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> But who said this was his objective? Certainly not me. "I consider it $250,000 that he's spending on a cool hobby that he enjoys, that also makes kids happy,

by philh 15y ago

> But who said this was his objective? Certainly not me. "I consider it $250,000 that he's spending on a cool hobby that he enjoys, that also makes kids happy, and that also brings publicity to doing-good-things" > He's now got symbolic value, as does the $250,000 Batmobile He already has symbolic value, and I doubt that the $250,000 Batmobile will have that much symbolic value over his current one. I agree with the rest of your post; but while your defense of the "Batman" approach is valid, remember that he didn't try to get this publicity. If he hadn't been pulled over, we wouldn't know about him. With that in mind, we can assume that he didn't sit down and try to work out how to maximise his effect on the world; which in turn means that he probably isn't maximising his effect on the world.

jonnathanson 15y ago
I don't disagree with you about the incremental value of the additional +$250,000 spend on the new Batmobile. To me, that seems a little wasteful in service of whatever his goal happens to be (be it maximization, or otherwise). I won't begrudge him that decision; it's his money to spend, his passion, and a good cause to boot. But I could certainly think of better ways for him to spend that money in service of the same cause. (For instance, starting a "Batman Development Kit" of sorts, by creating a program for others to provide similar services across the country. Or, if the folks at DC/Warner Bros were smart, they might reach out to him to license the "Superfriends" collection and superhero roster gratis, for use in such a program). Actually, I don't disagree with most of what you're saying here. But: "remember that he didn't try to get this publicity. If he hadn't been pulled over, we wouldn't know about him." Totally fair. But he provided symbolic value to his intended (albeit smaller) subset even before he went viral. And I would imagine that the indirect financial impact of that symbolism already exceeded the monetary value of his investment in said symbolism, even to the smaller (intended) target audience. Of course, I realize that all of this discussion is somewhat academic unless we really understand what his motives were, and were not. To your point, it's a safe bet that he didn't sit down one day and try to quantitatively project his impact. :)

by philh 15y ago

jonnathanson 15y ago

I don't disagree with you about the incremental value of the additional +$250,000 spend on the new Batmobile. To me, that seems a little wasteful in service of whatever his goal happens to be (be it maximization, or otherwise). I won't begrudge him that decision; it's his money to spend, his passion, and a good cause to boot. But I could certainly think of better ways for him to spend that money in service of the same cause. (For instance, starting a "Batman Development Kit" of sorts, by creating a program for others to provide similar services across the country. Or, if the folks at DC/Warner Bros were smart, they might reach out to him to license the "Superfriends" collection and superhero roster gratis, for use in such a program). Actually, I don't disagree with most of what you're saying here. But: "remember that he didn't try to get this publicity. If he hadn't been pulled over, we wouldn't know about him." Totally fair. But he provided symbolic value to his intended (albeit smaller) subset even before he went viral. And I would imagine that the indirect financial impact of that symbolism already exceeded the monetary value of his investment in said symbolism, even to the smaller (intended) target audience. Of course, I realize that all of this discussion is somewhat academic unless we really understand what his motives were, and were not. To your point, it's a safe bet that he didn't sit down one day and try to quantitatively project his impact. :)