7 ms·

It always strikes me as odd when something like this happens. Guido is still working nine-to-fives and Drew never has to work again. Can someone tell me why a b

It always strikes me as odd when something like this happens. Guido is still working nine-to-fives and Drew never has to work again. Can someone tell me why a brilliant person like Guido isn't worth a billion dollars? Have tons of fancy cars and a fancy house? Has to work for another company?

kyllo 14y ago
Because the stuff he built is open source? I'm sure he gets paid a high salary for his work, but he's still an engineer, not a founder. And maybe he likes working in an office?
napoleond 14y ago
I know nothing about Guido outside of his work with Python but I assume he's not hurting for money at all. Nevertheless, our capitalist system does not reward people for brilliance alone; it rewards people for taking risks. Some very wealthy people are still being rewarded for the risks of their ancestors, and others have managed to keep wealth gathered in different economic systems, but that is generally how new wealth is created in our economy today. (By definition, risk takers are collectively expected to fail more often than they succeed. There is probably some level of intelligence below which success rates drop even further, but I would be surprised to see any strong correlation between success rates and intelligence above that level.)
- AlexandrB 14y ago
  I don't get it. How is creating a new programming language in your spare time not a risk? You're spending valuable time creating something that is likely to fail (see the scores of niche languages no one uses). I think what you mean by "risk" is something very specific: financial risk. If Guido had instead put time and, more importantly, money into starting a "lifestyle" startup on the side, he would have been financially rewarded if successful.
  - napoleond 14y ago
    We were discussing financial success; I assumed financial risk was implicit. Investing time in the creation of a new programming language is likely to pay off in many other ways, but the potential financial rewards are very low and therefore so is the element of financial risk. People tend to overestimate the amount of money required to start a successful business.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
phpnode 14y ago
Has to or wants to? Guido has chosen to focus on building an awesome language rather than maximising his personal wealth. Some people just like programming, and I'm sure he's extremely well compensated and does not have to work 9 - 5.
kayoone 14y ago
because he didnt found or was an early employee of a highly successful startup, yet. Same is true for Linus and many other hacker heros, but its not a bad thing imo.
- nostrademons 14y ago
  Linus Torvalds is at least a multi-millionaire; when RedHat and VA Linux went public, they each gifted him with shares in gratitude for inventing Linux, reportedly worth around $20M [1]. Some sources put his wealth at anywhere from $150M [2] to $1B [3]; his actual wealth would vary significantly based on when he sold and what he's invested in since, since those shares shot up 10x on IPO day. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds#Later_years http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds#Later_years [2] http://hollywoodnose.com/net-worth/linus-torvalds-wealth http://hollywoodnose.com/net-worth/linus-torvalds-wealth [3] http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2000/04/03/277074/index.htm http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2000/...
  - kayoone 14y ago
    hm ok, i read some article on that suggesting that he didnt make much money at all from the RedHat stint. But yeah i am sure he is a millionaire, but i am also sure Guido is too, just considering what he earned at Google for the last 7 years.
- Evbn 14y ago
  Now he is am early employee of a highly successful startup.
SimHacker 14y ago
Because it's more fun to write lots of awesome Python code than to retire, or drive fancy cars, or go home to a fancy house.
enneff 14y ago
Since when do language designers get rich? I can't think of a single person who got rich through language design.
- dalke 14y ago
  According to Borland's 1997 lawsuit against Microsoft, Anders Hejlsberg had a signing bonus of $1 million plus stock options to move to Microsoft. That sounds like a rich language designer. I think of language design like running. Almost everyone can run, a lot of people run because they enjoy it, some of those enter competitions, but mostly because they enjoy the social and competitive aspects. Very few people make a living by running, and almost no one gets rich as a professional runner. A lot of people enjoy making new languages. Some of these languages are used by more than a handful of people, though most of those are domain-specific languages. Only a few languages enter wide-spread use, and of those language designers, very few get rich from that work.
- bjoyx 14y ago
  Stephen Wolfram
  - mturmon 14y ago
    Nice. Add Cleve Moler and Jack Dangermond, I suppose.
  - 4ad 14y ago
    Mathematica is much more than a language. People buy Mathematica for system, the language is just a small part of it. (And it's crap, just like MATLAB language is crap, but the full product itself is massively useful).
nostrademons 14y ago
You shouldn't assume anything about the personal wealth of...well, anyone. There are rank-and-file, post-IPO engineers at Google sitting on multi-million-$ hiring/retention stock grants. The only difference is that there's no press release when your boss quietly prevents you from leaving for another company, or hires you away from another company. Most smart people, if given the choice, would rather that other folks not know that they're wealthy.

