I'm Leaving Mojang

http://notch.net/2014/09/im-leaving-mojang/

by UnfalseDesign • 12 years ago

1252 414 12 years ago

notch.net

atriix• 12 years ago

The HN effect... A pastebin http://pastebin.com/n1qTeikM from https://twitter.com/notch/status/511508557200498688

sp332• 12 years ago

Wow... 15,000 views in 10 minutes!

Kiro• 12 years ago

The HN effect is real but pretty sure it's just a tiny factor in this case.

blueskin_• 12 years ago

Site is massively overloaded.

Text: http://pastebin.com/GLuR7T9t

archive.today: https://archive.today/KKNNA

jere• 12 years ago

As soon as this deal is finalized, I will leave Mojang and go back to doing Ludum Dares and small web experiments.

It has always amazed me how down to earth Notch is. Now, he's going to be a billionaire doing little game jams. It's hard to believe and quite awesome. It's like Bruce Wayne deciding to spend the rest of his life playing with legos.

jo_• 12 years ago

I never considered Bruce Wayne much of a tinkerer. More like Tony Stark playing with Legos.

TeMPOraL15• 12 years ago

Or just more like Tony Stark from IM1/IM2 movies, period. He has a lot of money, but he basically outsourced every day-to-day company decision making somewhere else (up to making his secretary a CEO) just so that he could do what he really loves, i.e. high-tech tinkering and saving the day (and drunk parties).

rubenv• 12 years ago

Tony Stark? You mean Elon Musk, right?

aeturnum2• 12 years ago

It's like Bruce Wayne deciding to spend the rest of his life playing with legos.

I like this image. Bruce Wayne's character in batman is always thinking big. He tries to push things in the direction he thinks is right. The idea that someone would have all the power and decide to play with toys makes me worry about the rest of us. I would like to see people like Notch (creative, thoughtful people) having a say in what the future holds. However, it seems inevitable that after a certain point, you have to choose between living the life you want or ceeding at least some of your time to the whims of the masses of the public.

Someone else mentioned Jobs and Wozniak - Notch feels like Wozniak and Mojang has no Jobs. How can we keep the Wozniaks and Notchs of the world involved in making decisions in a way that keeps them happy? We don't want to have to choose between scale and creativity.

simonh• 12 years ago

I would like to see people like Notch (creative, thoughtful people) having a say in what the future holds.

I don't. I have absolutely nothing against Notch, in fact I have the deepest respect for the guy as a hacker and as a person with, clearly, a lot of personal integrity. However he says quite clearly himself he's just interested in tinkering. Minecraft wasn't a deeply though out, perfectly executed, planned exercise in mass market game publishing. It was an entirely accidental result of pretty much randomly hacking ideas together. He had absolutely no idea what the future held for Minecraft when he produced it. Expecting him to have any deep insights into 'what the future holds' is projecting attributes and expectations on to him that I don't think he'd welcome.

cperciva• 12 years ago

Bruce Wayne's character in batman is always thinking big. He tries to push things in the direction he thinks is right.

No, Bruce Wayne is incredibly myopic. If you have billions of dollars and you want to fight crime, the last thing you should be doing is developing fancy equipment so that you can personally go after criminals one by one. If Bruce Wayne truly wanted to use his money to reduce crime, he would be donating it to preschools and after-school sports programs.

rjurney• 12 years ago

He's 35 and totally burnt out. Give him time, hopefully he'll do something ambitious.

logn• 12 years ago

How can we keep the Wozniaks and Notchs of the world involved in making decisions in a way that keeps them happy?

I think you come up with a publishing model. E.g., you front them money, provide staff, orchestrate delivery/maintenance, handle legal issues, but otherwise you leave the creative control in the hands of the author. This has worked in movies, music, literature, etc. The key is that creative control can never be challenged by business priorities (and if it is, the author needs to be able to take their IP and find another publisher).

Edit to add: at a certain point, a project ends and people like Notch need to move on to actually contribute (to society). No one complains when bands switch labels or directors stop making sequels.

Cthulhu_3• 12 years ago

It's like a guy that got lucky and rich and never has to work a day in his life anymore retiring early and doing what he likes to do.

I'll be honest, I'm bitter and jealous, :(

dvirsky• 12 years ago

He comes across as a great guy, that made something great - so it seems that he deserves this, so why be bitter about it?

