Natural Disasters and Personal Disasters
Almost two decades ago Om Malik was a rising star in the technical 'blogosphere'. He was usually quite insightful. On the same day an earthquake rocked Venezuela (taking many lives without prior warning) Malik died. "Om Malik passed away two days ago," a friend tells me. "I remember his site from when he had still been active."
He had a personal site and professional site - the latter perished less than a decade ago. Didn't die altogether, but certainly became vastly less active (many bloggers there laid off, with press coverage taking note at the time).
Malik used to send me traffic from his blog (he cited my blog posts) and I confronted him when he took Microsoft money to relay Microsoft's talking points (like "people-ready" about 20 years ago when I was in Miami). But Malik was a generally kind person and I cannot remember him ever saying anything inflammatory. He had also become a friend of Matt Mullenweg back when WordPress was relatively new and the 'blogosphere' was generally thriving. I can, unsurprisingly, already see that Mullenweg pays him a tribute - he did so yesterday:
Things were going well for Malik when he was close to Mullenweg and others in the WordPress spheres (back then a very small community).
Then, suddenly, things went downhill for Malik.
Om Malik suffered serious heart problems (well before he died) from overworking. That's how I interpreted his words. I remember those words every year (since then) and as recently as earlier this month. His physician warned him about this well over a decade back and he listened; his decision was announced publicly as he limited his working hours.
Before he was a 'blogosphere' star Malik worked for a large publisher where he did reasonably well (back when "2.0" was all the rage). He then decided to go independent and for a while he did well at it. I can relate to it because over 20 years ago I wrote for Datamation and then began focusing on my own sites. The independence allowed me to say out loud suppressed facts no "mainstream" publisher would dare publish. Unprincipled cowards have killed the press. They don't to report anything new when it is considered risky (e.g. to some advertising deal).
Malik did a lot in his life and he changed a lot in the world. Not many people will acknowledge or remember this. He peaked decades ago - the memory span of human beings is measured in years, not decades.
Now he is dead. A friend says: "Apparently he had heart trouble for a longer period."
We've written many articles in recent years about risks of overworking. Taking computer breaks, going to the gym etc. is very important. Without life, there's no productivity. No dead person can produce anything.
As the old saying goes, balance in life is very important.
Thank you, Om Malik, for the positive memories. Condolences to the family. █
Image source: Sunset In Venezuela