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What disturbs me most about this is the complete lack of empathy people have for the guy. Just look at the comments on the link explaining that Flappy Bird was

What disturbs me most about this is the complete lack of empathy people have for the guy. Just look at the comments on the link explaining that Flappy Bird was removed from the app store. Our culture is so completely and utterly obsessed with money that everyone says he's an idiot for taking down an app without realizing the chaos one goes through in a situation like that. They hurl insults like "weak" and "fragile" as though someone isn't allowed to be shy ever since the internet happened. The sheer amount of greed on display in debates about this game is deeply unnerving, and it seems as though modern culture has forgotten that there are many things that are more important than money. It seems as though our entire country is hopelessly addicted to accumulating more and more pieces of green paper, only to be puzzled when having a large number in their bank account fails to actually solve any of their problems.

10feet 13y ago
> Our culture is so completely and utterly obsessed with money that everyone says he's an idiot for taking down an app without realizing the chaos one goes through in a situation like that. It is not obsession with money, it is just confusion over it. I mean, it isn't that hard to ignore all the bad comments and emails, and a small price to pay for riches. There must be something else going on, and that is the bit that is frustrating, not knowing. Of course, it is completely up to him, and this is in no way justification for awful comments or messages to the dev.
- jmduke 13y ago
  it isn't that hard to ignore all the bad comments and emails The gravity and emotional toll of receiving death threats and verbal harassment is often incredibly underestimated by those who haven't received them.
  - baddox 13y ago
    I think the commenter meant to literally ignore comments and emails, as in, don't read them.
- corresation 13y ago
  It is not obsession with money, it is just confusion over it. The actions and statements of the author seem completely at odds, and he literally could not do more self-promotion if he tried. Seriously, beyond assassinating a world leader dressed as flappy bird, I cannot fathom how he could have cemented more attention. He had a hit game. These come and go, usually with the creators completely shrouded and hidden. But he does an interview where he states enormous income levels, guaranteeing an incredible amount of media attention. He is all hands on twitter. Then, in the face of supposed negative attention (or simply attention), and coincidentally at what many would say is almost certainly the crest of the game's popularity, he announces that he is removing the game...in a day. So get in and get those downloads, before you lose your chance. Again, enormous attention across the media. Had he not done the original interview. Had he not announced that he was making $50K per day on ads. Had he not then announced a 24-hours until its gone window...he would have remained yet another anonymous game creator. Instead we know how it played out. It could entirely be cultural misunderstandings, but it is tough to listen to the whole "just leave him alone" claims in the face of actions that the most manipulative, talented PR agency would dream up.
  - micampe 13y ago
    Or maybe he was just naive and didn't expect that outcome.
  - noobermin 13y ago
    I think some of this speculation that this man is some cunning, super-intelligent villain gives him, an average human being, too much credit. Honestly, these "theories" are too outlandish to really be about the actions of a mere human being. What is honestly more believable, that he is some "super PR genius" or, perhaps, just had more than he could handle?
    - corresation 13y ago
      Villain? Super-intelligent? While your strawman is interesting, and typical in a discourse that too often has to be extremely polarized opposites, it has zero relevance to my comment. Don't try to use me as a lever, thanks.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
corresation 13y ago
Are you replying to the wrong submission? I believe there was another submission where people went through these "woe for society" hysterics. As is people may not be empathetic because motives seem curiously in contrast -- I think we're all jaded enough that we don't immediately take what people say as absolute truth.
jamesaguilar 13y ago
I would say, given what money can do for you in this world -- how much easier it can make your life, the doors it can open -- that it is at the very least surprising that anyone would turn down this kind of success. In fact, I'll bet you'd have trouble finding one person out of a hundred who would not be willing to suffer pretty significant pain for two weeks if it meant they'd make $50,000 a day. Given that people are willing to do this, they're shocked that this dev wouldn't just turn off his twitter, shut down his phone, book a trip to the beach and just ride it out there. There may be a small handful of people in the world for whom taking the app down is the long-term rational decision. But I'd wager they are a fairly rare breed.
- jmduke 13y ago
  Average monthly salary for a software developer in Vietnam is, what, $600/mo? Nguyen was making around seven years' salary per day for two weeks. A lot of the doors that could be opened with money were already opened at that point.
  - jamesaguilar 13y ago
    This random dude makes $1200/mo. I don't know what the average is. Maybe he is set for life, but it's only been really big for a couple of days, and I'd imagine he's not quite yet, and certainly not as set as he could be. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23497561 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23497561
    - hnguyen 13y ago
      AFAIK, a good fresh graduate can make from $600 to $800/month (of course, depends on multiple factors: what he can do, experience, school, type of company, English, etc). That "random dude" got a Master's degree in Korea, so his salary is reasonable I think.
  - anonu 13y ago
    Shouldn't he still be making ad revenue even if the app can't be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play? I'm sure those ad $$$s are still rolling in...
code_duck 13y ago
I think the genesis of the obsession you describe is that having significantly not enough in your bank account causes severe problems.
micampe 13y ago
Thank you for saying this. On the other side there are also people like %#&$* Scoble that say this is just a marketing play. The lack of empathy and awareness that not everyone in the world is as greedy and selfish as you really upsets me. But you said it better anyway.
kamaal 13y ago
Your post was brilliant but you ruined it with this.. >>only to be puzzled when having a large number in their bank account fails to actually solve any of their problems. I'm not sure what kind of utterly broken philosophy propagates this idea. Do people actually believe that some one starving, unable to afford any kind of medical care, who doesn't have a proper home, clothes or anything for that matter is far more happy than a millionaire? What kind of a brainwashing does it take to help such absurd thoughts totally devoid of common sense to sink in? Not one single person who is rich I know isn't happy. When rich people talk of money being unable to solve 'some problems' they are talking of stuff which I wouldn't even consider as problems. They are more like minor small time inconveniences.
