from Hacker News

Chris Seaton has died

by iluzone on 12/7/22, 11:20 AM with 200 comments

  • by ngd on 12/7/22, 6:27 PM

    When I was 15 I had to move high school after the death of my mother. I started to socialise at school and joined the investment club. It was a tough time for me and I desperately wanted to make friends and fit in. I wasn’t really into investing but a young man by the name of Chris Seaton was building their website and I loved computers so I wanted to help. Chris taught me how to program, first HTML websites, then PHP based apps, then C# and VBA native apps. Im pretty sure Chris invented the password manager before it was a thing too.

    I spent the next few years at high school and sixth form trying to sit near Chris in lessons and talking to him on MSN Messenger and ICQ incessantly about programming, he taught me a lot and set me on a path to choosing computer science as my degree, I just copied him to be honest.

    I’ll miss you Chris

  • by ksec on 12/7/22, 2:12 PM

    About 10 years ago he started a project with Ruby running on Graal before it was known as TruffleRuby. I still remember those HN submissions. SubstrateVM, Graal, The VM to rule it all. And as far as I am aware, he was the only one putting all papers about Ruby and Compilers Design in a single place [1].

    I still remember a thread which I have bookmarked somewhere, where you have the lead of JVM, Graal, TruffleRuby, JSC, V8 and Spidermonkey along with another compiler expert arguing ( or in a heated debate ) about Dynamic languages. And when ever you have compiler related submission on HN, you will see him contribute his expertise on the subject.

    He has been a valuable member of the Ruby and HN Community. I once joked "I am a simple man, I see Chris Seaton, I Upvote :)." I still remember I felt honoured when he followed me on Twitter.

    He will surely be missed by many.

    R.I.P

    [1] https://rubybib.org

  • by kshahkshah on 12/7/22, 1:58 PM

    My god this is awful. He was brilliant, accomplished, and kind. A few days ago he announced his 'permanent rest' (https://twitter.com/ChrisGSeaton/status/1599108759183577088). I'd thought it meant from the Ruby community and that the replies asking if he needed help were reading too much into the wording.

  • by sicromoft on 12/7/22, 5:25 PM

    Tenderlove wrote a nice tribute, "In Memory of a Giant":

    http://tenderlovemaking.com/2022/12/07/in-memory-of-a-giant....

  • by noneeeed on 12/7/22, 4:36 PM

    Absolutely tragic news.

    I met Chris at a couple of local Ruby meetups in Bristol when he gave talks. He was an extremely smart, but also very personable guy. He seemed to really love what he was doing and relished the opportunity to explain it to people and share what he knew. He had a knack for explaining things really well in a way that never patronised when talking to people who were not experts in his domain. He had a real love of communicating what he knew to other people and his passion for his projects was infectious and inspiring.

    He was younger than me (mid 30s?), but managed to pack an immense amount into that time. He was one of those people I've met who I've immediately thought "I need to be more like that". Genuinely inspirational. His death is a real loss to the community.

  • by leetrout on 12/7/22, 12:23 PM

    Please talk to someone if you are feeling hopeless.

    U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 800-273-TALK (8255)

    National Suicide Helpline UK 0800 689 5652

    His HN profile was also just his name https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=chrisseaton

    I wish the best for his family and friends over the next few months. This will be a tough holiday season for them.

    You never know what is going on in someone's life and no clue what was going on in his but I think working in tech is harder than people recognize / give credit (and may not have any bearing on Chris, I am not trying to speculate).

    Please talk to someone if you are feeling hopeless.

    U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 800-273-TALK (8255)

    National Suicide Helpline UK 0800 689 5652

  • by jimnotgym on 12/7/22, 2:08 PM

    Chris often challenged me on discussions about UK politics. It is always important to hear different viewpoints, and I will miss that.

    He lived within an hours drive from here. Which somehow makes it worse. This is not exactly Silicon Valley and people of his caliber are not everywhere to talk to.

    He was pretty high up in the Army Reserve as well as his day job. It is humbling how much some people fit into a short life. My thoughts to his family and colleagues

  • by aardvark179 on 12/7/22, 12:32 PM

    I worked with him on TruffleRuby for almost six years, and knew him for a few years before that. I think every one who knew him is shocked and saddened by this news.

  • by HL33tibCe7 on 12/7/22, 6:18 PM

    Desperately sad news. I never met him, he never met Me, but https://chrisseaton.com/army/ made a real impression on me. It’s the kind of thing that sits in your head and pops up from time to time. I found the level of dedication here alongside his professional success incredibly inspiring. Tragically, part of that article is about his young daughter.

    Not really sure what to think now.

  • by cinntaile on 12/7/22, 11:55 AM

    https://twitter.com/ChrisGSeaton/status/1599108759183577088

    I didn't know him but recognized the name from HN.

  • by sbuccini on 12/7/22, 3:45 PM

    This cuts deep. Chris had a big impact on my current life trajectory, one that is still playing out -- which is why I was holding off on reaching out with an update. Now I'll never get that chance.

