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Money isn't everything, according to Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson's "increasingly despondent" tweets:
Shortly after the sale of Minecraft's parent company, Mojang's co-founder Markus Persson had reportedly left the studio in order to pursue other projects. Naturally, before immediately moving on to another enterprise, the man more affectionately known in the gaming community as "Notch" has taken several beats to reap the benefits of his success, outbidding Beyoncé and Jay-Z on a $70 million home, and hosting lavish parties in his newly acquired mansion. However, he's also been afforded plenty of time to reflect on how far he's come, and not surprisingly, it's quite lonely at the top.
Recently, Notch took to his Twitter account to air his grievances with the current situation in which he finds himself. Although Persson's net worth currently rests at $1.33 billion as of writing, the famous game designer has confessed that such prosperity has essentially cursed him in the grand scheme of things, as he's "never felt more isolated". Apparently what John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote all those years ago is true, and it's that money can't buy love. Taking that into consideration, Notch's Tweets grow increasingly despondent, as seen below.
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The problem with getting everything is you run out of reasons to keep trying, and human interaction becomes impossible due to imbalance.— Markus Persson (@notch) August 29, 2015
Hanging out in ibiza with a bunch of friends and partying with famous people, able to do whatever I want, and I've never felt more isolated.— Markus Persson (@notch) August 29, 2015
In sweden, I will sit around and wait for my friends with jobs and families to have time to do shit, watching my reflection in the monitor.— Markus Persson (@notch) August 29, 2015
When we sold the company, the biggest effort went into making sure the employees got taken care of, and they all hate me now.— Markus Persson (@notch) August 29, 2015
Found a great girl, but she's afraid of me and my life style and went with a normal person instead.— Markus Persson (@notch) August 29, 2015
I would Musk and try to save the world, but that just exposes me to the same type of assholes that made me sell minecraft again.— Markus Persson (@notch) August 29, 2015
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 31 2015, @02:07PM
I often imagine like all people in the world what would happen if I won the lottery. Of course unlike the mass herd of sheep, I always arrive at a horrible spiral of self-destruction. I never play the lotto for this very reason. I fear not success... since you cannot really call it that. I fear a "power surge" I think I would get from sudden influx of wealth. My ego is pretty big, and luckily my life provides it with plenty of opportunity for humility. I fear it would otherwise consume me, as would be the case if I got a billion dollars.
So only a fool dreams of winning the lottery, a smart man would know better. You may have grand ideas or ideals of what you would do with that money, and tell me I'm flat out wrong, but until you are in that situation you cannot tell me you could shake the temptation of destroying yourself.
(Score: 2) by Anal Pumpernickel on Monday August 31 2015, @02:38PM
So only a fool dreams of winning the lottery, a smart man would know better.
Only a fool (by my standards) dreams of winning the lottery because the probability of actually winning the lottery is so small that you're just wasting your money.
What you say is entirely subjective. Not everyone is like you. Not everyone wishes to waste money on useless trash. Not everyone shares your values. Therefore, you cannot say that because you would not be satisfied with winning the lottery, that no one else would.
but until you are in that situation you cannot tell me you could shake the temptation of destroying yourself.
Similarly, you can't tell someone else how they would act if such a thing were to occur.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 31 2015, @04:59PM
GP here, Fair point in deed. I was merely reflecting on fallibility of the human condition. You think you can handle shit till you can't. Likewise some may handle it much better than others, I only fear that that subset is much much smaller. A lot of people would parade their intellect out front, claiming they would never succumb to any of the ailments that plague other men. I too think of myself intelligent, but I would not make such a statement.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday August 31 2015, @02:52PM
It really doesn't take that much to deal with money well. You just have to not really give a shit about it. If I, for instance, became suddenly rich the following things would happen:
Beyond that, I don't really have the ambition for that much money. I'd probably give most of it away and just keep enough to maintain a comfortable, if boring to many people, lifestyle.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday August 31 2015, @02:54PM
Hrm, looks like OLs, and probably ULs, could use some margin- or padding-bottom in the css.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday August 31 2015, @02:57PM
Should have noticed that when I started working on it in the extension. I guess I thought it was specific to VT100.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by OrugTor on Monday August 31 2015, @04:54PM
Own a boat? Wow, you really don't give a shit about the money. I give you three years to burn through the lot.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday August 31 2015, @05:07PM
Pretty fair point but I'm only talking like a 12-16' john boat. Most any upkeep of that I can do myself for little to nothing.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 31 2015, @05:12PM
That is a very rehearsed view of things. A lot of people go this route. If you have a plan for the money, you feel it would not get out of hands. But glancing at your list a few million could achieve that. Now imagine a few billion dollars. The level of problems associated with that wealth are significantly higher.