Sure, I envy his success and would like to make something great that will leave its mark on the world, too. I haven't, yet, but if anything, I'm inspired - and been so way before he sold his company.

angersock2• 12 years ago

Well, at least you're honest.

GFK_of_xmaspast• 12 years ago

"It's like Bruce Wayne deciding to spend the rest of his life playing with legos."

Better than dressing up in a gimp suit, and liable to get fewer people killed.

CatMtKing2• 12 years ago

I think that's exactly why he's not going to get what he wants. He's not going to have a normal life with the comforting blanket of anonymity again.

UnfalseDesign2• 12 years ago

Full text of post until the site becomes less overloaded:

------------------

I don’t see myself as a real game developer. I make games because it’s fun, and because I love games and I love to program, but I don’t make games with the intention of them becoming huge hits, and I don’t try to change the world. Minecraft certainly became a huge hit, and people are telling me it’s changed games. I never meant for it to do either. It’s certainly flattering, and to gradually get thrust into some kind of public spotlight is interesting.

A relatively long time ago, I decided to step down from Minecraft development. Jens was the perfect person to take over leading it, and I wanted to try to do new things. At first, I failed by trying to make something big again, but since I decided to just stick to small prototypes and interesting challenges, I’ve had so much fun with work. I wasn’t exactly sure how I fit into Mojang where people did actual work, but since people said I was important for the culture, I stayed.

I was at home with a bad cold a couple of weeks ago when the internet exploded with hate against me over some kind of EULA situation that I had nothing to do with. I was confused. I didn’t understand. I tweeted this in frustration. Later on, I watched the This is Phil Fish video on YouTube and started to realize I didn’t have the connection to my fans I thought I had. I’ve become a symbol. I don’t want to be a symbol, responsible for something huge that I don’t understand, that I don’t want to work on, that keeps coming back to me. I’m not an entrepreneur. I’m not a CEO. I’m a nerdy computer programmer who likes to have opinions on Twitter.

As soon as this deal is finalized, I will leave Mojang and go back to doing Ludum Dares and small web experiments. If I ever accidentally make something that seems to gain traction, I’ll probably abandon it immediately.

Considering the public image of me already is a bit skewed, I don’t expect to get away from negative comments by doing this, but at least now I won’t feel a responsibility to read them.

I’m aware this goes against a lot of what I’ve said in public. I have no good response to that. I’m also aware a lot of you were using me as a symbol of some perceived struggle. I’m not. I’m a person, and I’m right there struggling with you.

I love you. All of you. Thank you for turning Minecraft into what it has become, but there are too many of you, and I can’t be responsible for something this big. In one sense, it belongs to Microsoft now. In a much bigger sense, it’s belonged to all of you for a long time, and that will never change.

It’s not about the money. It’s about my sanity.

marktangotango• 12 years ago

What a long strange trip it's been. So long Markus and get ye back to javagaming.org for the next 4k!

pbhjpbhj• 12 years ago

This, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmTUW-owa2w, presumably is the "This Is Phil Fish" video referenced ("talking about Phil is talking about fame").

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=PmT... for the tl;dr.

willvarfar2• 12 years ago

Got a text summary for the phone users please?

Joeri• 12 years ago

Some waves are too big to ride. Choosing to enjoy the water instead of being drowned by it sounds like the sane thing to do indeed.

beshrkayali• 12 years ago

Here's what he posted on pastebin http://pastebin.com/n1qTeikM

bilalhusain2• 12 years ago

Heartbreaking to read what we do to people.

DanBC11• 12 years ago

I feel very great sadness for Notch.

I really hope he finds fun and joy. I am immensely grateful to him (and the rest of Mojang) for Minecraft.

crusso• 12 years ago

It's sad that there are so many griefers and haters out there, but there are worse problems to have than being wildly successful.

I pity what people do to society in general with their self-destructive attitudes. We all suffer as a result when we drive people like Notch out of positions of leadership.

You see the same in politics where the truly good and earnest people are also the ones with a conscience and too much self-respect to submit themselves to the abuse of public office.

at-fates-hands• 12 years ago

Only heartbreaking in the sense this is the new reality for many people. If you ever gain some semblance of popularity, everything you say and do is over analyzed. From your Twitter feeds, your work, your public comments, everything.

Notch just secured the best thing he could have. Now he has the money to do what he wants and not be at the forefront of what he created. Something I'm sure he's been wanting to do for a long time. Just like he said, he gets to step back into the shadows, where he's more comfortable, out of the limelight and content to do what he really wants to do.

