4 ms·

The potato-salad guy should keep every penny

27 points by ropable 12y ago

sukuriant 12y ago
Related: http://www.ted.com/talks/amanda_palmer_the_art_of_asking http://www.ted.com/talks/amanda_palmer_the_art_of_asking The people's responses to the comment are telling. The Kickstarter said he'd make a potato salad. He probably has. He asked, and people gave, why do people rage about this? It just so happened that lots of people thought it was funny / wanted to give money / whatever. Who cares? The proverbial you could have thought of it too. I don't understand the stink people have over this :/
- vidar 12y ago
  You nailed it with "The proverbial you could have thought of it too", people are just envious.
  - prawn 12y ago
    Similar to that line about contemporary art being a combination of "I could've done that" and "Yeah, but you didn't".
    - tormeh 12y ago
      Contemporary art has nowhere close to any objective criteria, by any lax use of the word. Which means it's a popularity contest. Network, a nice name, a pretty face and last but not least a good personal story will make you go far. I'm talking about art-exhibition contemporary art and not the stuff people hang on their walls. Reference: http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21586580-fakes-say-some-interesting-things-about-economics-art-emperors-new-pictures http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21586580-fakes-say-som...
- 14113 12y ago
  > The proverbial you could have thought of it too. It's here (imho) that the problem lies. People get jealous around money, especially when (from their perspective) it's unearned, and this often leads to irrational anger, which is the bread and butter of internet comments.
  - zaccus 12y ago
    By what measure is it unearned? The guy said he would make potato salad, the market decided that was worth $70k. Assuming he follows through and makes the salad, he's earned his money.
danso 12y ago
I saw earlier today that the New Yorker had written about the potato salad guy, and I skipped it because I wrongly assumed it was going to be more whining about the state of society and cynicism of our new tech-savvy overlords (cynicism which I kind of share, to be honest)...It's nice that they took a non-do-gooder stance. I chipped in $3. That's about how much I'd tip a good street performer in New York, and this Kickstarter made me laugh. The comedic timing, as much timing as you can convey in a plain written description, was just right...and I'll happily admit, I'm very curious to see how the hell he's going to deliver a "bite of potato salad" (and a photo) to me...I'm also curious if this will be the first Kickstarter project I've backed that has actually delivered its reward on time. Good for the potato guy for making the kind of joke lots of people may have had in their heads, but actually executing on it. The most annoying protests, IMO, are from the people who ostensibly represent a good cause, like a homeless shelter or cancer research, complaining that a potato salad is getting $45K while they can't even raise $4K. Well, what does that say about your cause? Hopefully, it says nothing about your cause, but maybe it says something about your process. If some random guy from Ohio can raise $45K for something that no one should care about, I think the proper attitude should be, damn, just think about how much money I could raise for something people DO care about and then, get started on figuring out how to go about it. The jealousy of goodhearted people towards this goodhearted potato fan is a bit unbecoming. And sad, because if they're unhappy about a guy making a shitload of money while being completely honest about what he was doing, how angry will these people be when they learn about the many, many people who raise a shitload of money while being dishonest?

27 points by ropable 12y ago

Related: http://www.ted.com/talks/amanda_palmer_the_art_of_asking http://www.ted.com/talks/amanda_palmer_the_art_of_asking The people's responses to the comment are telling. The Kickstarter said he'd make a potato salad. He probably has. He asked, and people gave, why do people rage about this? It just so happened that lots of people thought it was funny / wanted to give money / whatever. Who cares? The proverbial you could have thought of it too. I don't understand the stink people have over this :/

vidar 12y ago
You nailed it with "The proverbial you could have thought of it too", people are just envious.
- prawn 12y ago
  Similar to that line about contemporary art being a combination of "I could've done that" and "Yeah, but you didn't".
  - tormeh 12y ago
    Contemporary art has nowhere close to any objective criteria, by any lax use of the word. Which means it's a popularity contest. Network, a nice name, a pretty face and last but not least a good personal story will make you go far. I'm talking about art-exhibition contemporary art and not the stuff people hang on their walls. Reference: http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21586580-fakes-say-some-interesting-things-about-economics-art-emperors-new-pictures http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21586580-fakes-say-som...
14113 12y ago
> The proverbial you could have thought of it too. It's here (imho) that the problem lies. People get jealous around money, especially when (from their perspective) it's unearned, and this often leads to irrational anger, which is the bread and butter of internet comments.
- zaccus 12y ago
  By what measure is it unearned? The guy said he would make potato salad, the market decided that was worth $70k. Assuming he follows through and makes the salad, he's earned his money.

danso 12y ago

I saw earlier today that the New Yorker had written about the potato salad guy, and I skipped it because I wrongly assumed it was going to be more whining about the state of society and cynicism of our new tech-savvy overlords (cynicism which I kind of share, to be honest)...It's nice that they took a non-do-gooder stance. I chipped in $3. That's about how much I'd tip a good street performer in New York, and this Kickstarter made me laugh. The comedic timing, as much timing as you can convey in a plain written description, was just right...and I'll happily admit, I'm very curious to see how the hell he's going to deliver a "bite of potato salad" (and a photo) to me...I'm also curious if this will be the first Kickstarter project I've backed that has actually delivered its reward on time. Good for the potato guy for making the kind of joke lots of people may have had in their heads, but actually executing on it. The most annoying protests, IMO, are from the people who ostensibly represent a good cause, like a homeless shelter or cancer research, complaining that a potato salad is getting $45K while they can't even raise $4K. Well, what does that say about your cause? Hopefully, it says nothing about your cause, but maybe it says something about your process. If some random guy from Ohio can raise $45K for something that no one should care about, I think the proper attitude should be, damn, just think about how much money I could raise for something people DO care about and then, get started on figuring out how to go about it. The jealousy of goodhearted people towards this goodhearted potato fan is a bit unbecoming. And sad, because if they're unhappy about a guy making a shitload of money while being completely honest about what he was doing, how angry will these people be when they learn about the many, many people who raise a shitload of money while being dishonest?