Join the discussion

Write your take first — we'll ask for email only when you're ready to publish.

  • 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

  • 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.
  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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"?

  • 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.
  • 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.

Explore Birbla archives