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It’s a real pity. I circulated in the Downtown Tech scene in Las Vegas for a little bit. I felt like it was rather culty, but I also felt he really made people

It’s a real pity. I circulated in the Downtown Tech scene in Las Vegas for a little bit. I felt like it was rather culty, but I also felt he really made people believe in the town’s ability to be more than a tourist destination. At the time, the city was still quite battered from the recession, and there was quite a lot of pessimism. The energy he brought was very needed, and the community he fostered had real energy and hope and value. I made friends then that I still have now, who are very dear to me. I’ve since left town, but I was back last year and walked around the places we all used to hang out… it was very sad to me to see all traces of that community gone, but I was happy I got to be part of it, and to have seen someone with that kind of wealth try to do something to really change their city for the better. Of course, it had problems, and he was throwing money around to make it all work, and as time went on I think much of that money served to conceal those problems rather than confront them… though I never heard stories back then on the scale of what this article describes as happening in Utah. I don’t know really how to feel about the information here, other than very, very sad. I hope despite how he wound up, someone else someday is able to draw inspiration from the parts of what he did that worked and created hope and strengthened the local community, and they can move the ball forward. And I hope wherever Tony is now, he’s free from whatever drove him into such a dark place. Rest in peace.

MichaelZuo 3y ago
Were there any rumours about odd behavioural or personality quirks of Tony at the time? There might have been some indication if the article is true, but I'm not sure.
- helpfulclippy 3y ago
  I didn't know him personally, so I wish I could say I had some firsthand experience. Rumor-wise, there was every story you can imagine. The guy loved the spotlight and was personally bankrolling something that was simultaneously a VC fund and an urban revitalization project, so obviously opinions went all over the board. In the end, he was a Burning Man kind of guy with huge amounts of money, vision and risk tolerance. Put that way, maybe it's not a shock that after the Downtown project collapsed he built a tiny little Bioshock-y dystopia for his clique, and blasted himself stupid with whip-its until he died. And maybe there's a better parallel universe somewhere in which the project succeeded and the right people came around him, and in that timeline's 2023, every billionaire there is cribbing notes about how to recreate what he did in their own city. Neither story is all that inconsistent from what I saw from my very, very distant vantage point as a lowly tech guy at the fringes of the whole thing.
- gojomo 3y ago
  Even before Hsieh left Zappos, anecdotes I heard from the fringes of his circle, including people who had worked at Zappos, made it clear he operated in a very heavy-drinking culture. For example, both media & employee reports mention well-stocked office beer fridges & toleration of drinking during the workday in the office.

MichaelZuo 3y ago

Were there any rumours about odd behavioural or personality quirks of Tony at the time? There might have been some indication if the article is true, but I'm not sure.

helpfulclippy 3y ago
I didn't know him personally, so I wish I could say I had some firsthand experience. Rumor-wise, there was every story you can imagine. The guy loved the spotlight and was personally bankrolling something that was simultaneously a VC fund and an urban revitalization project, so obviously opinions went all over the board. In the end, he was a Burning Man kind of guy with huge amounts of money, vision and risk tolerance. Put that way, maybe it's not a shock that after the Downtown project collapsed he built a tiny little Bioshock-y dystopia for his clique, and blasted himself stupid with whip-its until he died. And maybe there's a better parallel universe somewhere in which the project succeeded and the right people came around him, and in that timeline's 2023, every billionaire there is cribbing notes about how to recreate what he did in their own city. Neither story is all that inconsistent from what I saw from my very, very distant vantage point as a lowly tech guy at the fringes of the whole thing.
gojomo 3y ago
Even before Hsieh left Zappos, anecdotes I heard from the fringes of his circle, including people who had worked at Zappos, made it clear he operated in a very heavy-drinking culture. For example, both media & employee reports mention well-stocked office beer fridges & toleration of drinking during the workday in the office.