4 ms·

This is so contrastingly similar (yup, that's a phrase) with an equally thought provoking set of tweets notch put up a couple of months after selling minecraft:

This is so contrastingly similar (yup, that's a phrase) with an equally thought provoking set of tweets notch put up a couple of months after selling minecraft: "The problem with getting everything is you run out of reasons to keep trying, and human interaction becomes impossible due to imbalance. In sweden, I will sit around and wait for my friends with jobs and families to have time to do shit, watching my reflection in the monitor When we sold the company, the biggest effort went into making sure the employees got taken care of, and they all hate me now. Found a great girl, but she's afraid of me and my life style and went with a normal person instead. I would Musk and try to save the world, but that just exposes me to the same type of assholes that made me sell minecraft again People who made sudden success are telling me this is normal and will pass. That's good to know! I guess I'll take a shower then!" Really puts a light on the whole, money will make you happy spin that so many technologists seem to have fallen into. References: https://twitter.com/notch/status/637562496056995840 https://twitter.com/notch/status/637562496056995840 https://twitter.com/notch/status/637563038258868224 https://twitter.com/notch/status/637563038258868224 https://twitter.com/notch/status/637563226755067904 https://twitter.com/notch/status/637563226755067904 https://twitter.com/notch/status/637563481139638272 https://twitter.com/notch/status/637563481139638272 https://twitter.com/notch/status/637563733124980736 https://twitter.com/notch/status/637563733124980736 https://twitter.com/notch/status/637565210266570752 https://twitter.com/notch/status/637565210266570752 https://twitter.com/notch/status/637569407208849408 https://twitter.com/notch/status/637569407208849408

wolfgke 10y ago
Nice find. I personally claim that I am aware of much more really deep mathematics and programming problems that I would love to solve than I have lifetime. Using this money to fund a company to implement all these ideas (without investors on the tail) sounds like a quite fun idea to me. So I personally believe that the problem that notch describes (in particular "The problem with getting everything is you run out of reasons to keep trying") would only exist in a strongly reduced version if I became a billionaire.
jfoutz 10y ago
I hope notch pulls a jk Rowling, creates a pseudonym and makes another game. Minecraft alpha was fun. Quirky weird and awesome. I like to think notch was happy building that. He could start another, and cultivate a community. If it sucks (the pressure), open source it. Or whatever, it's his life, and I wish him all the best.
- efaref 10y ago
  Games development is as much a crapshoot as book authoring, so I suspect Notch Prime's game would languish in indie obscurity like Robert Galbraith's books did, right up until someone leaks the association.
  - jfoutz 10y ago
    not really the point. i think notch would be happy making something in indie obscurity. Of course, i'm not him, perhaps he wants more money. I doubt that. Monthly releases for a few hundred users might be something he really likes. i accept that i would never hear about that game, or ever play it - as you say it's a crapshoot. the guy just seemed happy making stuff that other people liked.
    - charlesdm 10y ago
      Given he didn't optimise his tax bill when he sold Mojang, I doubt he wants more money. Afaik (read an article somewhere) 30% of the $2.5bn he got went to the Swedish treasury.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
weq 10y ago
This is totally not at the same scale, but still applicable. Coming from am immigrant family, jumping from 20k a year to 150k @ the age of 20 felt to me like i had made it. I traded in my civic for a sports car, bought a house, all the whisky a young man could want etc etc. Did i feel content? At first. Happier? At first. Then the realisation that there will always be someone wealthier dawned apon me. Those people work longer, harder, have more pressure, responsibility and usually dont even have the time to enjoy their wealth. Managing wealth? You do stupid shit like getting into more debt to try and "save money from the tax man". The more money u earn, the more money u spend, the more stress u have. I quite my job 8 years later, sold everything and travelled the world for 2 years, trying lifestyles i never imagined. In the far reaches of the amazonian rainforst where i vonunteered to help study the pink dolphins, I saw the poorest people were actually the happiest people. They had "nothing", but everything at the same time. Everywhere i went this was true. All my ailments that followed me while i was in civialisation suddenly dissapeared. Did they suffer from depression? nup. Poverty? from the outside we assume this was a bad word, but at the ground level, nup. If u live in a place that provides u with everything u need natually, u dont need money. That was just 1 experience of many. Everyday was saturday and i had a purpose - looking for the meaning of life. I found it everywhere i looked, and money was never part of the equation. So now im back; i love coding. Im already living the dream. I dont choose work based on pay, i choose it based on my moral compass. What did i discover? Well i think the meaning of life is a little different for everybody, but at our core, its love, connections, and experiences. No matter how much money you have, you cant buy the above. http://www.avvx62.dsl.pipex.com/boto/br_about.htm http://www.avvx62.dsl.pipex.com/boto/br_about.htm
- n4r9 10y ago
  I also pick jobs based on my moral compass, but I reckon it's a lot harder than it would be if I'd been making 150+k for 8 years.
- Existenceblinks 10y ago
  > poorest people were actually the happiest people I saw this sentence like hundreds of times and completely disagree. How did you know that deep inside their mind? I bet I can manage wealth and be happier than being poor. Give me just $50M please that's enough. Me also coming from immigrants family during Vietnam War, and live in Thailand.
Exuma 10y ago
I agree notch's perspective is far better. This article says he only had 5 million... that's not a lot. Notch on the other hand made like 500M or almost a billion or something. There's still a lot you can't do with 5 million, but there's pretty much nothing you can't do with 1 billion. I remember reading those tweets and they were quite interesting. edit: "better" is the wrong word, it's just cutting deeper to the core issue by a larger magnitude.

