he have a wife?

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