I can only imagine what we'd be writing had he opted out say a year ago, before MS bought his company. What would we be saying then?

gadders2• 12 years ago

Well, there are a lot of dicks online, but I think twitter rage-storms or whatever seem to affect some people a lot more deeply than others.

_delirium• 12 years ago

The people who deal with it best I think are sort of the aloof types. They may not even read their own Twitter feed, delegating it to a social-media staffer. Notch has the problem that he uses it as a personal account and is on it regularly, so he reads comments @directed at him, tries to reply to them, etc. He also has a public email address that he reads, and it sounds like people send weird/angry emails to that, too, so it ends up going beyond just Twitter. I could see getting annoyed if people were constantly emailing me in that manner.

auxon02• 12 years ago

Yeah, but like I said earlier, a bit of rest and some time out of the spotlight and he'll get bored. Then he'll really appreciate it (even if he never wants that light shining on him all the time, again).

iamleppert• 12 years ago

He should donate some of that money to some good causes if he's really a simple man like he says he is. Of course he doesn't have to do anything, and fully deserves to take the money and run, and build some giant evil castle or something.

voltagex_• 12 years ago

I see this all the time on HN, I'm probably guilty of saying it myself sometimes too. Why should he donate $X?

adriancooney• 12 years ago

Wow, Notch is a pretty amazing guy. It's clear he just loves to make games. The post reminds me of Dong Nguyen/Flappy Bird situation. Let the man be.

andyhmltn• 12 years ago

Now you mention it, it's actually really similar isn't it? I've been following him since I originally bought my alpha version of minecraft and he's always seemed to be the way he portray's himself in this article. A nice genuine guy that just loves hacking away at things.

seymour7• 12 years ago

Google cache: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttp%...

Nickoladze• 12 years ago

Basically "I was successful once, it was awful".

Sometimes I wish he would have just stuck with Minecraft as the only developer and stayed away from the spotlight. Plenty of very popular game creators have done so (Icefrog, Toady One).

I really enjoyed the times back when Minecraft was just getting popular and you could tell Notch was adding features that he genuinely enjoyed (Redstone update, for instance). Then he started up a giant company and started assuming responsibility for things like server admins charging money, when he should have sat back and let people do what they want.

drzaiusapelord4• 12 years ago

Basically "I was successful once, it was awful".

This seems to be a theme. The guy who had the frontpage the other day, flappy bird, etc. Must be nice to have the cash entitlements to "keep it real." I can't blame him, I think money just becomes arbitrary numbers after a certain point. Minecraft has probably grown to a point where its just only going to get smaller in the future and in a few years be a fun little nostalgia piece for the tweens today who will be in college, the same way we dusted off the NES when I was in college.

Obviously, there's something about the nerdy personality that wants none of this, but it really makes me wonder about guys like Gates or Carmack or Zuckerberg or Jobs who thrive in these environments. Are they the rare ones or are guys like Notch the outliers?

georgemcbay2• 12 years ago

I don't know that I'd lump Carmack in with the rest of your list. Yes, he is quite financially successful from id, but he never stopped being, first and foremost, a coder who will sometimes just disappear for a few weeks to separate himself from the world and get coding done.

I wouldn't list Jobs either for almost the opposite reason in that while he had a huge impact on the tech industry, he was always a "suit" (even if he didn't wear one).

keerthiko• 12 years ago

Icefrog may have stayed away from the spotlight (which is quite impressive), but DOTA has not evolved how you suggested. He is by no means the sole developer, given that Valve is hauling ass behind that as pretty much their flagship game of the decade.

Maybe it's because Valve is near and dear to the gamers, but I think they've been keeping their community happier than if Icefrog was still running this as a solo job on a WC3 mod. I daresay it has been better for the game too.

arrrg3• 12 years ago

More like “I was famous once, it was awful.”

His fame had never much of anything to do with the success of Minecraft. It just came with it and it didn’t really work out. It doesn’t seem like he has a problem with many people playing his game (or making money doing what he loves to do), he has a problem with being famous.

Watch the video he references, it makes many of the same points.

huhtenberg• 12 years ago

I really like Notch and I really like how having all that money didn't seem to change him. The sale is interesting news, but seeing him go through it with integrity is even more interesting.