- JetSpiegel 13y ago
  Your post was brilliant but you ruined it with this.. >>Not one single person who is rich I know isn't happy.
  - kamaal 13y ago
    The whole point is we first need to define happiness, no? There are a lot of people who are confused between things like sadness, disappointment, inconvenience, hopelessness and many such negative emotions. The problem is we bundle them all en masse in to this category called 'happiness' or its opposite. To be happy is a overloaded term used to define many emotions. Rich people suffer from the same negative emotions any human on earth goes through. Because they are humans. If their child doesn't win a soccer game, they may get disappointed, if some one in the family falls ill to a deadly disease without a cure they may feel hopeless. But these are emotions every human regardless of their financial status goes through. Whether you are rich or poor. Having money will keep you well fed, clothed and housed. Your medical expenses are taken care of. Your children's needs are tended to and give you an overall sense of confidence and a sense of safety and freedom. Being poor means you have a put up with a great deal of BS that life throws at you. You have to sacrifice every single thing, every single desire of yours. Its very exact opposite of what I wrote above. I don't know of one single human who doesn't go through human emotions but yeah coming to being happy in the sense having to never really get screwed at every step along the way. Rich people never really stop being happy, and most poor people don't even what that kind of happiness actually is. Basically because they continually being fed this garbage that suffering in their current state is far better than breaking out of it.
3rd3 13y ago
I for one find these kinds of success stories extremely demoralizing. They create unrealistic expectations. But certainly nothing could justify death threats and personal attacks…
bane 13y ago
The thing is, at this point, there was literally zero additional involvement this guy had to have to anything related to the game. Just sit back and check in on an ever increasing bank account. Once the fad died down, enjoy the money. He didn't have to show himself, do interviews, anything at all. Just accept the cash and fade off into obscurity. It's hard to empathize with somebody who had to take a specific action to make himself less better off in the end, he was better off with doing nothing at all.
- john2x 13y ago
  The minute he exposed how much money he was making, he made himself a huge target in Vietnam. Making that much money is dangerous in SEA if you don't have any connections.
  - jotm 13y ago
    Sharing the money would've gotten him the connections.
  - hnguyen 13y ago
    He may be a target, but I don't think everyone would chase him for money. Someone who has a net worth of 1 or 2 millions USD is not so rare in Vietnam.
    - binxbolling 13y ago
      A tiny bit of Googling, not to mention common sense, reveals your second sentence to be patently untrue.
      - hnguyen 13y ago
        Since when a "tiny bit of Googling", not to mention the query is (supposedly) in English, is a reliable source? Hopefully you obtained enough data (preferably in Vietnamese) about distribution of wealth, net worth and sources of income (which people normally don't want to (and sometimes can't) disclose), etc. I'm not saying that my sentence is absolutely correct. It's my personal experience, based on what I know and observe everyday. I just don't buy your "tiny bit of Googling". And please, don't rely on common sense. Things that are so called "common sense" are often agreed within a community and not universally correct, regarding to other communities. That's said, what I was trying to tell is that earning lots of money doesn't automatically make you a huge target. Yes, Vietnam is a poor/developing country. But it's actually quite safe and peaceful, as long as you use "common sense" (our common sense, if that matters). Money is not everything people care about. And for people that really want your money, at least they don't have gun :) (no offense).
jotm 13y ago
Well he basically slaughtered a goose laying golden eggs. Why not just let it grow old? Hand it over to someone else? That money isn't just going to stay in his bank account - he can use it to fund a new app, get a car, a new computer, a house, education - it does seem weak willed to take it down because of the pressure of success (of all things)...
verteu 13y ago
Why not keep the game up and give the money to charity? Removing a good that people want to pay for destroys value. It's like wasting millions of dollars' worth of food.
bertil 13y ago
Thank you so much for saying that. Of course, many of the fans of Y Combinator know that changing the world is more important, but those who have time to comment here and seem focus on extracting rent rather than creating value needed to read this. But, more importantly (and I might show how old I am by saying this) I didn't feel like this since ’94 and Kurt Cobain’s death: same accusations of being a manipulative mastermind playing hard to get, lacking talent, copying, and the same glaringly obvious suicide warnings: “I want peace”? Really? Do you need anything clearer? An Instagram of the guy with a shotgun in his mouth, asking ‘Like if you think I should pull the trigger, comment otherwise’? If it happens, there will be so much hand-washing here…
borplk 13y ago
Yeah ... welcome to capitalism
kayoone 13y ago
I think what alot of people keep missing is that Vietnam has communism rooted deep in its culture. I would think that accumulating massive personal wealth like the Flappy Bird guy did can cause some problems with the government and the general population when the media portrays something in the way they did with Flappy Birds. It might just have been very unsettling for the guy.
- hnguyen 13y ago
  Not really. Vietnam has changed quite a lot since the war and the 90s. Someone with a net worth of 1 or 2 millions USD is not considered to be "massive" rich. So far, the only official comment from the government is that he should pay income tax (which is reasonable I think). It is also stated that he will get a favored tax rate, since the government wants to encourage developers like him and IT sector in general. Note that income tax was introduced quite recently in Vietnam (a few years ago I think) and the tax rate is pretty low, compare to other countries. Generally speaking people and the media have a positive opinion about Dong. Some even say Vietnam is proud of him, he inspires young Vietnamese developers (communism, remember?), etc. Of course, there are haters, just like anywhere else.
lmm 13y ago
If I found something I enjoyed and wanted to share it with my friends, and then someone made it so I couldn't do that, I'd be upset - I think understandably, and not in a particularly greed-motivated way. And that's effectively what the developer has done here.

