Mojang is being sold for 2.5 billion dollars. In reality, Minecraft is being sold for 2.5 billion dollars, because I'm sure Microsoft doesn't give a rat's ass about Scrolls or Cobalt. Notch founded Mojang, and wrote Minecraft.
Notch wants to do the things he wants to do. Of that 2.5 billion dollars, I'm sure he's going to be getting a reasonable portion. A person who goes to school, works hard, and finds a good job making $100,000/year for 40 years, might make 4 million dollars over the course of their life. A Persson who writes minecraft, and then sells his company for 2.5 billion dollars, only needs to to get 0.16% of the sale to be in the same situation as the person who worked for a six-figure salary for his entire life. Given that he was the entire power behind Minecraft, I'm sure he'll get more than a few million dollars out of the deal.
The parable is about striving for excess without considering your needs. Certainly there's an amount of saving for a rainy day that's prudent. But you need to know when to slow down. Sure, if you have a billion dollars you can go and get 2 billion. You can work your hands to the bone and make 4 billion. You can exploit people and make 6 billion. But if you can live a happy and carefree life off a few million dollars, or have a terrible exhausting hurtful life with a few billion, when do you stop?
If you write a game and someone wants to buy it from your 22 person company for 600 times as much money as a pretty-well-off person makes in an entire lifetime, you can pretty much afford to say yes and do whatever the hell you like.
It just happens to be the case that Notch prefers to write games that might never be popular more than spend it talking about getting a massage at a ski resort in Switzerland.