80ProofPudding• 12 years ago

Good for you, Notch. You made something awesome, got rich doing it, and stayed a mensch throughout.

jonifico• 12 years ago

While I do see his point in saying Minecraft has become too big for him, he might also be backing out a bit from a responsibility that could bring a fascinating challenge. But then again, he doesn't see himself as a true developer. Hope he finds a way to fulfill himself apart from spending billions of dollars.

Mikeb85• 12 years ago

He'll probably just hire someone smarter than him to invest his billion dollars. Heck, even an index fund or super conservative portfolio of dividend stocks would earn him enough to never work again, and maintain a pretty awesome lifestyle...

jacquesm7• 12 years ago

I don’t see myself as a real game developer. I make games because it’s fun, and because I love games and I love to program, but I don’t make games with the intention of them becoming huge hits, and I don’t try to change the world.

I think that's the essence of being a real game developer.

It's sad that Notch feels this way, I think the majority of old school games guys and girls were just like that.

Since it's become a big business with huge studios and ridiculous budgets the market has been spoiled. But Notch/Mojang and team have shown that there is still a place for great indie games and bootstrappers.

And I actually believe him that this deal is not about the money. Projects like these can become albatrosses.

JoeAltmaier2• 12 years ago

Preposterous. If it wasn't about the money, could have gone open-source at any time with the same effect/relief. Of course its about the $2B

ntaso• 12 years ago

As an indie developer with a normal lifestyle, it probably doesn't matter if you have 10 million in the bank or much, much more. So, it's unlikely to be about the money.

jacquesm7• 12 years ago

Note that he's speaking for himself and that he's not the only founder.

vasilipupkin• 12 years ago

he is not an earthworm with one brain cell. Of course, on some level it's about the money to a degree, but I think it's also true that it's not just about the money. It's both about the money and not about the money

tbastos• 12 years ago

Just because money isn't a priority for you, it doesn't mean you'll refuse it. He got the best of both worlds by letting other people run the business to focus on what he really wanted (indie dev). Believe me, it's MUCH easier to be creative and work on indie projects when you don't have to worry about your bills and your future...

watwut4• 12 years ago

That is ridiculous. Most people are able to figure out that they are better off with money then without, even if the money are not primary motivation. There is no contradiction in it.

iand• 12 years ago

At any point he could have said "I have enough now" and lowered the price of Minecraft to a sustaining level, or made it open source, or just stopped developing it.

alkonaut• 12 years ago

If I was already super rich and selling my company I'd still prefer making 10-100 if my peers rich, rather than explain to them why they have to keep their day jobs because I'm convinced it's for a good cause.

wuliwong• 12 years ago

Is the market spoiled? I no gaming historian but I have been playing games since Atari. There's games along the way that have stuck with me,...pitfall, super mario bros., nhl hockey 93 (i know, super rando list). But I also add to that list Fallout 3. If you correct for better underlying hardware, I feel that games are just as good as ever. I don't have the same fascination with games I had as a child but I can still get sucked in. And aren't there still indie games coming out with some amount of fanfare, like Fez and Super Meat Boy?

rtpg2• 12 years ago

There are loads of great games that come out all the time now, people just forget about bad games of the past.

And the "worst" games that we see now are at best mediocre if they were coming out 2 generations ago. The bar has gotten higher because so many high-quality games have been released

rtpg2• 12 years ago

I don’t make games with the intention of them becoming huge hits, and I don’t try to change the world.
I think that's the essence of being a real game developer.

Really? (to be read with the least amount of snark possible)

I think most game developers have the same sort of mindsets as other people in creative fields, and while the objective is to make great games, most developers seem to have that little twinkle in their eye, the 'what if my game suddenly becomes huge' thought stuck in their head, and ultimately to change the world at least a little.

If you look at people like Jonathan Blow or Phil Fish (who unfortunately needs to hide himself from the world after being constantly attacked), they all seem to have this objective of creating experiences to share with the world.

(There are examples of people who do develop games much like others write their diaries,in a very personal fashion, but I think the majority are out to create hits)

makomk• 12 years ago

Phil Fish "needs" to hide because he's an asshole who, amongst many other things, successfully bullied a sexual assault victim into apologizing for talking about the fact that he'd been sexually assaulted.

Edit: and even then he doesn't have to hide from the internet except to avoid the flamefests he keeps actively starting, fueling, and turning into Twitter pileons against people he dislikes if he doesn't.

TeMPOraL15• 12 years ago

I think that's the essence of being a real game developer.

