In the end, he's just another dead junkie. At least he didn't take anyone else with him.
What's the point in disparaging the dead.
To discourage adoration and emulation.
Tony Hsieh bankrolled his followers, who enabled his risky lifestyle
51–60 of 86 posts
Re: Tony Hsieh bankrolled his followers, who enabled his risky lifestyle
#52I appreciate the more nuanced view of the way his entourage both enabled and tried to help him. Earlier coverage (that I saw) just focused on the fact that all his friends were on his payroll and were forbidden from trying to get him to rehab or an intervention. But it sounds like many were trying to help in ways they could come up with that Tony would tolerate - hiring the doctor, for example. And it sounds like his…
A teacher of mine once told us that "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." I think that's one of the paradoxes of life and we see this over and over again where a lot of good people try to do the right thing but the collective effects of their efforts end up being net negative. Rather than conspiracies, I think this paradox can explain some of the challenges we face today. Barbara Tuchman wrote a great book called "The March of Folly" that basically documents some famous cases of people unwittingly working against their own best interest, even if the individual steps themselves might have made sense.
Re: Tony Hsieh bankrolled his followers, who enabled his risky lifestyle
#53When a random addict dies everyone knows whose fault it is. But when a rich addict dies, everyone wants to know whose fault it is. Sure.
That's unnecessarily cynical. Tony Hsieh was not just some random rich guy, particularly not to this community.
Re: Tony Hsieh bankrolled his followers, who enabled his risky lifestyle
#54Whip-its? This guy had $840M and his drug of choice was whip-its? That is strangely amusing...
Whip-its have become pretty popular among the burning man crowd. I remember seeing piles in East Palo Alto parking lots and wondering if they were from bored kids or bored techies.
Re: Tony Hsieh bankrolled his followers, who enabled his risky lifestyle
#55Whip-its? This guy had $840M and his drug of choice was whip-its? That is strangely amusing...
Whip-its have become pretty popular among the burning man crowd. I remember seeing piles in East Palo Alto parking lots and wondering if they were from bored kids or bored techies.
maybe the implication is that it is surprising he would be cracking whipped cream chargers vs. using his billionaire concierge connections to get a tank(crooked dentist, whatever).
Would look classier than 10000 little chargers in piles -- nitrous addicts can consume a staggering quantity of little pods, basically back to back constantly every 15 seconds for hours. It is reportedly very 'moreish', as the brits would say.
Re: Tony Hsieh bankrolled his followers, who enabled his risky lifestyle
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
Whip-its have become pretty popular among the burning man crowd. I remember seeing piles in East Palo Alto parking lots and wondering if they were from bored kids or bored techies.
maybe the implication is that it is surprising he would be cracking whipped cream chargers vs. using his billionaire concierge connections to get a tank(crooked dentist, whatever). Would look classier than 10000 little chargers in piles -- nitrous addicts can consume a staggering quantity of little pods, basically back to back constantly every 15 seconds for hours. It is reportedly very 'moreish', as the brits would…
Previous articles about his death mentioned that he also had portable nitrous tanks that he'd use on walks outdoors in Park City and in other situations where he couldn't go through individual whip-its. His being tethered to the tank was one of the things that motivated Jewel to write the letter.
Re: Tony Hsieh bankrolled his followers, who enabled his risky lifestyle
#57One simple and obvious lesson to point out here is that you better make peace with yourself before coming into possession of any large sum. Money can destroy you just as easily as it can empower you. Look at what happens to a significant percentage of lottery winners. It's an amplifier, and it can amplify your problems and self-destructive tendencies along with your desire to do good.
Young athletes seems to be another really big case of this. Lots of people with short careers but huge earnings who either cannot handle the money or hand their finances over to people who try to take advantage of them.
Re: Tony Hsieh bankrolled his followers, who enabled his risky lifestyle
#58In the end, he's just another dead junkie. At least he didn't take anyone else with him.
Congrats! Pure evil take!
Re: Tony Hsieh bankrolled his followers, who enabled his risky lifestyle
#59With all due respect (and not saying these groups have overlap) there is a notable presence of people on Hacker News that minimize the danger of or encourage drug experimentation, if not regular drug use.
Tony Hsieh is ultimately responsible for his choices that led to his tragic and early death. But it leaves a bad taste to see people calling out his entourage here and then other people advocating similar behavior in other submissions.
Re: Tony Hsieh bankrolled his followers, who enabled his risky lifestyle
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
Our lives and bodies are our own, to use, build, and destroy as we see fit. It's one thing to help a friend avoid an accidental death, but this speaks to a months long pattern of behavior that was clearly a deliberate personal decision. What's the point of wealth if not obtaining the basic freedom to live (and die) how we choose?
>a months long pattern of behavior that was clearly a deliberate personal decision Drug/Alcohol addiction is hardly a personal decision... This is a dangerous point of view to take.
Whose decision is it, if not the person who opts to become addicted and continue that addiction?
People like to personify addiction, as if there is some outside force controlling the person, but this is to discount and discard every single addict who decided to clean themselves up. I know lots of addicts who chose to continue, and I know lots of addicts who chose to stop.
Don't personify the addiction: the brain of an addict is still that person's brain, and their decisions are still their own, even if they are de-legitimized in your own opinion due to their addiction. There is literally no one else who could possibly be responsible for the decisions of that human's brain and actions than that human being.
What goes in to our own bodies when we are not coerced by another person is our own decision, full stop.