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Flappy Bird Creator Dong Nguyen Speaks Out

rollingstone.com

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Re: Flappy Bird Creator Dong Nguyen Speaks Out

#221

Post by _cbb1 »

da_maire wrote: post #201
elwell wrote: post #15

I'm reminded of a time in elementary school when I opened a Pokémon booster pack to discover a Charizard. I thought it was the best day of my life, but all my friends wanted to trade me for it, and I began to hate my Charizard card. I even had a nightmare in which Charizard blew fire at me. Alas, fame and fortune are quite the deception.

I had a Charizard card, but I bought it from a local hobby store for some insane price with birthday money. I don't remember how old I was, elementary school I think, all the adults in my life told me it was a terrible decision but I had poor impulse control, wasn't one to listen to anyone, and my parents tended to let me learn my own lessons, so I ended up buying the card anyway. Ultimately all the card collectors a…

I am millenial like yourself. I got the praise and worship from my other classmates for owning a charzard the difference from my story and yours is that I opened up the booster pack and found one. I ended up listening to my parents, saved the $75 dollars, and was ultimately happy.

Until some kid actually stole my binder and I lost it all.

The moral of my story is "don't trust anyone"

Re: Flappy Bird Creator Dong Nguyen Speaks Out

#222

Post by tempestn »

trillium wrote: post #213
lutusp wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I already have my mark set, f I by any chance get 1.5 million US$, I'll quit. That's the Workaholic Test™ -- if you make a million dollars, do you drop everything and sit on a beach somewhere reading a worthwhile novel, or do you move the goal posts and carry on toward a new, less realistic goal? Most people won't make a million dollars, so most people will never know whether they're workaholics.

I greatly enjoy working on my startups, ideas and projects. If I had 5 million dollars, I would just change how I work.

Ditto. This "test" assumes lying on a beach producing nothing is an ideal to strive for. I enjoy my vacations, but I wouldn't want to do that all the time!

Re: Flappy Bird Creator Dong Nguyen Speaks Out

#223

Post by joesmo »

antirez wrote: post #120
bsenftner wrote: post #25

As a long term developer of entertainment software, I totally agree with his point of view about the impact one's software has upon the lives of the user. The general acceptance goes that the crazies and depressed will be triggered by something and its not your fault if something provocative you worked on triggers an incident. That's what the group think tells us, but in ones personal reality it's not that easy to sh…

To be fair, seen from outside, this seems something strange and, in my opinion, not good about the American culture: there is always somebody to blame for your problem, a reason why you are acting in a given way, an external cause if you suffer a medical problem, eat too much, put all the kind of pills in your body, and so forth. Probably this is representative only of a minority, but from the outside this looks like…

The "blame game." It's so ingrained in US culture that many people don't know how to operate otherwise. It's not exclusive to the US, but it's certainly a defining factor of society here.

Re: Flappy Bird Creator Dong Nguyen Speaks Out

#224

Post by bad_user »

minikites wrote: post #139
antirez wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, seen from outside, this seems something strange and, in my opinion, not good about the American culture: there is always somebody to blame for your problem, a reason why you are acting in a given way, an external cause if you suffer a medical problem, eat too much, put all the kind of pills in your body, and so forth. Probably this is representative only of a minority, but from the outside this looks like…

> Example: a violent game can be a way to express violence of an otherwise repressed person, or some other people that is having a few bad weeks, is finding an escape playing at it. Yeah, that's not actually true. "Letting your anger out" makes you angrier. http://youarenotsosmart.com/2010/08/11/catharsis/

The study outlined in the article hasn't convinced me and like all studies on matters of bullshit I'm pretty sure other studies will follow trying to prove the opposite.

Personally I have had problems much bigger than what I can handle and as a passive aggressive personality my mind's response is to simply ignore many problems which are otherwise very serious, which has led me into even bigger problems and on the edge of depression. But when I do happen to let my anger out, an interesting thing happens - I take steps to solve those problems, because vetting in itself can also be acknowledgement that you do have a problem in need of a fix.

That's why I don't like the study outlined, because like many other studies of psychology, it's very, very shallow and has a problem with causality.

Also, be mindful about the studies you read about. Before believing anything, be mindful about the science, the methodology behind it. For example if you take a look in the last 60 years, you'll probably discover hundreds of flawed studies on nutrition and cholesterol based on which medical personnel in all countries have been spreading myths as some sort of gospel.

Re: Flappy Bird Creator Dong Nguyen Speaks Out

#225

Post by mattlutze »

jakobsen wrote: post #205
mattlutze wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rolling Stone isn't going to run an article about the impact of Flappy Bird on culture in Tazmania or Greece; while it would be tangentially interesting, the subject's incredibly small proximity to the life of the average reader of the American version of Rolling Stone means it won't have the same impact. Not a "just how Americans think" issue, a "what is relevant to our readers' lives" issue.

