Lessons from the Death of Colin Kroll: Wisdom, Formation and Happiness

A recent Wall Street Journal article, The Tech Whiz Behind Vine and HQ Trivia, tells the story of Colin Kroll.
Professional Success
Colin was a young, self-taught computer programmer who left Detroit In 2007 to go to New York City and do app coding. He worked 12-hour days at the office and did more work at home.

Eventually, Kroll found backers who funded a video app called Vine. You’ve heard of it. Vine was an app that allowed people to publish 6 second videos that looped. It was a big hit on the Internet. Twitter bought Vine in 2012. Kroll was 28 years old and a multimillionaire.

Those around Kroll through the years always said that he was very smart. Investors backed Kroll in another Internet project—HQ Trivia—that became another Internet hit in 2018.

In terms of money and recognition for his professional skills, Colin Kroll was doing very well. He was the CEO of Intermedia Labs, the company that owned HQ Trivia. He was buying homes. He had a Porsche. He had a $75,000 credit card bill.

Kroll had told one of his advisors, “I’m never worried about making more money…”
Tragedy
Just two months ago, on December 15, 2018, Colin Kroll was found dead in his apartment. He was 34 years old.

Kroll spent the night before talking with his employees at his company’s holiday party. The next day he was dead.
More of the Story
Of course, there is more to the story. It is not a new story. It is a very human story that has lessons for all of us.

Colin Kroll was smart. In high school, he used his software coding skills to kick his neighbors off the Internet so he could get more internet cable bandwidth. He regularly got high on pot and prescription drugs.

When he moved to New York City he “worked incessantly” and smoked almost two packs of cigarettes a day. He smoked pot, “occasionally did cocaine” and drank heavily.

Kroll tried to reset his life in 2018. He quit smoking and began to exercise more. Despite those changes, Colin Kroll died last December 15th from an accidental overdose of heroin that was laced with fentanyl.

It might be tempting to write Colin Kroll’s death off as just another example of the dangers of drug use. But a lot more was going on.
Relationships
The Wall Street Journal article talks a lot about Kroll’s relationships with others. In fact, the article spends more time talking about his relationships than his drug use.

According to friends, Colin Kroll was gentle and endearing. They said that Kroll identified with people who were misfits in life.

To many of those he worked with, Kroll was abrasive. He told a mentor, “Everyone thinks I’m an asshole, and I am an asshole, but I can’t help it because everyone around me is so stupid.”

A partner in one of his companies quit over Kroll’s abrasive behavior. Employees complained that Kroll lashed out at them, that he was moody and that he created a hostile work environment. Articles published about Kroll described him as hard to work with and told stories about women quitting because they found Kroll creepy.

Colin Kroll was imaginative and skilled at work, but he wasn’t very good at relationships.
Lessons from the Death of Colin Kroll
So, what are some of the lessons we can learn about life from Colin Kroll? Besides the dangers of fentanyl-laced heroin?

We can learn the important difference between knowledge and wisdom. We can learn why our society’s focus on education instead of formation is failing our young people and our society. And we can learn more about the importance of relationships in life.
Wisdom over Knowledge
Knowledge is defined as the “facts, information and skills acquired by a person through experience or education.” Knowledge is “the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject.” Knowledge is a good thing. It is literally about what you know.

But knowledge and wisdom aren’t the same thing.

Wisdom is more than knowledge. Wisdom is the combination of knowledge plus character.