(For rest of the comment I will use 'you' in an abstract sense. It doesn't necessarily mean you personally, as I do not know you personally and cannot make an accurate judgement as to your character or level of apathy you might have towards how the funds are distributed. So please take no offense if it rubs you the wrong way, it is merely used to show a point.)
I hope you would successfully give it away. But imagine how hard it would be to give that much money away. How do you decide who to give it away? As soon as the word got out you were planning on giving it away you would be flooded with phone calls, mail, and in person visits from 'lobbyists' -- really only word that fits -- for every entity that wants your money. Even if you knew what cause was most important to you, how would you choose which charity to sponsor? I mean sure you care about heart disease, but would it be better to fund research for heart replacement or drugs that cut risks of heart attacks? Would you support an organization that has a good goal but only spends 10% of it's donations on non-overhead related expenses? Surely that would mean squandering the 'gift' you were given instead of using it to do some good. And should you use your money to fund projects directly, or to persuade politicians to funnel more public money to those projects instead. After all your wealth is nothing compared to the wealth of the nation, it could really make a difference. You would be in a hell-hole of a moral dilemma.
And no I am not projecting, because I would not give away any of the money personally. But I have given significant thought to what it would mean. Just look at Bill Gates' foundation. Lot of people think he is pissing his wealth away on bug-nets and converting piss to water. He evaluated these projects as once that would be more beneficial to humanity, and I'm sure he spent many hours trying to figure out how to spend the money. I have no idea how he arrived at his conclusions, but I do believe he would tell you it is really hard work. A lot more work than not having a care in the world for the rest of your life.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday August 31 2015, @05:37PM
Yeah, I could see how it would cause some people issues. Just not me. I'd keep probably twenty-five to fifty million for myself1 then give the same to twenty to forty of my friends and family. Boom, there went a billion dollars. Anything left over, I'd probably dole out to my favorite fishing lake(s) to make improvements.
As for altruism? I don't have any. I don't do charity. Friends and family would get the money because it would make me happy to know they wouldn't have money worries for a while. The lakes would get the money so I would have nicer places to fish.
Likewise politics. I've got no interest in telling other folks what they should or shouldn't be legally allowed to do, so there aren't really any political causes or candidates I can contribute to; all of them are bastards.
1 Basically to live well off the interest.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by TheGratefulNet on Monday August 31 2015, @07:10PM
reminds me of an old joke:
"I have enough money to last me the rest of my life. just as long as I don't buy anything."
(jackie mason, I think).
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 31 2015, @04:00PM
I would in this order:
Buy a nice house, completely pay it off.
Set up a trust fund that should easily pay the taxes and insurance on the house for the next 100 years or so.
Buy myself a nice car/truck and a classic muscle car
Take care of friends and family.
Place the rest of my money into a trust fund that pays me a monthly stipend that should cover expenses.
Never worry about it again, and enjoy life.
Nothing in there would "destroy me" If you feel that money would destroy you, please feel free to just make the check out to me, I'll be glad to jump on that hand grenade for ya.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 31 2015, @07:58PM
If i won the lottery, i'd buy a nice house, take 6 months off work, go to usa, buy a a muscle car and drive around usa for that six months. Buying more muscle cars on the way and shipping them home. Then i'd go back to work, but i would know that i never need to worry about money or losing job again. I'd sponsor open source projects, that i feel are worth it, maybe even start my own company with the idea of helping open source projects and selling support and such. I know that's what i'd do. I know myself.
A billion dollars is a bit different thing. It would bring shit loads of security problems. I basically would have to buy a castle. Few millions, not so much.
As for the lonelyness, well, i know it all too well and i'm not rich. Me getting rich could only make things better.