Live data from Hacker News

I'm Leaving Mojang

notch.net

171–180 of 436 posts

Re: I'm Leaving Mojang

#171

There was once a businessman who was sitting by the beach in a small Brazilian village. As he sat, he saw a Brazilian fisherman rowing a small boat towards the shore having caught quite few big fish. The businessman was impressed and asked the fisherman, “How long does it take you to catch so many fish?” The fisherman replied, “Oh, just a short while.” “Then why don’t you stay longer at sea and catch even more?” The…

There is a similar version of this told from an Australian perspective. Same moral.

I experienced this attitude and culture first hand when I spent 2 years driving from Alaska to Argentina [1]. It's impressive how happy people are when they're not trying to " get ahead".

[1] http://theroadchoseme.com

Re: I'm Leaving Mojang

#172
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And then the fisherman got a horrible toothache and there was nothing he could do about it. A few years later, overfishing led to near-depletion of the local supply, and new restrictions were implemented on fishing licenses. The fisherman was unable to afford one, and yet he had no other means of supporting his family. By the end of the decade his wife and children were begging on the street. Meanwhile, the businessm…

Until the ski resort closed due to lack of snow from global warming, his business failed as increasing amounts of financial capital were required for ever falling returns on new energy exploration, globalization collapsed due to increased fuel and energy costs making shipping child-labor textiles and fatuous electronics 12,000 miles uneconomic. If your model of the world suggests that fishing isn't a sustainable acti…

https://www.google.com/search?q=fishing+unsustainable

Re: I'm Leaving Mojang

#173
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And then the fisherman got a horrible toothache and there was nothing he could do about it. A few years later, overfishing led to near-depletion of the local supply, and new restrictions were implemented on fishing licenses. The fisherman was unable to afford one, and yet he had no other means of supporting his family. By the end of the decade his wife and children were begging on the street. Meanwhile, the businessm…

Until the ski resort closed due to lack of snow from global warming, his business failed as increasing amounts of financial capital were required for ever falling returns on new energy exploration, globalization collapsed due to increased fuel and energy costs making shipping child-labor textiles and fatuous electronics 12,000 miles uneconomic. If your model of the world suggests that fishing isn't a sustainable acti…

While the ski resort was closing, the businessman created a simple video game called Minecraft which he later sold for $2.5 billion. Now he has fuck you money and doesn't give a shit what happens to the economy.

Re: I'm Leaving Mojang

#174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since the beginning of humanity people have been slaves to the necessity of survival.

In modern times, it's unnecessarily being slaves to bosses, whose commands wageslaves obey all day. We were born in a goofy time.

We weren't born in a goofy time. We (the people who frequent this board) largely exist in an industry where in certain markets you have enough leverage to some of the worst elements of wage slavery.

But 98% of people on this planet at this time aren't in the same position and even in our industry if you think you are I suspect you'd be surprised how far you can really push your freedom from your bosses will it before you find you've got problems.

Re: I'm Leaving Mojang

#175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In modern times, it's unnecessarily being slaves to bosses, whose commands wageslaves obey all day. We were born in a goofy time.

So, no one had to obey bosses' commands in previous times?

Sure they did. So what?

Just because we always had to do something, doesn't mean we should continue to do so. We always had to die from random stupid illnesses until one guy stumbled over penicillin and the other one figured out that it might be a good idea to wash hands before performing surgery.

The whole concept of progress of mankind is the idea that we should strive to get rid of stupid shit that caused harm, misery and death since the day one.