kyllo 14y ago

Because the stuff he built is open source? I'm sure he gets paid a high salary for his work, but he's still an engineer, not a founder. And maybe he likes working in an office?

napoleond 14y ago

I know nothing about Guido outside of his work with Python but I assume he's not hurting for money at all. Nevertheless, our capitalist system does not reward people for brilliance alone; it rewards people for taking risks. Some very wealthy people are still being rewarded for the risks of their ancestors, and others have managed to keep wealth gathered in different economic systems, but that is generally how new wealth is created in our economy today. (By definition, risk takers are collectively expected to fail more often than they succeed. There is probably some level of intelligence below which success rates drop even further, but I would be surprised to see any strong correlation between success rates and intelligence above that level.)

AlexandrB 14y ago
I don't get it. How is creating a new programming language in your spare time not a risk? You're spending valuable time creating something that is likely to fail (see the scores of niche languages no one uses). I think what you mean by "risk" is something very specific: financial risk. If Guido had instead put time and, more importantly, money into starting a "lifestyle" startup on the side, he would have been financially rewarded if successful.
- napoleond 14y ago
  We were discussing financial success; I assumed financial risk was implicit. Investing time in the creation of a new programming language is likely to pay off in many other ways, but the potential financial rewards are very low and therefore so is the element of financial risk. People tend to overestimate the amount of money required to start a successful business.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

phpnode 14y ago

Has to or wants to? Guido has chosen to focus on building an awesome language rather than maximising his personal wealth. Some people just like programming, and I'm sure he's extremely well compensated and does not have to work 9 - 5.

kayoone 14y ago

because he didnt found or was an early employee of a highly successful startup, yet. Same is true for Linus and many other hacker heros, but its not a bad thing imo.

nostrademons 14y ago
Linus Torvalds is at least a multi-millionaire; when RedHat and VA Linux went public, they each gifted him with shares in gratitude for inventing Linux, reportedly worth around $20M [1]. Some sources put his wealth at anywhere from $150M [2] to $1B [3]; his actual wealth would vary significantly based on when he sold and what he's invested in since, since those shares shot up 10x on IPO day. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds#Later_years http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds#Later_years [2] http://hollywoodnose.com/net-worth/linus-torvalds-wealth http://hollywoodnose.com/net-worth/linus-torvalds-wealth [3] http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2000/04/03/277074/index.htm http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2000/...
- kayoone 14y ago
  hm ok, i read some article on that suggesting that he didnt make much money at all from the RedHat stint. But yeah i am sure he is a millionaire, but i am also sure Guido is too, just considering what he earned at Google for the last 7 years.
Evbn 14y ago
Now he is am early employee of a highly successful startup.

SimHacker 14y ago

Because it's more fun to write lots of awesome Python code than to retire, or drive fancy cars, or go home to a fancy house.

enneff 14y ago

Since when do language designers get rich? I can't think of a single person who got rich through language design.

dalke 14y ago
According to Borland's 1997 lawsuit against Microsoft, Anders Hejlsberg had a signing bonus of $1 million plus stock options to move to Microsoft. That sounds like a rich language designer. I think of language design like running. Almost everyone can run, a lot of people run because they enjoy it, some of those enter competitions, but mostly because they enjoy the social and competitive aspects. Very few people make a living by running, and almost no one gets rich as a professional runner. A lot of people enjoy making new languages. Some of these languages are used by more than a handful of people, though most of those are domain-specific languages. Only a few languages enter wide-spread use, and of those language designers, very few get rich from that work.
bjoyx 14y ago
Stephen Wolfram
- mturmon 14y ago
  Nice. Add Cleve Moler and Jack Dangermond, I suppose.
- 4ad 14y ago
  Mathematica is much more than a language. People buy Mathematica for system, the language is just a small part of it. (And it's crap, just like MATLAB language is crap, but the full product itself is massively useful).

nostrademons 14y ago

You shouldn't assume anything about the personal wealth of...well, anyone. There are rank-and-file, post-IPO engineers at Google sitting on multi-million-$ hiring/retention stock grants. The only difference is that there's no press release when your boss quietly prevents you from leaving for another company, or hires you away from another company. Most smart people, if given the choice, would rather that other folks not know that they're wealthy.