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DHH Commissions his own Supercar - the Pagani Zonda HH

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Re: DHH Commissions his own Supercar - the Pagani Zonda HH

#91

Post by code_duck »

stevefarnworth wrote: post #89
code_duck wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, you buy a bespoke 680hp race car for the purpose of masturbation, essentially. Some people choose to invest in other companies. Some people choose to operate charities or donate to them. Others may invest in something that holds its value, like real estate. What type of person spends their money on stuff like this? Not a particularly interesting person.

Actually, a one-off supercar will more than hold its value. Its value should actually increase (especially seeing as the Zonda it's based on is ending its short production run), as has been shown by the values of Ferrari Enzos which have almost doubled since production ended. So, from an investment standpoint, it's sound. Plus, it's his money. He (if it is DHH who bought it) can spend it how he likes, and he likes ca…

I consider the social value of this to be about equivalent to 'DHH stocks his vacation home with $1m in cocaine'.

He could say, go race a stock car, have about as much fun, and fund 20 startups as an angel investor. Instead, he's blowing his money on expensive thrills.

Re: DHH Commissions his own Supercar - the Pagani Zonda HH

#92

Post by petercooper »

tjogin wrote: post #79
petercooper wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd suspect Pagani or a PR agency are running it, not him.

Even if it is him, I don't think DHH would create a Rails based blog just for the purpose of posting pics of his pet project. DHH is a pragmatic guy, and Tumblr is an excellent tool.

Yeah, that's true. It's been a few years since the discussion but the 37signals blog was on Wordpress at some point (might still be) and pragmatism was cited. I agree with this and my own Ruby blog is on Wordpress too ;-) Ruby blog solutions mostly suck.

Re: DHH Commissions his own Supercar - the Pagani Zonda HH

#93

Post by stevefarnworth »

code_duck wrote: post #91
stevefarnworth wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, a one-off supercar will more than hold its value. Its value should actually increase (especially seeing as the Zonda it's based on is ending its short production run), as has been shown by the values of Ferrari Enzos which have almost doubled since production ended. So, from an investment standpoint, it's sound. Plus, it's his money. He (if it is DHH who bought it) can spend it how he likes, and he likes ca…

I consider the social value of this to be about equivalent to 'DHH stocks his vacation home with $1m in cocaine'. He could say, go race a stock car, have about as much fun, and fund 20 startups as an angel investor. Instead, he's blowing his money on expensive thrills.

No. What you suggest is socially destructive, buying an expensive car is socially neutral. Why such an aversion to expensive cars? I'd rather live in a studio apartment with a Ferrari, than a 4 bedroom house (which I don't need - as it's just me) with a "normal" car.

Besides - why the heck should a private guy have to do anything of social value with his money? What, you want him to fund your startup with his hard-earned cash? Why should he?

There is nothing that says an entrepreneur has to spend their wealth investing in startups. Tom Perkins commissioned the Maltese Falcon, Larry Ellison (co)owns The Rising Sun, Elon Musk founded a freaking space-ship company because he wanted to.

This: "Instead, he's blowing his money on expensive thrills." Why shouldn't he? It's his money, he's not harming anyone by doing it, is he? Owning an expensive car doesn't mean you do anything illegal or immoral with it.

Re: DHH Commissions his own Supercar - the Pagani Zonda HH

#94

Post by gjm11 »

byrneseyeview wrote: post #88
gjm11 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Explaining jokes is usually an unsatisfactory business for everyone involved, but: What's in question is not the value of working in a startup rather than doing nothing at all, but the value of working in a startup relative to the sort of business that DHH founded. So far as I know, it's an open question whether that is positive or negative -- whether you look at the founder's own interests, or those of society, or t…

My point was that lotto tickets are a bad decision that works out well for some people. Starting a startup is a good decision that works out poorly for some people. It's just not helpful to draw the comparison; it's like hearing someone say they like a comedian, and then pointing out that John Wayne Gacy was a popular party performer. The fact that distribution A contains outliers from Distribution B doesn't mean tha…

It's like you didn't even read what I wrote.

1. The relevant question is not "startup versus nothing", it's "startup versus lifestyle business". How do you know that choosing a startup in that context is a good decision?

2. I wasn't claiming that startups and lottery tickets are at all the same sort of thing. I was making a point about saying "X, Y and Z founded startups and it worked really well for them": that just isn't good evidence that startups are good in general, or even for any particular (however rare) sort of person, unless you can say what's special about X, Y and Z other than that their startups happened to succeed.

Re: DHH Commissions his own Supercar - the Pagani Zonda HH

#95

Post by abalashov »

garply wrote: post #16

After listening to DHH speak at Startup School a few years ago I came to the conclusion that for an entrepreneur a "lifestyle business" is a much more probable path to getting rich than the grow-fast-and-flip approach demanded by VCs and angel investors. In retrospect, it seems pretty obvious, but previously I had really only been exposed to entrepreneurship through PG's blog. I had never heard of 37 Signals before.…

This sounds like a strange non sequitur to me; you needed 37 Signals to tell you that you need to charge for stuff to make money, and could not possibly have arrived at this conclusion without their particular received insight on this very matter?

It seems to me one could have concluded that just by looking at the nature and history of commerce.

Now, it may be that you did not realise this, and that when you did, it was at 37 Signals' encouragement to do so. But from this it does not follow that the single thing that could've happened that would have been better for you would have been to be introduced to entrepreneurial thought by 37 Signals.

Re: DHH Commissions his own Supercar - the Pagani Zonda HH

#96

Post by abalashov »

jonknee wrote: post #6

For the inevitable curiosity, apparently these run in [at least] the $350,000 range. It's never cheap to hit 0-60 in 3.7s or less. http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/coupes/112_0212_pagani_z...

Eh, thing is, if you've ever had a nice motorcycle, there is just not a single car in the world whose acceleration will impress you, it doesn't matter the horsepower or the price tag. It's just a physics thing. :)

Re: DHH Commissions his own Supercar - the Pagani Zonda HH

#97

Post by alabut »

brown9-2 wrote: post #30
llimllib wrote: post #9

DHH is that rich?

The article also has this.. Heinemeier Hansson is based in Chicago, but since the Zonda was never homologated to U.S. specifications, reports indicate that the owner bought a vacation home in Italy just so he could drive the thing. Now that's dedication.

Reminds me of an article I read about an American airline pilot that keeps a small house in Germany just to store a Porsche that he cruises the autobahn with. Having been both on the autobahn (when I was 12, in a pokey Toyota van) and in Porsches, I can easily imagine doing the same.
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