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0 pointsdemocracy4y ago0 comments

Don't quit that easily! I remember reading about the minecraft dev here on HN ~10 years ago when paypal froze his account with 20M. It was the first time I heard about the game so I checked it out and thought it was complete crap and probably a scam if he really had 20 million from selling this junk of a game )))

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Qub3d4y ago· 4 in thread

Notch's story is bittersweet to me.

He ended up bowing out from the game and largely retreating from the tech space entirely. Lotta reasons for that; but mainly -- as a wildly successful entrepreneur he suddenly found himself to be a highly influential figure whose every casual statement caused news article to get written[0] and he DID NOT WANT THAT AT ALL.

True, he made a ridiculous amount of money, but I don't know if it was worth giving up his creativity.

[0]: https://xkcd.com/799/

me_again4y ago

If the casual statements were "I like cheese" or "tabs are better than spaces" that would not have been newsworthy. "Feminism is a disease" and "Q is legit" are rather more controversial statements.

Qub3d4y ago

I don't want to apologize for those statements -- its clear that they were wrong. However, I do think that originally they were genuinely a result of a mental breakdown.

As for the "Q is legit" statement, he quit Minecraft before Q was a twinkle in 4chan's eye. I don't follow Notch and haven't for years. I'm not surprised a lonely tech enthusiast was ensnared by the Q cult, though.

Turing_Machine4y ago

> True, he made a ridiculous amount of money, but I don't know if it was worth giving up his creativity.

Well, you could always just open a new GitHub account under a new name. Perhaps he's done that.

wincy4y ago

He retreated from the public eye and started throwing huge parties for twenty something music and movie starts in Hollywood in the mansion he outbid Beyoncé and Jay-Z for. The mansion comes complete with a Candy Room [0]

[0]: https://www.businessinsider.com/minecraft-creators-new-mansi...

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