    Chris seemed to be _everywhere_ and was always generous with his time, even to complete newbies like myself. He certainly set the standard, as one would expect from an Army officer. I'm not exactly sure what his experiences were like in active duty, but we lose way too many vets to mental health issues. If you know a veteran, consider checking in -- this time of year is particularly tough.

  • by gavinray on 12/7/22, 3:02 PM

    What terrible news to wake up to.

    I hate when they say "passed away" -- here was a man in his prime, just the other week sharing knowledge of compilers at a conference, taken from the world.

    Chris helped me frequently on the GraalVM slack, and it was nice to see his face in the comments of many of the threads here on HN that had to do with compilers and compiler optimizations. I will miss him.

  • by nazgulsenpai on 12/7/22, 12:57 PM

    His personal website for those, like me, who didn't know the name.

    https://chrisseaton.com/

    Even without knowing of him, this is incredibly tragic and my condolences to all of those affected.

  • by smcl on 12/7/22, 11:38 PM

    I saw the headline, read all the words, saw "Chris Seaton" and thought "oh this is about one of our guys!" before properly processing the final bit. God damn what a fucking shame, I hate this. RIP chrisseaton

  • by Edd314159 on 12/7/22, 1:00 PM

    It's not implausible that many of us who work with Ruby owe our livelihoods to Chris, and his relentless efforts to progress the language and not just keep it relevant, but thriving. He will be missed so much by the community.

  • by ilrwbwrkhv on 12/7/22, 6:44 PM

    If you have a lower baseline of happiness, please do yourself a favour and read Albert Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus.

    It starts with:

    There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. All the rest— whether or not the world has three dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve categories—comes afterwards. These are games; one must first answer.

    Absurdism is a great way to live life and understand that nothing is worth killing yourself for.

  • by GrahamSeaton on 12/7/22, 10:40 PM

    As a teenage, Chris (or Kit as some in his family knew him) made pocket-money from a programme he wrote in his bedroom in Chandlers Ford call password safe. RIP

  • by vips7L on 12/7/22, 12:06 PM

    This made me incredibly sad. I didn’t know him, but always enjoyed his insightful comments here on Ruby, Truffle, and the JVM.

  • by jacquesm on 12/7/22, 4:30 PM

    Gah that so sucks. He left behind a wife and young daughter. Such a nice man, this really is painful.

  • by foobazgt on 12/7/22, 2:43 PM

    I wasn't privileged to know Chris personally, but I was always keenly waiting to hear his latest achievements and insights. He was clearly talented, passionate, and compassionate. It is so very sad to see him go.

    Depression is a full blown pandemic. For example, in the US in 2021, there were approximately as many suicide attempts as there were COVID deaths. It is so fucked up and so pernicious.

    We (rightfully) encourage folks to seek help, but the very nature of the illness makes it difficult for them. Let's all also do our best to recognize the signs of folks struggling so that we can be there for them - to help them recover when it's so hard for them to even reach out for help.

  • by adwn on 12/7/22, 1:14 PM

    Really unsettling to think that just 4 days ago, right before his death, he was still posting here on HN. [1]

    [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=chrisseaton

  • by pjmlp on 12/7/22, 3:31 PM

    What a loss, we discussed so many times about compiler related subjects.

    My sentiments and thoughts for the family and friends.

  • by lordnacho on 12/7/22, 12:49 PM

    He wrote a lot of thoughtful contributions here. Very sad to see him go.

  • by oceanician on 12/12/22, 6:05 PM

    I feel Chris was a very intelligent human, who conveyed complex information, in a human-digestable manner, that many others of us struggle with.

    I saw him present in Manchester at our ruby meetup, and later online.

    We interacted a little about jobs at Shopify. But there didn't seem to be a part-time option for me. Something I need due to some health issues of my own.

    I wonder if we as a group of ruby loving people, and the wider tech industry, can learn from this? I don't know.

    It seems no matter what was said, the outcome would have been the same? I guess we'll never know. It's likely that those who worked with him, and were trusted, will perhaps say more intime. I hope they do not feel bad in any way. But perhaps there's aspects his family and close colleagues will be able to share intime, when things are less hurtful so we can learn a little from how to help others in this situation?

    Big hugs to those close to Chris. And big respect to those writing amazing blogs in his memory.

    Hugs to all.

  • by tiffanyh on 12/7/22, 2:45 PM

    Internet Archive.

    Does anyone know how to recursively save his entire website to Wayback Machine?

    I submitted https://chrisseaton.com, but it doesn't appear any of the child pages are being archived.

  • by CHY872 on 12/7/22, 12:12 PM

    Oh man, it was always awesome to find something from this dude! He'll be missed.

  • by ohadrau on 12/8/22, 5:11 AM

    Years ago when I was around 14, I stumbled upon Chris's Katahdin project and thought it was such a cool idea I had to try it out. I spent quite a bit of time trying to get set up with it, and not knowing much about C# couldn't really figure it out myself. I ended up reaching out to Chris before giving up on it, not expecting much. To my surprise, Chris spent several hours helping me out and answering my (probably very dumb) questions. I was shocked at how helpful and welcoming he was. Despite the relatively brief encounter I can easily say Chris was one of the kindest programmers I've had the pleasure of interacting with.

