Aaron Swartz

[Slacker_Assassin]

I've been quite fixated on Aaron Swartz the past few days. I learned about him, unfortunately, about a month or so after his suicide. He popped into my head earlier this week, and I've just been devouring information about him.
The more I read, the more I feel like he was an INTP...the uber INTP.

Intelligent, a desire to make the world right/hyper idealism combined with misanthropic tendencies, taking on several projects, trying to "find himself," in way. Perhaps a naivete about how the world works.

When I read about him, it's like I've discovered a kindred spirit. I'm nowhere near as smart as he was, nor did I have the kind of freedom he did in his youth. But, in just listening to him talk from videos, or reading all these pieces about him, I've found something about him that resonates with me.

He saw the world as systems, systems that were broken and needed to be fixed.
In his death his words and photos still float about online. I'm getting to know him, even though he's dead.

Has anyone else felt this way about Aaron Swartz, or anyone else you discovered after their death? Has anyone else found someone who they can relate to so much, that they're angry about never having the chance to meet that person?

 

[Teffnology]

I just read Dr AJ Drenth's ebook The INTP. It is a 130 pg in depth analysis on specifically the INTP personality type- its forms of development, manifestations in work and relationships, strengths and weaknesses in various situations, etc. I found it almost laughable how the author was able to effectively and in great detail describe the shortcomings and inability to "blend in" with the world and most importantly WHY we are that way. Coincidentally had already downloaded "The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Schwartz" and had only sparse knowledge of the story previously. I was taken a back by how he was THE modern example of an INTP to a tee. Drenth used Einstein mainly as his reference point for a a classic personification of the traits but Schwartz is someone as a millennial that we can look to as a role model and gain inspiration from. I have been in a constant state of battling my dark side and finding out that this person was able to actually affect change in our current system on such a large scale without any malacious acts by simply using logic and application has given me a new sense of hope. Thank you Aaron, for giving this INTP a compass by which to live by in this flawed world.

 

[Analyzer]

Not INFP?

 

[Teffnology]

I think he was shaped, at a young age, as more of a collaborator in order to achieve his desired goals of what he sought was wrong with the way things are. His environment caused his rapid ascent to phase III of INTP, outlined in the book. Thus having his desire and production meet up at such an early age allowed him to foster his autonomy and develop his lesser feeling qualities.
I can see that his percieved sense of harmony and ability to create a kind of crusader mentality shows signs of INFP. His social interactions in adolescent years tend to seal the deal for me in regards to his more independent than harmonious nature and looking at how he responded to the controversey in that he was back and forth between embracing the struggle of fighting for the cause and becoming negatively frustrated. The author has a decent sized section on differentiating the two types and subtle differences that lead me to believe he is indeed an INTP with an advanced external feeling via circumstance.

 

[Teffnology]

Granted I am combining the respective personal biases of Drench, the filmaker, and myself with my own personal perception of the INTP which could compound to a distorted view of Aaron, the INTP, and the INFP all at once discrediting my theory and giving credence to yours...
Inconceivable...

 

[DaDaMan]

I don't really know anything about him but I myself am a hyper-idealistic INTP who seems the world as a complex broken system. Personally, I think this worlds biggest problems are humanitarian concerns such as increasing freedom and justice for all. I am not saying that other problems are of lesser importance.