Re: I'm Leaving Mojang

#176

There was once a businessman who was sitting by the beach in a small Brazilian village. As he sat, he saw a Brazilian fisherman rowing a small boat towards the shore having caught quite few big fish. The businessman was impressed and asked the fisherman, “How long does it take you to catch so many fish?” The fisherman replied, “Oh, just a short while.” “Then why don’t you stay longer at sea and catch even more?” The…

Ugh. Parables can be used to demonstrate just about anything. There once was a fisherman, much like the one you describe in the parent comment. One day a businessman approached him with a proposal that would require more work, but would, in the end, result in much more financial freedom and stability. The fisherman declined the advice and went about his life, happily fishing for the days food and spending the rest of…

[deleted]

Re: I'm Leaving Mojang

#177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Until the ski resort closed due to lack of snow from global warming, his business failed as increasing amounts of financial capital were required for ever falling returns on new energy exploration, globalization collapsed due to increased fuel and energy costs making shipping child-labor textiles and fatuous electronics 12,000 miles uneconomic. If your model of the world suggests that fishing isn't a sustainable acti…

While the ski resort was closing, the businessman created a simple video game called Minecraft which he later sold for $2.5 billion. Now he has fuck you money and doesn't give a shit what happens to the economy.

Until the economy collapses and he realizes that money is just an abstract concept that works as long as the economy exists. He dies from hunger trying to fertilize his field with banknotes and get bees to offer him honey in exchange for an electronic cash transfer.

Re: I'm Leaving Mojang

#178

There was once a businessman who was sitting by the beach in a small Brazilian village. As he sat, he saw a Brazilian fisherman rowing a small boat towards the shore having caught quite few big fish. The businessman was impressed and asked the fisherman, “How long does it take you to catch so many fish?” The fisherman replied, “Oh, just a short while.” “Then why don’t you stay longer at sea and catch even more?” The…

I know a lot of people like this - smart, talented people who want a lifestyle business. Being able to afford to do what you love for a living is awesome. Good for Notch, now he can.

Re: I'm Leaving Mojang

#179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bruce Wayne's character in batman is always thinking big. He tries to push things in the direction he thinks is right. No, Bruce Wayne is incredibly myopic. If you have billions of dollars and you want to fight crime, the last thing you should be doing is developing fancy equipment so that you can personally go after criminals one by one. If Bruce Wayne truly wanted to use his money to reduce crime, he would be donat…

Getting off-topic of course, but the key insight here is that Bruce Wayne does NOT really want to 'reduce crime'. Instead, he wants to take revenge on criminals, like the criminals who killed his parents. 'reduce crime' isn't the same as 'fight crime', he requires the FIGHT part, and the revenge part. Yeah, that makes him somewhat less sympathetic, but isn't that what everyone likes about batman these days, the darkn…

Yep. See Watchmen (the book, not the movie) for an extended look into what kind of batshit people would ever want to be a "superhero".

Re: I'm Leaving Mojang

#180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It's like Bruce Wayne deciding to spend the rest of his life playing with legos. I like this image. Bruce Wayne's character in batman is always thinking big. He tries to push things in the direction he thinks is right. The idea that someone would have all the power and decide to play with toys makes me worry about the rest of us. I would like to see people like Notch (creative, thoughtful people) having a say in wha…

Bruce Wayne's character in batman is always thinking big. He tries to push things in the direction he thinks is right. No, Bruce Wayne is incredibly myopic. If you have billions of dollars and you want to fight crime, the last thing you should be doing is developing fancy equipment so that you can personally go after criminals one by one. If Bruce Wayne truly wanted to use his money to reduce crime, he would be donat…

> If Bruce Wayne truly wanted to use his money to reduce crime, he would be donating it to preschools and after-school sports programs.

To be fair, Bruce Wayne does, in most versions of the Batman stories, incredibly vast amounts of local charity of that type (and others), as well as personally going after criminals one by one, and there's probably limited capacity to productively absorb those funds (Wayne's pump-priming charity would probably also be increasing that capacity and enabling Wayne to shift more money into those approaches productively, were it not for the fact that it is somewhat counteracted by the rather extraordinary frequency of supervillian-initiated civic destruction in Gotham, which probably has a negative impact on capacity-development efforts.)

Post reply on HN