10feet 13y ago

> Our culture is so completely and utterly obsessed with money that everyone says he's an idiot for taking down an app without realizing the chaos one goes through in a situation like that. It is not obsession with money, it is just confusion over it. I mean, it isn't that hard to ignore all the bad comments and emails, and a small price to pay for riches. There must be something else going on, and that is the bit that is frustrating, not knowing. Of course, it is completely up to him, and this is in no way justification for awful comments or messages to the dev.

jmduke 13y ago
it isn't that hard to ignore all the bad comments and emails The gravity and emotional toll of receiving death threats and verbal harassment is often incredibly underestimated by those who haven't received them.
- baddox 13y ago
  I think the commenter meant to literally ignore comments and emails, as in, don't read them.
corresation 13y ago
It is not obsession with money, it is just confusion over it. The actions and statements of the author seem completely at odds, and he literally could not do more self-promotion if he tried. Seriously, beyond assassinating a world leader dressed as flappy bird, I cannot fathom how he could have cemented more attention. He had a hit game. These come and go, usually with the creators completely shrouded and hidden. But he does an interview where he states enormous income levels, guaranteeing an incredible amount of media attention. He is all hands on twitter. Then, in the face of supposed negative attention (or simply attention), and coincidentally at what many would say is almost certainly the crest of the game's popularity, he announces that he is removing the game...in a day. So get in and get those downloads, before you lose your chance. Again, enormous attention across the media. Had he not done the original interview. Had he not announced that he was making $50K per day on ads. Had he not then announced a 24-hours until its gone window...he would have remained yet another anonymous game creator. Instead we know how it played out. It could entirely be cultural misunderstandings, but it is tough to listen to the whole "just leave him alone" claims in the face of actions that the most manipulative, talented PR agency would dream up.
- micampe 13y ago
  Or maybe he was just naive and didn't expect that outcome.
- noobermin 13y ago
  I think some of this speculation that this man is some cunning, super-intelligent villain gives him, an average human being, too much credit. Honestly, these "theories" are too outlandish to really be about the actions of a mere human being. What is honestly more believable, that he is some "super PR genius" or, perhaps, just had more than he could handle?
  - corresation 13y ago
    Villain? Super-intelligent? While your strawman is interesting, and typical in a discourse that too often has to be extremely polarized opposites, it has zero relevance to my comment. Don't try to use me as a lever, thanks.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

