How Selling My Startup Led Me to Take a Vow of Middle Class Poverty

http://siliconfilter.com/how-selling-my-startup-led-me-to-take-a-vow-of-middle-class-poverty/

by flardinois • 15 years ago

13 18 15 years ago

scrozier• 15 years ago

This hits me like the most elaborate humblebrag ever.

panzerboy• 15 years ago

The dude is a hypocrite. What is he actually hoping to accomplish by doing this? Who is he going to help? Instead of this BS, he should either live his life an enjoy his money, or, if he's feeling guilty or something, he should consider donating some of his money or volunteering for something he believes in.

rgbrgb• 15 years ago

Agreed. If he wants to be poor, he should give away his money.

mdlm5• 15 years ago

What I am trying to accomplish is to stay connected to the experiences that most human beings have.

r00fus• 15 years ago

Define "most".

If you're talking about the most humans across the world, then your lifestyle (as is mine) is leagues above that.

If you're talking about being in-touch with the "middle class USA" even then you're a quite a bit off on your numbers (single with a family of 4 income = lots of disposable income).

I admire your intention, but the outcome of your goal setting may not be what you have in mind. Perhaps the best way to stay connected is to do the things most humans do - settle down with a spouse/partner and have/adopt child(ren)... you can't know it until you live it.

kevinh• 15 years ago

He strikes me as being completely out of touch with the value of money. He's living as a single man on the median income of a family of four and he's acting like he can't have a single luxury? It's ridiculous.

Tekahera• 15 years ago

Hopefully it will turn into one man's quest to get in touch with the value of money. Why this is on the HN front page baffles me though.

dgabriel• 15 years ago

Agreed. My first response was a huge eye roll. Oh how will he ever survive?? This experiment only counts if he's also feeding, clothing, and housing three other people (two of whom will grow out of all their clothes 3 times a year). And if he randomly breaks expensive electronics in his house by squeezing an entire tube of GoGurt on them.

ohyes• 15 years ago

> But as I contemplated every purchase I realized that each one would pull me further and further away from the common experience of my fellow human beings. I would be operating in the world of Paris Hilton ("What’s Walmart, do they sell like wall stuff?”) instead of the world of grime, dirt, and soot inhabited by the vast majority of humanity.

As a person living in a very wealthy city in the united states you already operate far removed from the grim, dirt, and soot (not to mention the disease and starvation) inhabited by the rest of humanity.

I suggest joining the peace core.

meow• 15 years ago

I think he is seriously missing out on one thing both the rich and poor need - "a goal". Without that, people tend to go around in circles.

mdlm5• 15 years ago

I might be missing a goal. The goal that this vow meets is my need for connection.

Geekette• 15 years ago

"middle class poverty"?

Privileged bollocks is all that comes to mind.

sparkygoblue3• 15 years ago

This may be one of the most self-absorbed, egotistical, and subtly offensive things I've seen posted on HN.

Here's something to think about: Being connected with your fellow man has nothing to do with how much money you make or putting arbitrary limits on yourself. If you think limiting your income and taking away "luxuries" in your life is going to somehow change your connections with humanity, you have no sense of what connecting with the common human even entails.

It sounds to me like you're very out of touch with humanity, and that has nothing to do with money IMO.

mdlm5• 15 years ago

What does connecting with humans entail?

sparkygoblue3• 15 years ago

The answers to this are on a person by person basis, but I know it doesn't have anything to do with middle class poverty or a single man living like an "average" family of four.

How Selling My Startup Led Me to Take a Vow of Middle Class Poverty

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