Techdirt Reading Club: The Boy Who Could Change The World: The Writings Of Aaron Swartz

from the sad-stories dept

We're back again with another in our weekly reading list posts of books we think our community will find interesting and thought provoking. Once again, buying the book via the Amazon links in this story also helps support Techdirt. This week we have a brand new book, but one I'm disappointed needs to be a book. It's the collected writings of Aaron Swartz, called The Boy Who Could Change the World: The Writings of Aaron Swartz. As I've noted in the past, I knew Aaron as we worked in similar circles and interacted on a bunch of occasions, though I didn't know him well. But, more importantly, I'd actually been following Aaron's writings on his personal blog and elsewhere from a very early age (I particularly remember following his writings about his experience as a freshman at Stanford). As you probably know by now, Aaron committed suicide almost three years ago, while dealing with a ridiculous federal prosecution for downloading too many academic papers from a computer system at MIT, where the license was clear anyone could download as much as they wanted.

While I won't go as far as others in arguing that the prosecution is why he took his own life, I will say that the whole situation -- both the prosecution and the suicide, remain a tragedy. Aaron was so thoughtful and so passionate about so many things important to nearly everyone who reads Techdirt. He wasn't always the easiest person to get along with, but mostly because he held everyone to almost impossibly high standards. And all of that always came through in his writings. I haven't read this particular collection yet, but considering I tended to read basically everything he wrote back when he originally wrote it, chances are I have read much of it already. Still, I've picked up a copy of the book and will reread it in the coming weeks, though I'm afraid of how angry and annoyed and frustrated it will make me, as it reminds me, again, how much we've lost in the fact that Aaron is no longer around to challenge people, to spark ideas and to directly try to move the world forward. He's been greatly missed for the past three years, and will continue to be missed. Hopefully, by reading this book, others will be inspired to carry on his legacy.

Filed Under: aaron swartz, techdirt reading club