corresation 13y ago

Are you replying to the wrong submission? I believe there was another submission where people went through these "woe for society" hysterics. As is people may not be empathetic because motives seem curiously in contrast -- I think we're all jaded enough that we don't immediately take what people say as absolute truth.

jamesaguilar 13y ago

I would say, given what money can do for you in this world -- how much easier it can make your life, the doors it can open -- that it is at the very least surprising that anyone would turn down this kind of success. In fact, I'll bet you'd have trouble finding one person out of a hundred who would not be willing to suffer pretty significant pain for two weeks if it meant they'd make $50,000 a day. Given that people are willing to do this, they're shocked that this dev wouldn't just turn off his twitter, shut down his phone, book a trip to the beach and just ride it out there. There may be a small handful of people in the world for whom taking the app down is the long-term rational decision. But I'd wager they are a fairly rare breed.

jmduke 13y ago
Average monthly salary for a software developer in Vietnam is, what, $600/mo? Nguyen was making around seven years' salary per day for two weeks. A lot of the doors that could be opened with money were already opened at that point.
- jamesaguilar 13y ago
  This random dude makes $1200/mo. I don't know what the average is. Maybe he is set for life, but it's only been really big for a couple of days, and I'd imagine he's not quite yet, and certainly not as set as he could be. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23497561 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23497561
  - hnguyen 13y ago
    AFAIK, a good fresh graduate can make from $600 to $800/month (of course, depends on multiple factors: what he can do, experience, school, type of company, English, etc). That "random dude" got a Master's degree in Korea, so his salary is reasonable I think.
- anonu 13y ago
  Shouldn't he still be making ad revenue even if the app can't be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play? I'm sure those ad $$$s are still rolling in...

code_duck 13y ago

I think the genesis of the obsession you describe is that having significantly not enough in your bank account causes severe problems.

micampe 13y ago

Thank you for saying this. On the other side there are also people like %#&$* Scoble that say this is just a marketing play. The lack of empathy and awareness that not everyone in the world is as greedy and selfish as you really upsets me. But you said it better anyway.

kamaal 13y ago

Your post was brilliant but you ruined it with this.. >>only to be puzzled when having a large number in their bank account fails to actually solve any of their problems. I'm not sure what kind of utterly broken philosophy propagates this idea. Do people actually believe that some one starving, unable to afford any kind of medical care, who doesn't have a proper home, clothes or anything for that matter is far more happy than a millionaire? What kind of a brainwashing does it take to help such absurd thoughts totally devoid of common sense to sink in? Not one single person who is rich I know isn't happy. When rich people talk of money being unable to solve 'some problems' they are talking of stuff which I wouldn't even consider as problems. They are more like minor small time inconveniences.

JetSpiegel 13y ago
Your post was brilliant but you ruined it with this.. >>Not one single person who is rich I know isn't happy.
- kamaal 13y ago
  The whole point is we first need to define happiness, no? There are a lot of people who are confused between things like sadness, disappointment, inconvenience, hopelessness and many such negative emotions. The problem is we bundle them all en masse in to this category called 'happiness' or its opposite. To be happy is a overloaded term used to define many emotions. Rich people suffer from the same negative emotions any human on earth goes through. Because they are humans. If their child doesn't win a soccer game, they may get disappointed, if some one in the family falls ill to a deadly disease without a cure they may feel hopeless. But these are emotions every human regardless of their financial status goes through. Whether you are rich or poor. Having money will keep you well fed, clothed and housed. Your medical expenses are taken care of. Your children's needs are tended to and give you an overall sense of confidence and a sense of safety and freedom. Being poor means you have a put up with a great deal of BS that life throws at you. You have to sacrifice every single thing, every single desire of yours. Its very exact opposite of what I wrote above. I don't know of one single human who doesn't go through human emotions but yeah coming to being happy in the sense having to never really get screwed at every step along the way. Rich people never really stop being happy, and most poor people don't even what that kind of happiness actually is. Basically because they continually being fed this garbage that suffering in their current state is far better than breaking out of it.