I think that's the eseence of being a real X, X = insert whatever you claim to be in.

In my mind I divide companies (and professionals) by whether their occupation is an instrumental or terminal goal. As an example, advancing rocketry and electrifying transport to advance humanity is a terminal goal for Elon Musk. I.e he cares about that and works on Tesla and SpaceX to achieve that. Contrast with most of companies, that do what they do as an instrument to get money. Such company, for which i.e. making cars is an instrumental goal would gladly switch to producing toilet paper if it was a more profitable sector. I like to refer to such a company as "toilet-paper company".

For an example that would likely appeal to the audience here, toilet-paper companies are common in start-up world nowadays. That new SaaS business that tells you (i.e. lies) how it cares about users and solving their problems, while the founders are planning on getting acquired by Google/Amazon/etc. and dumping the product (aka. exit) - that is a paper-toilet startup. Whatever sells.

What's the value I find by dividing companies by whether their work is terminal or instrumental for them? For one, I tend to trust former much more than the latter, because I expect that they'll optimize their product primarily for solving the stated problems and not primarily for selling ability.

So basically, Notch doesn't want to be a paper-toilet game developer; he wants to make games.

jacquesm7• 12 years ago

In my mind I divide companies (and professionals) by whether their occupation is an instrumental or terminal goal.

That's a super good observation, thank you. It instantly explains why I have such a loathing for some companies and people and others I feel only pride. Wow. Never ever thought about it that way.

I suspect this may also help you to pick out good founders from an investors point of view and good co-founders from a founders point of view.

gglitch• 12 years ago

I'm reminded of the _Nicomachean Ethics_, which, if I recall accurately, begins with an analysis of what you're calling instrumental activities vs terminal, in order to show that the end goal of any activity is happiness, which is not instrumental for any other purpose.

nkurz• 12 years ago

It's a good insight, but the repeated typo "paper-toilet" (incorrect, but interesting image) instead of "toilet-paper" (correct) made it difficult for me to understand on the first read. It's both here and in the post that links to this.

kayoone• 12 years ago

While i agree it has to be noted that Musk also did instrumental stuff (paypal) to be able to do the work he does now.

Cthulhu_3• 12 years ago

It's the ideal, maybe; most 'real' game developers would love to be able to do whatever they want like Notch can, but run into practical problems like making money. Notch / Mojang got lucky, being one of the first 'building' games of its kind and the first majorly successful crowdsourced games. Nowadays, there's dozens of game developers that want to follow in his footsteps, but the competition in the crowdsourced world is just huge, so a lot will never get to a level where they can make a living out of doing what they love to do.

You mention it being a big business and all, but like you say yourself, thanks to Notch / Mojang, the rise of crowdsourcing and self-publishing thanks to platforms like Steam, indie game developers have a lot more opportunities than Notch/Mojang did back when he started out with Minecraft.

gamesurgeon• 12 years ago

"I’m not an entrepreneur. I’m not a CEO. I’m a nerdy computer programmer who likes to have opinions on Twitter...If I ever accidentally make something that seems to gain traction, I’ll probably abandon it immediately."

I have the utmost respect for notch after reading that.

izolate• 12 years ago

Same. He's my type of hacker. The best type.

Tepix• 12 years ago

I think it's sad to write something like that (abandoning something as soon as it seems to gain traction). Isn't that what games are about? Writing great games that a lot of people love to play and talk about? And in the case of Minecraft, hack and mod in unimaginable ways?

gknoy• 12 years ago

Perhaps the joy he derives comes not from the popularity or world-changingness, but rather from the process of creation, or the problems that he gets to solve in interesting ways.

I don't think he'll ever be at a loss for creativity. If he spends the rest of his days streaming (or not streaming!) him coding random small games, or tinkering on a renderer that is never used, I expect that he'll be happy and feel fulfilled.

varkson• 12 years ago

I don't like his attitude in the public eye but at least he's self aware and not afraid to say it. That does take courage.

tbrock2• 12 years ago

"If I ever accidentally make something that seems to gain traction, I’ll probably abandon it immediately."

He seems to have an awful attitude for a guy who just made a billion dollars and gets to spend the rest of his life doing exactly what he wants.

DanBC11• 12 years ago

He is saying "I made a mistake; I have learnt from that mistake and will try to avoid making the same mistake in future".

