Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

SoylentNews is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop. Only 12 submissions in the queue.
posted by CoolHand on Monday August 31 2015, @01:02PM   Printer-friendly
from the money-can't-buy-love dept.

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.

[Extended Copy]

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


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 31 2015, @05:12PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 31 2015, @05:12PM (#230283)

    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

      by TheGratefulNet (659) on Monday August 31 2015, @07:10PM (#230379)

      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."