3rd3 13y ago

I for one find these kinds of success stories extremely demoralizing. They create unrealistic expectations. But certainly nothing could justify death threats and personal attacks…

bane 13y ago

The thing is, at this point, there was literally zero additional involvement this guy had to have to anything related to the game. Just sit back and check in on an ever increasing bank account. Once the fad died down, enjoy the money. He didn't have to show himself, do interviews, anything at all. Just accept the cash and fade off into obscurity. It's hard to empathize with somebody who had to take a specific action to make himself less better off in the end, he was better off with doing nothing at all.

john2x 13y ago
The minute he exposed how much money he was making, he made himself a huge target in Vietnam. Making that much money is dangerous in SEA if you don't have any connections.
- jotm 13y ago
  Sharing the money would've gotten him the connections.
- hnguyen 13y ago
  He may be a target, but I don't think everyone would chase him for money. Someone who has a net worth of 1 or 2 millions USD is not so rare in Vietnam.
  - binxbolling 13y ago
    A tiny bit of Googling, not to mention common sense, reveals your second sentence to be patently untrue.
    - hnguyen 13y ago
      Since when a "tiny bit of Googling", not to mention the query is (supposedly) in English, is a reliable source? Hopefully you obtained enough data (preferably in Vietnamese) about distribution of wealth, net worth and sources of income (which people normally don't want to (and sometimes can't) disclose), etc. I'm not saying that my sentence is absolutely correct. It's my personal experience, based on what I know and observe everyday. I just don't buy your "tiny bit of Googling". And please, don't rely on common sense. Things that are so called "common sense" are often agreed within a community and not universally correct, regarding to other communities. That's said, what I was trying to tell is that earning lots of money doesn't automatically make you a huge target. Yes, Vietnam is a poor/developing country. But it's actually quite safe and peaceful, as long as you use "common sense" (our common sense, if that matters). Money is not everything people care about. And for people that really want your money, at least they don't have gun :) (no offense).

jotm 13y ago

Well he basically slaughtered a goose laying golden eggs. Why not just let it grow old? Hand it over to someone else? That money isn't just going to stay in his bank account - he can use it to fund a new app, get a car, a new computer, a house, education - it does seem weak willed to take it down because of the pressure of success (of all things)...

verteu 13y ago

Why not keep the game up and give the money to charity? Removing a good that people want to pay for destroys value. It's like wasting millions of dollars' worth of food.

bertil 13y ago

Thank you so much for saying that. Of course, many of the fans of Y Combinator know that changing the world is more important, but those who have time to comment here and seem focus on extracting rent rather than creating value needed to read this. But, more importantly (and I might show how old I am by saying this) I didn't feel like this since ’94 and Kurt Cobain’s death: same accusations of being a manipulative mastermind playing hard to get, lacking talent, copying, and the same glaringly obvious suicide warnings: “I want peace”? Really? Do you need anything clearer? An Instagram of the guy with a shotgun in his mouth, asking ‘Like if you think I should pull the trigger, comment otherwise’? If it happens, there will be so much hand-washing here…

borplk 13y ago

Yeah ... welcome to capitalism

kayoone 13y ago

I think what alot of people keep missing is that Vietnam has communism rooted deep in its culture. I would think that accumulating massive personal wealth like the Flappy Bird guy did can cause some problems with the government and the general population when the media portrays something in the way they did with Flappy Birds. It might just have been very unsettling for the guy.

hnguyen 13y ago
Not really. Vietnam has changed quite a lot since the war and the 90s. Someone with a net worth of 1 or 2 millions USD is not considered to be "massive" rich. So far, the only official comment from the government is that he should pay income tax (which is reasonable I think). It is also stated that he will get a favored tax rate, since the government wants to encourage developers like him and IT sector in general. Note that income tax was introduced quite recently in Vietnam (a few years ago I think) and the tax rate is pretty low, compare to other countries. Generally speaking people and the media have a positive opinion about Dong. Some even say Vietnam is proud of him, he inspires young Vietnamese developers (communism, remember?), etc. Of course, there are haters, just like anywhere else.

lmm 13y ago

If I found something I enjoyed and wanted to share it with my friends, and then someone made it so I couldn't do that, I'd be upset - I think understandably, and not in a particularly greed-motivated way. And that's effectively what the developer has done here.