7 ms·

Sociopath may be a bridge too far, but there's definitely something very, very off about the way the author describes his scam as a business, and the apparent l

Sociopath may be a bridge too far, but there's definitely something very, very off about the way the author describes his scam as a business, and the apparent lack of emotion with which he describes the events in his life. It's cold and factual, and all "me, me, me".

dang 12y ago
How fascinating that we see such different things in the article. In the one I read, a guy puts his life on hold to take care of his dying father: I spent nearly every day helping him out. I couldn't bear to see him worry about me That's not "me, me, me", nor does it lack emotion, and certainly it refutes the (already self-refutingly silly) diagnosis of sociopathy. I wonder if there may be some crossed cultural signals here. Montana is not a place where people effuse.
- Terr_ 12y ago
  Totally independently (there were 0 comments when I started reading) I've reached a gut feeling which I think closely mirrors WrathOfJay's. > > I couldn't bare to see him worry about me > That's not "me, me, me", nor does it lack emotion Switch the emphasis around, and he couldn't bear his future success being doubted. The story being told still comes back to the author's same universal preoccupation, which involves his own validation as a famous and successful person, or failing that one who is destined for it. No, I wouldn't call it sociopathy, but narcissism is definitely in the cards.
Blackthorn 12y ago
What was the "scam" here, exactly?
- floody-berry 12y ago
  e.g., in Diablo 2, duped items were known to "poof" or disappear if you were not careful. There is no way to tell if an item is legitimate or not, leading to the obvious situation of oblivious players buying or trading for a dupe and having it vanish. People who create dupes and sell them for real money are exploiting naive players and putting them at risk while ruining the game for legitimate players. They're human filth.
  - Blackthorn 12y ago
    The game being referenced is not Diablo 2 and does not have that issue.
    - floody-berry 12y ago
      From his previous article on his "startup" / "business": > In my online game hacking history to that point, I'd had seven dupe methods patched across four different games, but never had an account closed. He doesn't specify what the other 3 (or more) games were (other than one is the "next most popular online game"), or if he exploited them as well. Assuming these posts are even true that is, they come off as quite hokey. I wouldn't be surprised if they turned out to be caricatures to see just what HN readers will celebrate.
      - atomical 12y ago
        The moral compass / exploit is a red herring. The bigger issue is that some guy on the internet, who claims to be driven in all the right ways, isn't talking about doing real life shit to land a job so he can provide for his family. He won't take real college courses because he can learn the subjects on his own so much faster. So instead he majors in Spanish. Huh? In life you need to know when to jump through hoops to get ahead. But his ego and ideology prevent him from making the choices necessary to be successful.
        Blackthorn 12y ago
        I've found that a lot of hacker types have this problem. There comes a point where it's really beneficial to put your nose against the grindstone and jump through a few ridiculous hoops. Is it stupid? Sure, but at the end of the day if it benefits you to play the game, you play the game.
Jetrel 12y ago
Yeah, I too got a really weird vibe from this. I can't really put my finger on it, but something's really quite creepy about this. It's not that he doesn't care, it's the way that he cares - almost like banging out a checklist - treating the symbols as the substance. I feel bad saying that, but ... I feel like it needs to be called out. Something ain't right.

dang 12y ago

How fascinating that we see such different things in the article. In the one I read, a guy puts his life on hold to take care of his dying father: I spent nearly every day helping him out. I couldn't bear to see him worry about me That's not "me, me, me", nor does it lack emotion, and certainly it refutes the (already self-refutingly silly) diagnosis of sociopathy. I wonder if there may be some crossed cultural signals here. Montana is not a place where people effuse.

Terr_ 12y ago
Totally independently (there were 0 comments when I started reading) I've reached a gut feeling which I think closely mirrors WrathOfJay's. > > I couldn't bare to see him worry about me > That's not "me, me, me", nor does it lack emotion Switch the emphasis around, and he couldn't bear his future success being doubted. The story being told still comes back to the author's same universal preoccupation, which involves his own validation as a famous and successful person, or failing that one who is destined for it. No, I wouldn't call it sociopathy, but narcissism is definitely in the cards.

Blackthorn 12y ago

What was the "scam" here, exactly?

floody-berry 12y ago
e.g., in Diablo 2, duped items were known to "poof" or disappear if you were not careful. There is no way to tell if an item is legitimate or not, leading to the obvious situation of oblivious players buying or trading for a dupe and having it vanish. People who create dupes and sell them for real money are exploiting naive players and putting them at risk while ruining the game for legitimate players. They're human filth.
- Blackthorn 12y ago
  The game being referenced is not Diablo 2 and does not have that issue.
  - floody-berry 12y ago
    From his previous article on his "startup" / "business": > In my online game hacking history to that point, I'd had seven dupe methods patched across four different games, but never had an account closed. He doesn't specify what the other 3 (or more) games were (other than one is the "next most popular online game"), or if he exploited them as well. Assuming these posts are even true that is, they come off as quite hokey. I wouldn't be surprised if they turned out to be caricatures to see just what HN readers will celebrate.
    - atomical 12y ago
      The moral compass / exploit is a red herring. The bigger issue is that some guy on the internet, who claims to be driven in all the right ways, isn't talking about doing real life shit to land a job so he can provide for his family. He won't take real college courses because he can learn the subjects on his own so much faster. So instead he majors in Spanish. Huh? In life you need to know when to jump through hoops to get ahead. But his ego and ideology prevent him from making the choices necessary to be successful.
      - Blackthorn 12y ago
        I've found that a lot of hacker types have this problem. There comes a point where it's really beneficial to put your nose against the grindstone and jump through a few ridiculous hoops. Is it stupid? Sure, but at the end of the day if it benefits you to play the game, you play the game.

Jetrel 12y ago

Yeah, I too got a really weird vibe from this. I can't really put my finger on it, but something's really quite creepy about this. It's not that he doesn't care, it's the way that he cares - almost like banging out a checklist - treating the symbols as the substance. I feel bad saying that, but ... I feel like it needs to be called out. Something ain't right.