wolfgke 10y ago

Nice find. I personally claim that I am aware of much more really deep mathematics and programming problems that I would love to solve than I have lifetime. Using this money to fund a company to implement all these ideas (without investors on the tail) sounds like a quite fun idea to me. So I personally believe that the problem that notch describes (in particular "The problem with getting everything is you run out of reasons to keep trying") would only exist in a strongly reduced version if I became a billionaire.

jfoutz 10y ago

I hope notch pulls a jk Rowling, creates a pseudonym and makes another game. Minecraft alpha was fun. Quirky weird and awesome. I like to think notch was happy building that. He could start another, and cultivate a community. If it sucks (the pressure), open source it. Or whatever, it's his life, and I wish him all the best.

efaref 10y ago
Games development is as much a crapshoot as book authoring, so I suspect Notch Prime's game would languish in indie obscurity like Robert Galbraith's books did, right up until someone leaks the association.
- jfoutz 10y ago
  not really the point. i think notch would be happy making something in indie obscurity. Of course, i'm not him, perhaps he wants more money. I doubt that. Monthly releases for a few hundred users might be something he really likes. i accept that i would never hear about that game, or ever play it - as you say it's a crapshoot. the guy just seemed happy making stuff that other people liked.
  - charlesdm 10y ago
    Given he didn't optimise his tax bill when he sold Mojang, I doubt he wants more money. Afaik (read an article somewhere) 30% of the $2.5bn he got went to the Swedish treasury.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

weq 10y ago

This is totally not at the same scale, but still applicable. Coming from am immigrant family, jumping from 20k a year to 150k @ the age of 20 felt to me like i had made it. I traded in my civic for a sports car, bought a house, all the whisky a young man could want etc etc. Did i feel content? At first. Happier? At first. Then the realisation that there will always be someone wealthier dawned apon me. Those people work longer, harder, have more pressure, responsibility and usually dont even have the time to enjoy their wealth. Managing wealth? You do stupid shit like getting into more debt to try and "save money from the tax man". The more money u earn, the more money u spend, the more stress u have. I quite my job 8 years later, sold everything and travelled the world for 2 years, trying lifestyles i never imagined. In the far reaches of the amazonian rainforst where i vonunteered to help study the pink dolphins, I saw the poorest people were actually the happiest people. They had "nothing", but everything at the same time. Everywhere i went this was true. All my ailments that followed me while i was in civialisation suddenly dissapeared. Did they suffer from depression? nup. Poverty? from the outside we assume this was a bad word, but at the ground level, nup. If u live in a place that provides u with everything u need natually, u dont need money. That was just 1 experience of many. Everyday was saturday and i had a purpose - looking for the meaning of life. I found it everywhere i looked, and money was never part of the equation. So now im back; i love coding. Im already living the dream. I dont choose work based on pay, i choose it based on my moral compass. What did i discover? Well i think the meaning of life is a little different for everybody, but at our core, its love, connections, and experiences. No matter how much money you have, you cant buy the above. http://www.avvx62.dsl.pipex.com/boto/br_about.htm http://www.avvx62.dsl.pipex.com/boto/br_about.htm

n4r9 10y ago
I also pick jobs based on my moral compass, but I reckon it's a lot harder than it would be if I'd been making 150+k for 8 years.
Existenceblinks 10y ago
> poorest people were actually the happiest people I saw this sentence like hundreds of times and completely disagree. How did you know that deep inside their mind? I bet I can manage wealth and be happier than being poor. Give me just $50M please that's enough. Me also coming from immigrants family during Vietnam War, and live in Thailand.

Exuma 10y ago

I agree notch's perspective is far better. This article says he only had 5 million... that's not a lot. Notch on the other hand made like 500M or almost a billion or something. There's still a lot you can't do with 5 million, but there's pretty much nothing you can't do with 1 billion. I remember reading those tweets and they were quite interesting. edit: "better" is the wrong word, it's just cutting deeper to the core issue by a larger magnitude.