A Few Thoughts on Depression

Written days after the suicide of programmer-activist Aaron Swartz in January 2013, this Noah Smith post sets aside his usual economics commentary to reflect personally on depression. He writes about how depression actually operates — the disordered thinking, the way it lies to its host, the gap between how it looks from outside versus inside — and offers what he describes as practical, unsentimental observations for both sufferers and the people who care about them. A characteristically clear-eyed post from outside Smith's usual beat.