That's a fucking great attitude and is -to me at least- much better than "I made minecraft and I'm awesome and the success of Minecraft has nothing to do with luck but is totally all those decisions I made because I'm brilliant" which is the kind of thing we hear from a bunch of other devs.

tbrock2• 12 years ago

Good point, agreed. I think abandoning is a little much though. I guess it would have rubbed me differently if he had said I'll make it open source or hand it off to other developers earlier, etc.

chiph• 12 years ago

I can dig him wanting to do a Flappy Bird, but there's also something to be said for taking a concept to initial production, and turning it over to someone else to run & improve. Your work then gets into the hands of (hopefully) millions of people, and the change in focus can provide additional inspiration for future work.

thenomad• 12 years ago

It's possible to have a lot of money and be legitimately very unhappy, all at the same time.

The pressure of being as much of a public figure as he is, and the person blamed for anything wrong with the most popular computer game in the world, is probably Not Much Fun.

_xzu• 12 years ago

Why? As said in the message he doesn't want to be responsible for handling big successes. So this seems to be very healthy attitude.

Hopefully he will open source his next big thing so community might be able to keep it alive.

petercooper• 12 years ago

I think there are some interesting parallels with J K Rowling. If he releases anything now, it's big news (even Cliffhorse). He might have to start "writing" under a pseudonym just to get any sense of doing something fresh without intense public scrutiny.

adregan• 12 years ago

I think it's pretty well known that JK Rowling is a woman. Also, she has recently written some books under the pen name "Robert Galbraith".

Edit: I see above that the poster was referring to Notch. Just a simple case of an unclear antecedent (and being unfamiliar with Notch's and Rowling's recently releases ;) )

drzaiusapelord4• 12 years ago

Interesting note, if an author uses a pseudonym of a different gender, its appropriate to use that gender of the pseudonym. I find it weird that James Tiptree, Jr. is still a "he" when we've known for decades it was Alice Bradley Sheldon's pen name.

In fact, Tiptree, not Sheldon, has been inducted into the science fiction hall of fame, which is even weirder.

bsenftner• 12 years ago

"she", btw.

swanson• 12 years ago

The 'he' refers in Notch in the above comment.

rhubarbcustard• 12 years ago

Are you saying Notch waited for this big news story to break so that he could quietly announce a gender change without anyone paying too much attention? He should become a politician.

josephagoss• 12 years ago

OP was talking about Notch and parallels with JKR, the 'he' is intentional.

scrollaway• 12 years ago

There are a lot of parallels with people who got immensely rich while doing what they loved with no specific monetary goal in mind.

I think Notch represents quite well what a lot of us would be like if one of our software got incredibly popular overnight (We're talking worldwide sensation) and we got a massive amount of money out of it (Billions with a B).

Confused, dazed, surprised. "That's quite cool but I never actually meant for that to happen". Try to do good things with the money but end up with responsibilities we don't want regarding the product, the money and ourselves. Not be able to have a private life all of a sudden and wanting out of the drag.

Cthulhu_3• 12 years ago

Nah, he's been releasing little side-projects every so often, none of which were seen as the next big thing. Although that space game of his did get a lot of hype, he decided to pull the plug on that one a while ago because it just wasn't going to work (also due to all the pressure from the fans).

cheez• 12 years ago

0x10c (that space game) would have been incredible if he had completed it. It would be the next step up from Minecraft for kids who liked Minecraft. Can you imagine?

Maybe that's really why he stopped the development.

mosheroperandi• 12 years ago

Technically, Markus "Notch" Persson would need to write under a new pseudonym

netcraft• 12 years ago

It’s not about the money. It’s about my sanity.

This does make the most sense, in looking at everything hes said in the past. Sounds like MS had the right offer at the right time.

krelian• 12 years ago

This whole Minecraft thing has been very interesting to follow. I tried the game a few times and it's not really for me but everything around Notch's story is interesting (I bet their going to make a movie about this at some point). Not everyone can be an entrepreneur and I feel that in this case (on a different scale of course), we basically watched a plausible version of how Apple could have gotten started if there was only a Wozniak but no Jobs.

I'm sure there are many here that dream of having their idea be a huge success but aren't really interested in becoming the next Bill Gates or Zuckerberg. They just want to cash out so that they can have their financial freedom and then go out of the limelight and back to doing the same things they enjoy but without having to constantly worry about job security and putting food on the table. Notch achieved this in the most spectacular way possible and I think he handled it perfectly.

tst• 12 years ago

I think the analogy to Wozniak is great. I remember an article some months ago in which he basically said the same: He wants to tinker and hack.

