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It's a shame that all 11 of the HN comments up to this point are debating the merits of Carmack's throwaway environmentalism line at the end of his post. Are we
by sutro 18y ago
It's a shame that all 11 of the HN comments up to this point are debating the merits of Carmack's throwaway environmentalism line at the end of his post. Are we not entrepreneurs? Are we not engineers? Are we not innovators? If so, then we have truly lost the plot here and slid into trivial political Redditism.
Here's a guy who skips college, teaches himself to program, and pioneers the modern video game industry. Though his id partner John Romero rests on his laurels once they become rich and famous, Carmack pushes forward obsessively, almost single-handedly advancing the boundaries of 3D technology with each new game engine release while competing against much larger engineering teams from much larger companies. Then he decides to teach himself rocket science. From this post we learn that he gave up his discretionary spending and became frugal and money conscious again to chase space dreams that bled lots of money and probably wouldn't amount to anything. Now several years later he has a legitimate space company that's doing work for NASA and is poised for real scientific breakthroughs in 2009. Meanwhile, he's still working at id on the next breakthrough 3D game. All the while, never taking investment money, and always giving back his knowledge by sharing highly detailed technical posts like this one (and his old .plan updates) and by eventually open-sourcing all of his work.
This guy is the ultimate hacker. He epitomizes everything that this site is supposed to be about. And you guys are quibbling about the environment? FAIL!
- DaniFong 18y agoCarmack is a hacking demigod, but to me the 'throwaway line' about environmentalism was the most interesting thing in the whole post. It struck me that someone I did idolize had a completely different value system. Obviously that which drives him forward is entirely different than what drives me. And being in touch with what drives us forward is I think something that many of us come here for.
- anamax 18y ago> This guy is the ultimate hacker. He epitomizes everything that this site is supposed to be about. And you guys are quibbling about the environment? I don't read the comments that way. I read them as "We thought that Carmack was an ideal but now we find that he's a heretic - what do we do?"
- ken 18y agoI don't see any shame in discussing the environment. The post in question is not about hacking or even technology, but the "religious experience" of driving. Perhaps because I'm not a gamer, I don't see the point in enumerating Carmack's accomplishments. I'm happy for him, but I'm here to talk about hacking, not hero worship. I vote for stories and comments here by what they say, not who's saying them. And no, I am not an engineer, nor have I ever claimed to be one, and I don't see how a meta-question to hackers about their philosophy is "trivial political Redditism".
- sh1mmer 18y agoI think it's a shame that rather than just commenting about the parts of the story that interest you, you besmirch others having a debate. The discussion on the environment may have been somewhat tangential to the article, but the comments had been thought about and the debate was not the kind of derisive bickering on Reddit. If that topic interests the readers of this site, how is it irrelevant? I do admire Carmack's achievements, drive, versatility and most of all his drive. That doesn't mean that I'm not at liberty to disagree with part of his philosophy. At the end of the day this article was posted as a review of the Tesla by someone who we like, who has had a number of supercars. That has nothing to do with any of his achievements which makes your comment as sideways as that of the topic of the environment.