Om Malik
Om Malik passed away on June 24, 2026, after a prolonged illness. Om was the blogger whose voice I had resonated with the most over the last half year. He had been very prolific and wrote with such amazing clarity and depth. I was just very lucky that he was writing at the intersection of topics which have been of great interest to me - AI, Apple, photography, software industry, etc.
It came as a shock when I read of his demise on Daring Fireball. Then when I read that he had been writing for the last few weeks of his life from his ICU bed, it was unbelievable. What happened over the next few days was lovely and what I love the most about the internet (at least the parts of the internet which I frequent) - so many people posted their relationship with him and how Om has been extremely kind and very candid at the same time. It amazes me that he had that kind of close relationships with so many people, and was loved by everyone.
Perhaps the most beautiful and heartfelt eulogy was by John Gruber - Om. Please read the whole thing.
Some excerpts:
“He did not mince words” and “Everyone loved him” do not usually apply to the same person. They did with Om.
Om was never impressed by who someone was, what they’d previously accomplished, what grand wealth they’d garnered, or stature they’d achieved. It’s human nature to be overwhelmed by awe in the presence of great people. Om was not. To impress Om, you needed to deliver impressive new work. He was impervious to riptides of hype. Those are superpowers in this racket.
This is going to sound cornier than a bucket of Jiffy-Pop, but it is a profound irony that a man with such a big and beautiful figurative heart could have such a lousy literal one.
He not busy being born is busy dying, wrote Dylan. Om Malik wasn’t busy dying even when he was dying.