Too Much for a Human

I'm going to start this by saying I didn't know who Tony Hsieh was until he was dead a few days ago. 

Hseih, 46, was the founder of Zappo's, the online shoe brand. He died in a house fire, and the news was all over my Twitter feed. Everyone seemed to know who he was so I learned a little bit. Oh, okay, Zappo's, one of those early web ecommerce businesses I didn't care about. Right. I read his Wikipedia page and got the background. It's too bad he's dead, of course, as with anyone.

But this article today in Forbes about his death got my attention because of how it was subtitled: "When the business icon died in a fire last week, questions abounded. The answers seem rooted in a Covid-period spiral, where he turned to drugs and shunned old friends." And I think the Tweet I saw also mentioned something about one of the old friends being the singer Jewel.

If you read the article, you'll find that it appears Hsieh had surrounded himself with paid yes-people who wouldn't tell him he was crashing. And that Jewel, who was invited into his circle back in August, tried to tell him the truth in a letter, but was spurned.

The thing I got from the article is that celebrity, too much success, and too much money are a bad combination for people, probably in general, if I'm allowed to make a sweeping statement. Hsieh, it seems from the description, thought he could defy the need for sleep, for instance. Not dissimilarly, the idea of transcending the human lifespan is a common thread among Silicon Valley's men. Hollywood isn't exactly known for its well-grounded glitterati, either. There are problems with having too much that other people in turn want from you, whether it's your time and attention, your money, your ideas, or just your reflected glory. It distorts the basis of relationships, so that you can only trust people who "have" as much as you do, because they understand your circumstances. Or maybe you pay people to be your friends.

I know the theme of celebrity tragedy is as old as the first version of A Star Is Born or older, and in a way it's banal and small compared to the pain and suffering of people who are exploited by regular life. But something about Jewel's attempt to get through to Tony Hsieh also got through to me. We all need friends who tell us the truth and get beyond our delusions. It's admirable that she is still able to do that, despite her own spot on the walk of fame.