His last blog post was well written, to the point, and sobering. The friends website measuring his lines of code and pull requests is making me feel sick to my stomach. I feel reminded to reflect on how I would measure my own life.
The very first word on the memorial website is "Automattician". I may have an ego, but even I cannot fathom having such a large ego that I would make my memorial to someone else about me and their work on my project.
well people just need to look at the "head" to understand, but i doubt people will go that far, he has a away of sanitizing history. in any case, RIP to this man.
I think that's a symptom of Matt generating a website for "an Automattician". They had a working relationship. If I died today, my husband would remember my life as someone who laughed and cried, my work might think of me as someone more inquisitive and analytical.
His last blog entry was a tough read this morning as I sit at my desk for another day at the long day factory wondering if I should be doing more with the time I have because you just never know when it is up. RIP.
According to his blog his life was going along until it changed. I have experienced the same where the one phone call or appointment changes the trajectory of life without one's consent.
I am prepared when "The Man Comes Around". I would hope others think deeply about that coming day.
What part of "humans completely surrender genuine connection, automatically generate memorials with AI" doesn't sound like it came directly from a dystopian science fiction novel?
The word does not mean what you appear to think it means. Being strict about your own misconceived definition is not helpful to communication. If you're going to be pedantic, you really owe it to everyone around you to hold yourself to the same 'strictness' and make sure you're actually correct about your pedantry.
"Claude write me a memorial for my employee. Make no mistakes. His life started when he joined my company."
People do weird things when grieving. This probably seemed like a wonderful tribute. From the outside, it seems tacky. But lots of things are tacky and memorials are for the living.
He was diagnosed end of March, told he had six months in May. Handled with incredible grace. RIP.
While the news isn’t great, not much changes for me personally. We’ll still show up and do the work as I’ve previously talked about, on the chance that we can prove the oncologists wrong. Outside of that, I’ll prioritize spending time with the kids, trying to handle as much as possible to make things as easy as possible for Sara after I die, and enjoying the days that I have left.
I went to college with Eric and spent a lot of time working with him on projects while we were in school. He was a great developer who even then, like 15 years ago, was committing himself in so many ways to the open source community. Back then he was a big Drupal guy and had been doing free lance work in Drupal and made contributions to the Drupal ecosystem
He was a great man and fantastic developer that pushed Wordpress forwards, he pushed me forward as a peer when we were both trying to get out computer science degrees and I am glad to have known him. Rest in peace Eric
This is hitting me hard. I used to work for Automattic and met Eric a bunch of times during our meetups. He was a good one and will be missed. Rest in piece.
Cancer is the enemy! I am so sorry to learn of Eric's passing. Sometimes you don't have as much time as you think. We all should do so well as to document everything for our spouses and loved ones. I had a friend who died from cancer and we never truly unraveled all of his accounts for his widow. Live has moved on but stuff including precious memories were lost as cloud accounts were shuttered. Also do not underestimate how many organizations will not transfer accounts to the surviving spouse.
toomuchtodo | 9 hours ago
https://friendsofericbinnion.wordpress.com/
jshmrsn | 8 hours ago
anonymous908213 | 8 hours ago
ookblah | 8 hours ago
croisillon | 8 hours ago
arm32 | 6 hours ago
DoctorOW | 8 hours ago
Jtarii | 7 hours ago
kraftbj | 6 hours ago
The family asked a few days ago if we could make it public so they could share it with their broader family and friends.
owlninja | 8 hours ago
toomuchtodo | 8 hours ago
pizzafeelsright | 8 hours ago
According to his blog his life was going along until it changed. I have experienced the same where the one phone call or appointment changes the trajectory of life without one's consent.
I am prepared when "The Man Comes Around". I would hope others think deeply about that coming day.
Jtarii | 8 hours ago
Dystopian.
guitarlimeo | 8 hours ago
timcobb | 8 hours ago
chinathrow | 8 hours ago
They could have hand-done it in a few hours and rolled then.
timcobb | 6 hours ago
Drakexor | 8 hours ago
anonymous908213 | 8 hours ago
Drakexor | 8 hours ago
anonymous908213 | 8 hours ago
icehawk | 8 hours ago
upmostly | 8 hours ago
fnord77 | 7 hours ago
DoctorOW | 8 hours ago
taybin | 8 hours ago
People do weird things when grieving. This probably seemed like a wonderful tribute. From the outside, it seems tacky. But lots of things are tacky and memorials are for the living.
Eric's post was well written.
eranation | 7 hours ago
> Our design team will make that less AI and more humane in the coming days.
bombcar | 7 hours ago
Not an AI-edifice to yourself.
themgt | 8 hours ago
While the news isn’t great, not much changes for me personally. We’ll still show up and do the work as I’ve previously talked about, on the chance that we can prove the oncologists wrong. Outside of that, I’ll prioritize spending time with the kids, trying to handle as much as possible to make things as easy as possible for Sara after I die, and enjoying the days that I have left.
https://eric.blog/2026/05/24/six-months/
zimprop | 7 hours ago
He was a great man and fantastic developer that pushed Wordpress forwards, he pushed me forward as a peer when we were both trying to get out computer science degrees and I am glad to have known him. Rest in peace Eric
netsharc | 6 hours ago
Fucking automated love indeed. It's the Fleshlight of eulogies. One that has an accelerometer that counted usage stats.
igleria | 6 hours ago
I have a friend with ALS and I dread for the moment this happens. In fact, I'm feeling sad right now.
pizzafeelsright | 6 hours ago
miguelxpn | 5 hours ago
rietta | 5 hours ago