Aren't you are proving the parent's point there? You say that only articles depicting their own culture are seem as relevant to the american reader, which is what he claims. That's absolutely not the case in other places of the world. In some cases, even the opposite problem arises (that is, discriminating against your own country/culture and favouring a foreign one)

No, I said an article about a culture only tangentially related to the reader will be less relevant than an article directly related to the reader.

(To note, the article wasn't about American culture, it was a personal interest piece on a person who was unprepared for the effects of the success he experienced.)

If by "other places in the world" you mean areas that are small enough or have an ephemeral-enough regional identity to have developed strong codependent identities with other regions, then I would certainly agree.

Living in a number of places has shown me that, in larger countries/communities with defined identities, internally facing publications will publish stories that are strongly relevant to their reader.

Because, as I said, it wouldn't make a lot of sense to spend that sort of space on an article that wasn't relevant to the reader.

Re: Flappy Bird Creator Dong Nguyen Speaks Out

#226

Post by akiselev »

jakobsen wrote: post #205
mattlutze wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rolling Stone isn't going to run an article about the impact of Flappy Bird on culture in Tazmania or Greece; while it would be tangentially interesting, the subject's incredibly small proximity to the life of the average reader of the American version of Rolling Stone means it won't have the same impact. Not a "just how Americans think" issue, a "what is relevant to our readers' lives" issue.

Aren't you are proving the parent's point there? You say that only articles depicting their own culture are seem as relevant to the american reader, which is what he claims. That's absolutely not the case in other places of the world. In some cases, even the opposite problem arises (that is, discriminating against your own country/culture and favouring a foreign one)

As a transplant to America I agree with the difference in cultures but to be fair, you're comparing "other places of the world," which tend to be much smaller and more homogenous that the US, to a country founded as a loose federation of states divided largely along political and religious lines.

Cultural diversity (and exceptionalism, etc) is all rolled into the DNA of the country.

Re: Flappy Bird Creator Dong Nguyen Speaks Out

#227

Post by dllthomas »

tempestn wrote: post #222
trillium wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I greatly enjoy working on my startups, ideas and projects. If I had 5 million dollars, I would just change how I work.

Ditto. This "test" assumes lying on a beach producing nothing is an ideal to strive for. I enjoy my vacations, but I wouldn't want to do that all the time!

Maybe you have some level of workaholism? Though I'm not sure labeling it where it's not harmful makes sense...

Re: Flappy Bird Creator Dong Nguyen Speaks Out

#228

Post by robflynn »

judk wrote: post #144
robflynn wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was the same for me when I was project lead for Gaim/Pidgin. I was lead for something like 6 years and I eventually got tired of the hate. Sure, there was plenty of praise, too. But the harassment eventually became annoying. It hit it's breaking point when someone folks managed to figure out my cell phone number and would call me at all sorts of hours (3am once!) to "tell me about their ideas." I changed my cell n…

Thanks for doing more than your share. Pidgin/Gaim were great. Pidgin still is.

Thanks! :)

Re: Flappy Bird Creator Dong Nguyen Speaks Out

#229

Post by robflynn »

_nedR wrote: post #162
robflynn wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was the same for me when I was project lead for Gaim/Pidgin. I was lead for something like 6 years and I eventually got tired of the hate. Sure, there was plenty of praise, too. But the harassment eventually became annoying. It hit it's breaking point when someone folks managed to figure out my cell phone number and would call me at all sorts of hours (3am once!) to "tell me about their ideas." I changed my cell n…

Oh hi, you're the dev of pidgin? I have a couple of awesome ideas I want to sell to you. I'll call you with the details...

Sorry, you've got the wrong number. Hello, Tmobile??

Re: Flappy Bird Creator Dong Nguyen Speaks Out

#230

Post by robflynn »

NPC82 wrote: post #124
robflynn wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was the same for me when I was project lead for Gaim/Pidgin. I was lead for something like 6 years and I eventually got tired of the hate. Sure, there was plenty of praise, too. But the harassment eventually became annoying. It hit it's breaking point when someone folks managed to figure out my cell phone number and would call me at all sorts of hours (3am once!) to "tell me about their ideas." I changed my cell n…

Pidgin/gaim fan here - thank you. I think I started using it just before the time of the name change and it's had an enormously positive impact on my life. That might sound silly but it was one of the few Linux programs I knew how to install and configure at the time.

That makes me happy. Sounds like you came into it just as I was stepping away. I pretty much stayed through the name change and then split. :)
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