What is the name of the programmer who killed himself?

October 27, 2006 7:33 PM

I read this article a few years ago about a Silicon Valley programmer who committed suicide after getting rich off a startup. I can't remember the name of the programmer but I do remember some of the details. Does anyone know this story?

*The coder was Asian. He was either Chinese or Korean.

*He got rich with an Internet company he started with his friend.

*His mother had died and when he got rich, he bought her a green Jaguar. In his suicide note, he begged that no one ever sell it, even though his mother had died shortly before he killed himself.

*He broke down at a presentation to a company and couldn't answer their questions. He said, "I'm just a coder."

*His girlfriend, Christine (I think), had moved from Paris to be with him. She moved back to Paris after breaking up with him. I think they had gone to college at Berkeley, Stanford or UCLA together.

I think I read this in either Wired or Salon, but I'm not sure. Anybody know?

posted by onepapertiger to technology (9 comments total)

Shot in the dark: Gene Kan?
posted by trevyn at 8:02 PM on October 27, 2006

Wow, that's an interesting site. Props to trevyn.
posted by Tacodog at 11:30 PM on October 27, 2006

That site's currently on the front page Tacodog. Props to Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese.

I agree that the site rocks, I wish he'd included a link to that page when he FPPed.

As for the answer to the question, I googled around with various combinations of silicon, suicide, jaguar, and green and came up with nothing.
posted by onalark at 11:44 PM on October 27, 2006

It is, in fact, Gene Kan.
posted by melorama at 5:54 AM on October 28, 2006

Alan Turing was only 42 when he died? Wow.

Gene Kan is who i thought of when I was reading this post.
posted by dgeiser13 at 8:19 AM on October 28, 2006

I guess it is Gene Kan. But now I can't find that article I read on him. It included his whole story. I'd love to read it again, if anyone can find it on the web.
posted by onepapertiger at 9:26 AM on October 28, 2006

It might have been this article: Google search

All links lead to an article on MercuryNews.com, and to find the article, you have to search their archive for it. It also looks like you have to pay to access archives.
posted by catburger at 1:10 PM on October 28, 2006

The props belong to Trevyn. I found the FPP page via Trevyn's link here.
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese at 2:31 PM on October 28, 2006

*head asplodes*. Sorry trevyn and thanks for the correction Kraftmatic, I should have checked dates...
posted by onalark at 9:44 PM on October 30, 2006