    It's hard for me to express how much this title hit me when I read it. Like many in this thread, Chris had an enormous impact on my path as a programmer and I'm quite sad that I never got the chance to properly thank him. RIP, Chris

  • by aidog on 12/7/22, 11:21 PM

    I just opened my first issue two weeks ago in concurrent-ruby and he kindly offered me help. In the end I feel like I have wasted his time, because it was a different problem. I wish I expressed more gratitude. I'm grateful for everyone in the Ruby and OpenSource community

  • by d3nj4l on 12/7/22, 7:14 PM

    A few days ago chris responded to a silly comment of mine on here (completely unrelated to ruby or compilers), and when I saw it I thought, "oh, it's Chris Seaton! I hope he's doing well!"

    It's so unfortunate he was not. RIP.

  • by azhenley on 12/8/22, 12:27 AM

  • by karianna on 12/8/22, 6:16 AM

    Chris was also well known in the London Java Community and contributed to multiple events, conferences, bringing his expertise in a thoughtful and kind way to folks who were often 1-2 stacks above the runtimes and compilers space .

    My conversations with him about JVM design, GraalVM and Ruby were some of the most memorable and fun times I’ve had running around the conference circuit.

    Thank you Chris for unselfishly sharing so much with us and leaving the world a better place, you will be missed.

    I’m off to go and hug loved ones now.

  • by vidarh on 12/7/22, 9:54 PM

    I only met him once, fairly briefly, and exchanged a few messages about our shared interest in compilers. But he seemed like a nice guy, and it's incredibly sad to see this.

  • by graderjs on 12/7/22, 2:27 PM

    Seeing some of the comments here how people valued him, it seems like maybe sometimes these sentiments of gratitude are not expressed until after someone passes. It works if folks cherish the time they have, and remind people of how they appreciate them while they're still on Earth in their body.

  • by rootusrootus on 12/7/22, 11:12 PM

    His suffering is over, but that of his wife & daughter has just begun. My heart breaks for them.

  • by slgaikwad on 12/8/22, 12:54 AM

    This is devastating. I worked with the same supervisor as Chris after he finished his phd. He interviewed me and played a key role in getting me the scholarship. I often joked that he raised the bar so high that it's not worth trying to meet it. I always admired his drive for learning and ability to do things at high quality. RIP, Chris.

  • by renewiltord on 12/8/22, 1:51 AM

    Damn, I hated this guy's HN comments but he seems to have been a fine person who people loved. I probably come off the same way to everyone else here, but the people around me love me.

    Makes me wonder if this is a property of the interaction mechanism. Let me set an unacceptable maxprocrast and leave this place alone.

    RIP my fellow dude.

  • by icedchai on 12/7/22, 5:12 PM

    I didn't know him personally, but immediately recognized the name and always enjoyed his comments here. Very sad.

  • by infinitedata on 12/7/22, 12:17 PM

    He basically announced his ‘permanent-rest’ via twitter. So sad but grounding for all of us to remember that there are things way more important past the marvelous inventions we can code or make.

    For learning purposes, anyone knows what was his major cause of frustration?

  • by chris37879 on 12/10/22, 3:43 AM

    I didn't know of the man, but after a quick google search I know his work. My condolences.

  • by sitkack on 12/8/22, 3:48 AM

    Well this sucks. We didn't always see eye to eye, but I always enjoyed our exchanges. Already missed.

  • by MaxBarraclough on 12/7/22, 7:37 PM

    He'll be missed. I didn't know him, but learnt something every time our paths met here.

  • by krishvs on 12/8/22, 1:11 AM

    Terrible news. He will be missed. My heart breaks for his wife and kid. RIP Chris.

  • by nkurz on 12/8/22, 12:27 AM

    Apologies if this is the wrong time to ask, but there probably won't ever be a better one. I didn't know him, but often read his comments here. I frequently found them to be... frustrating. He seemed to have a particularly literalist bent, and would often seem to focus on small seemingly irrelevant inconsistencies rather the bigger argument. He usually wasn't wrong, but it made me wonder whether he was autistic, or otherwise out there on the Asperger's spectrum. I'd been meaning to ask him, but never found the right opportunity.

    For those of you who knew him in real life, did this carry over? Or was I misreading him, as is so easy to do online. I don't ask this flippantly. I lean in the literalist direction myself, and often am unduly frustrated by the imperfections and inconsistencies of the world. Life's not easy if your mind demands a world that makes sense. It makes me wonder if this outlook was part of what pushed him over the edge. Thoughts?

  • by gozali on 12/7/22, 2:36 PM

    Gone too soon #RIPChrisSeaton

  • by greenpeas on 12/7/22, 11:42 PM

    what a terrible waste...

  • by wpeterson on 12/7/22, 1:40 PM

    Ugh, what a loss for this community and the Ruby community.

    This should be worthy of a Hacker News black banner today.