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He claims money wasn't the motive and I'm sure that's true but I thought he was a for hire website creator of the type that had a website with fancy demos to ad

by nox101 2y ago

He claims money wasn't the motive and I'm sure that's true but I thought he was a for hire website creator of the type that had a website with fancy demos to adversize his skills and therefore get clients. So, while three might have been a fun hobby project it was also something he used to make client sites or at least lure clients. Then, as three got popular he got lucky and google hired him full time to maintain it. Who knows where it would be without a corporate sponsor to fund it fulltime. it's unlikely he'd have been able to keep it going so long if he needed to spend all is time on other things to earn a living. In other words, he is getting revenue from it. In fact on a google salary he's getting quite large revenue from in and he also takes donations in top of his $500k+ salary. https://github.com/sponsors/mrdoob https://github.com/sponsors/mrdoob Super happy for him and super jealous. Wouldn't we all like a high paying corporate sponsor for our personal project

skeeter2020 2y ago
Not sure if you're familiar with the state of 3D browser graphics when this project started; it was not good. Even by the time I came to the party in the mid 2010's mrdoob had been at it for a while. I was trying to build visual, interactive modeling software for the energy industry, competing with big enterprise software and still remember my first boardroom demo when we bluescreened their computer with a "web app". My point is you frame this like he planned to capitalized on it and was really lucky, but based on the context I think you've got it backwards. Mrdoob had already poured so much work and effort into this it would have been a foolish & unsustainable strategy if it was a way to "get clients and a great job". That's like deciding to do a startup as the best way to get really rich. I find it hard to believe given the consistent energy and progress of three.js that it's the product of someone with a "lottery winning" mentality.
- nox101 2y ago
  I'm not suggesting he planned to capitalize on it. I am suggesting it was work adjacent. That while it was fun to make it was also useful for his day job. On top of that, even if it wasn't a goal he did win the lotto in the end. There were 12 or so competing 3d js libraries back when three.js started. He won both the popularity lotto and then the sponsorship lotto.

by nox101 2y ago

skeeter2020 2y ago

Not sure if you're familiar with the state of 3D browser graphics when this project started; it was not good. Even by the time I came to the party in the mid 2010's mrdoob had been at it for a while. I was trying to build visual, interactive modeling software for the energy industry, competing with big enterprise software and still remember my first boardroom demo when we bluescreened their computer with a "web app". My point is you frame this like he planned to capitalized on it and was really lucky, but based on the context I think you've got it backwards. Mrdoob had already poured so much work and effort into this it would have been a foolish & unsustainable strategy if it was a way to "get clients and a great job". That's like deciding to do a startup as the best way to get really rich. I find it hard to believe given the consistent energy and progress of three.js that it's the product of someone with a "lottery winning" mentality.

nox101 2y ago
I'm not suggesting he planned to capitalize on it. I am suggesting it was work adjacent. That while it was fun to make it was also useful for his day job. On top of that, even if it wasn't a goal he did win the lotto in the end. There were 12 or so competing 3d js libraries back when three.js started. He won both the popularity lotto and then the sponsorship lotto.