3 ms·

Hmm. That he planned to get others to pay for his retirement through fundraising is quite depressing/worrying. Building the tree house was a nice story, but I'

Hmm. That he planned to get others to pay for his retirement through fundraising is quite depressing/worrying. Building the tree house was a nice story, but I'm waiting for the 'fundraising' to buy the land and obviously plenty of err... administration costs for doing so.

rpsw 14y ago
He is accepting donations for an undefined project on the What's Next page.
- beaker52 14y ago
  Good spot. Freeloader?
  - tehwalrus 14y ago
    he paid for the bits of the treehouse (that he didn't get free on craigslist) with his carpentry jobs in Whistler, right? so no. he paid for it. On what he does next, who's to say. In his own words: "I now feel like I want to create something new, something of value that also doesn’t belong to anyone. It will be radically different in form and function than the Hemloft, however, it will have some similar characteristics: it will be remote, it will have a minimal footprint, it will be built mostly out of used materials, and it will push the boundaries of design." Maybe he's lying. But the dude can at least build cool treehouses.
moxie 14y ago
He said he intended to crowdsource his retirement. That's really no different than what every HN-inspired startup-jockey is doing. Plenty of people have incredibly inane or uninspiring startups that end up bringing in enough money to retire on. The way things work (perhaps unfortunately) is that any individual subjective or objective measure of someone's idea is not what matters. What matters is if people pay or not. If he can entice people to pay for his retirement directly, it's no different than enticing people to pay for a customer loyalty or group discount startup. Perhaps you're right that this is "quite depressing/worrying," but I think a critique of his methods would need to include something much larger.

3 ms·

Hmm. That he planned to get others to pay for his retirement through fundraising is quite depressing/worrying. Building the tree house was a nice story, but I'

by beaker52 14y ago

rpsw 14y ago
He is accepting donations for an undefined project on the What's Next page.
- beaker52 14y ago
  Good spot. Freeloader?
  - tehwalrus 14y ago
    he paid for the bits of the treehouse (that he didn't get free on craigslist) with his carpentry jobs in Whistler, right? so no. he paid for it. On what he does next, who's to say. In his own words: "I now feel like I want to create something new, something of value that also doesn’t belong to anyone. It will be radically different in form and function than the Hemloft, however, it will have some similar characteristics: it will be remote, it will have a minimal footprint, it will be built mostly out of used materials, and it will push the boundaries of design." Maybe he's lying. But the dude can at least build cool treehouses.
moxie 14y ago
He said he intended to crowdsource his retirement. That's really no different than what every HN-inspired startup-jockey is doing. Plenty of people have incredibly inane or uninspiring startups that end up bringing in enough money to retire on. The way things work (perhaps unfortunately) is that any individual subjective or objective measure of someone's idea is not what matters. What matters is if people pay or not. If he can entice people to pay for his retirement directly, it's no different than enticing people to pay for a customer loyalty or group discount startup. Perhaps you're right that this is "quite depressing/worrying," but I think a critique of his methods would need to include something much larger.