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- Hacker News
- I have been following this in English news. It is terribly sad.
The University of Cambridge is largely to blame for letting this troubled person dig himself in so deep.
His astounding claims were astonishing and easily falsifiable. Journalists had no such trouble.
They raised him up then when he got too hot cast him down.
He was a fantasist, he deserves some blame, but it was Cambridge with the power, and irresponsible hubris
RIP
by worik - This is a tragedy.
He did not need to take his own life. There was definitely a path for his life to continue. His family still loved him. Sure, he wouldn't have the cushy professorship and the prestige and the book deal and speaking engagements. But there have been people who have fallen from grace harder and faster, for much worse reasons, and they have come back.
It is very sad that Arday took his life for what was at most a temporary setback. R.I.P.
by amiga386 - > It is very sad that Arday took his life for what was at most a temporary setback.
I hope you and others realize that he was being relentlessly harassed. I highly doubt the academic job was the only thing causing him distress. His claims were questionable at best but not worthy of the vitriol he received.
by baubino - For whatever he did, he never needed to be the product of an international pile-on. Even having known and read about this feels like being a party to a tragedy.
- Had Cambridge applied the appropriate sanctions against Arday, the story would never have blown up like it did. Unfortunate
- He did claim harassment with the police against the journalist who was initally investigating him: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0rd9y99grzo Now consider that this was in UK.by bragh
- The whole thing is a tragedy. Nobody wants to see a situation end like this.
There are other likely victims here too though including those who were passed over for roles or promotions based on the alleged false claims, exaggerations and plagiarism. Those are harder to identify and quantify but still a very real thing that has deep impact on people’s lives.
by cmiles8 - Poor guy, no life deserves this ending. He got caught up deeper and deeper in his proclamations, painted himself into a corner, and wasn't able to reset.
Does anyone know of a case where someone went through a reset and came out strong after such a "downfall"?
by unified101 - You don't have to look back very far. Tessier-Lavigne turned his forced resignation after being behind some of the largest research fraud in biotech history into one of the biggest raises (over $1 billion) in biotech history, pretty much immediately after he had been caught.
- One in the White House ? Coming out stronger, that is. No reset.
A more serious example
by srean - A tragedy all around. Most obviously for Jason Arday, who, regardless of which interpretations of everything else one takes, saw this end as the only way out of a high profile media situation.by zamadatix
- When one's whole career and self-image has been based in academia and then the academic career ends, it can easily give a feeling of failure and worthlessness, even in the most normal circumstances.
I couldn't find statistics about postdocs or tenure-track professors, but this meta-study on PhD students and medical residents gives a suicide attempt rate of 0.8%.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002239562...
by sampo - Just one of many tragedies bound to one of the biggest problems in modern society – obsession to victims. Framing yourself or others as a victim gives you complete immunity and frees you from any responsibility for the consequences of your actions. This obsession has a potential to end the world we know.by obscurette
- Completely agreeby ncgl
- I find it ironic that much of the reason why Arday received such accolades is that he painted himself as a victim who had managed, through grit and determination, to overcome adversity and achieve greatness. But then as soon as he experienced actual adversity - albeit self-inflicted, from being called out on his plagiarism and lies and harassment of those who tried to expose this - he decided to kill himself instead.
Which, I suppose, is the final chapter to his false victim narrative. A posthumous legacy that he was bullied to death, absolved of his misdeeds.
by tentlewick