We did not align politically on many things, him being a “hyper neoliberal” and me being a “social democrat” (at least according to what I feel was our mutual impression of each other). Any time I saw that @mitsuhiko handle in a thread, I felt the urge to tell someone they are wrong on the internet. The one thing that differentiated Armin from other internet trolls was the way he conducted himself in these heated discussions. He was never emotional or aggressive. Our discussions would either end in cordial disagreement, or a newfound common understanding. That’s extremely rare on the internet.

This has almost nothing to do with the post topic (pi moving to Earendil), but it’s what the world needs more of. Some of the best working relationships I’ve had have been with people with whom I had almost no alignment with at the time, and some of those also turned into great friendships outside of work. It seems like we (the world) lost the ability to get along and collaborate while still disagreeing, somehow.