Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I'm Leaving Mojang

notch.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 436 posts

Re: I'm Leaving Mojang

#141

Post by TeMPOraL »

simonh wrote: post #108
aeturnum wrote: post #66

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…

> I would like to see people like Notch (creative, thoughtful people) having a say in what the future holds. I don't. I have absolutely nothing against Notch, in fact I have the deepest respect for the guy as a hacker and as a person with, clearly, a lot of personal integrity. However he says quite clearly himself he's just interested in tinkering. Minecraft wasn't a deeply though out, perfectly executed, planned exe…

> It was an entirely accidental result of pretty much randomly hacking ideas together. He had absolutely no idea what the future held for Minecraft when he produced it.

That the game became a financial success is indeed somewhat accidental. But that the game was fun was certainly not. Since Notch was "just tinkering", he optimized for a fun and interesting game, not for a profitable game.

I think this is the distinction aeturnum had in mind and I agree with him. We need Notches, Wozniaks and Musks to have more say in where the future goes, because they care primarily about the problems they're solving, and not about the money they're getting.

Re: I'm Leaving Mojang

#142

Post by soperj »

talmand wrote: post #128
willvarfar wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Got a text summary for the phone users please?

It's hard for me to describe it in simpler terms. It does make interesting points about fame and how people react to those that are considered famous. It makes an excellent example using Nickelback. When people say they hate Nickelback they aren't necessarily saying they hate the band, but the music industry system that they somehow represent. But it doesn't seem to suggest the possibility that when people say they h…

Truthfully though, their music is awful.

Re: I'm Leaving Mojang

#143

Post by dvirsky »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #103
jere wrote: post #5

>As soon as this deal is finalized, I will leave Mojang and go back to doing Ludum Dares and small web experiments. It has always amazed me how down to earth Notch is. Now, he's going to be a billionaire doing little game jams. It's hard to believe and quite awesome. It's like Bruce Wayne deciding to spend the rest of his life playing with legos.

It's like a guy that got lucky and rich and never has to work a day in his life anymore retiring early and doing what he likes to do. I'll be honest, I'm bitter and jealous, :(

He comes across as a great guy, that made something great - so it seems that he deserves this, so why be bitter about it?

Sure, I envy his success and would like to make something great that will leave its mark on the world, too. I haven't, yet, but if anything, I'm inspired - and been so way before he sold his company.

Re: I'm Leaving Mojang

#144

Post by cperciva »

aeturnum wrote: post #66
jere wrote: post #5

>As soon as this deal is finalized, I will leave Mojang and go back to doing Ludum Dares and small web experiments. It has always amazed me how down to earth Notch is. Now, he's going to be a billionaire doing little game jams. It's hard to believe and quite awesome. It's like Bruce Wayne deciding to spend the rest of his life playing with legos.

>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 donating it to preschools and after-school sports programs.

Re: I'm Leaving Mojang

#145

Post by nperez »

As someone who took my lifelong fascination and turned it into a "job", I respect the hell out of this. Granted, not everyone is financially capable of just coding small experiments and getting by, but that's where the magic is.

Re: I'm Leaving Mojang

#146

Post by leishulang »

melvinmt wrote: post #111

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…

Hard working might pay off in the future. But laziness pays off NOW.

Re: I'm Leaving Mojang

#147

Post by Cyph0n »

cperciva wrote: post #144
aeturnum wrote: post #66

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…

Well stated.

Re: I'm Leaving Mojang

#148

Post by calibraxis »

jedmeyers wrote: post #135
TeMPOraL wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point being, we who are like the businessman are the slaves of our economy. We get great perks from that Moloch, like healthcare, million types of foods, computers, cinemas, all the awesome technology - but in exchange, we need to slave away our lives. It's a trade-off. We're entering the times when we can build machines to relieve us from our chains, but (apart from needing to restructure the capitalist economy)…

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.

Re: I'm Leaving Mojang

#149

Post by stdgy »

MadManE wrote: post #94
xarien wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's actually quite inspiring. He's essentially saying that he's chasing curiosity instead of profits. A lot of us would love to be able to do that. For many of us, it's why we got into programming or engineering in the first place...

How is that inspiring? To me, it's incredibly depressing. It's basically saying that he will aim to make mediocre (or terrible) things now that he has more money than he needs. This means that unless I win the lottery of life, I am condemned to doing what I'm doing and if I actually do succeed in what I'm doing, I'll never want to touch anything like it again. Edit: Sorry that I inadvertently insulted one of your her…

You're performing some monumental gymnastics if your take away from his post is that he intends to intentionally go waste his time creating bad things.

He clearly states that he isn't comfortable with the responsibilities that come bundled with being part of the operations of a marvelously popular product. His love lies with creating, tinkering and exploring. And with the sale, he has finally extricated himself from the part of his life he disliked so that he can spend his time doing things he enjoys. If any of his side creations wind up blowing up again, he now knows to just leave them behind instead of going through the process of hurting himself, doing things he doesn't like to do.

I don't think it's exactly great that he feels the need to abandon his creations, but I'm happy that his experiences with Minecraft may lead him to make some different decisions in the future to keep himself sane, and enjoy life a bit more.

Re: I'm Leaving Mojang

#150

Post by xarien »

MadManE wrote: post #94
xarien wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's actually quite inspiring. He's essentially saying that he's chasing curiosity instead of profits. A lot of us would love to be able to do that. For many of us, it's why we got into programming or engineering in the first place...

How is that inspiring? To me, it's incredibly depressing. It's basically saying that he will aim to make mediocre (or terrible) things now that he has more money than he needs. This means that unless I win the lottery of life, I am condemned to doing what I'm doing and if I actually do succeed in what I'm doing, I'll never want to touch anything like it again. Edit: Sorry that I inadvertently insulted one of your her…

You're confusing audience with quality. You don't have to look very far to see that they are quite disjoint.

You've already won the lottery of life. If you are one of the lucky few who can afford to spend time on this forum, you can count yourself lucky. At the end of the day, it really comes down to perspective and that, unfortunately, takes quite a bit of time to acquire, if ever.

Post reply on HN