I remember watching some parts of notch's livestreams. I loved the enthusiasm he had. He was a bit like a young boy, trying things, throwing some away, creating games. I'm happy for his decision.

UnfalseDesign2• 12 years ago

I see the echos of that enthusiasm in my daughters when they build in their Minecraft worlds. Notch's sense of wonder and joy of creating has been spread to millions.

snlacks2• 12 years ago

It's unfortunate that all our greed and crazy fandom keep scaring the great minds away from continuing to push us all forward.

Fede_V• 12 years ago

Yeah, exactly. Dealing with social media as a divisive personality is exhaustive - either you completely shut it off and let some underpaid underdealing deal with it, or you will get horrendously burnt out by all the negativity.

I hope he will produce another master work, but either way, I wish him a very happy life with all the money he earned.

jusben1369• 12 years ago

If this analogy is so good, and I'm not doubting it, then is MSFT like adding Jobs to Minecraft? Will we see a small successful company become a dominant global technology/gaming company?

yuvadam• 12 years ago

They already made a movie

http://www.gog.com/movie/minecraft_the_story_of_mojang_delux...

gbog2• 12 years ago

there are many here that dream of having their idea be a huge success but aren't really interested in becoming the next Bill Gates or Zuckerberg.

I think it's more than you think. I think Notch expressed clearly that he did not expect nor want his project to become a big hit. He may have been flattered for a while but he now sees it clearly: success is shit, big success is a shitstorm.

The exact opposite of the entrepreneur spirit. I think pg may have overlooked this side of the hackerhood.

TeMPOraL15• 12 years ago

I think what pg might have overlooked, looking back at his old essays, is that hackers of old, driven by their love for their work turned into paper-toiler entrepreneurs today. There is nothing precluding a hacker from leveraging the economy to scale up his favourite hack (which I believe pg's early essays were about) or, as Notch did, just to secure himself a peaceful and secure environment to continue his hacking without having to worry about things like food, health and shelter. But that is a different type of hacker than the ones that are attracted to the startup scene nowdays.

I guess part of the reason I feel the word "hacker" lost its meaning today is the rise of paper-toilet hackers (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8319102).

jrochkind13• 12 years ago

Of course, it being a big hit is what gives him enough money that he now can live comfortably while working on whatever the hell he wants without worrying about making money.

I'm not critisizing him, I'm glad he has that opportunity, and I'm glad he's recognized what opportunity he wants (which is apparently NOT the opportunity to try and make even more money).

But it's a bit more complicated than "success is shit", success is what's allowed him to ignore success from here on out, without having to worry about a roof over his head, health care, etc.

mcb3k• 12 years ago

There might be a different documentary/biopic/film, but there is currently Minecraft: The Story of Mojang[1]. It only really covers the first year, however.

1: http://www.2playerproductions.com/projects/minecraft

billiam• 12 years ago

"we basically watched a plausible version of how Apple could have gotten started if there was only a Wozniak but no Jobs."

Nailed it.

For my kids sake, I hope they take a little while before they turn Minecraft into a FPS on Xboxlive.

_ix• 12 years ago

Is it just me, or do you think that Nintendo acquiring a company like Mojang seems more appropriate? I shudder at the thought of Microsoft stripping Minecraft of its creative and inspiring qualities and turning it into a simple FPS.

peterhost• 12 years ago

Yes.

Its such a lame end for "the story of Mojang". Let's see how long it takes for the word "mojang" to be forgotten. Lego is still called Lego, and Pixar still hasn't yielded its name to Disney (they sortof managed to coexist) to take just two examples.

The sad thing about Mojang is people are inspired by "vision". Money ? sure, we all want to earn as much as we can... But when did money give anybody any inspiration.

Arjuna• 12 years ago

"I'm sure there are many here that dream of having their idea be a huge success [...]"

In the broader picture, I am struggling to understand some of the opinions of this story out there, particularly on HN. What I mean is, I suspect that a majority of us dream of this type of success. We dream of connecting our creative force with financial success, especially when that success would free us to work on practically anything that we wanted. I would say that a lot of us dream of being able to lead entirely self-directed lives that financial freedom can afford.

Therefore, why is it bemoaned when we see the very success that we dream of unfold for someone else? Why are there suddenly opinions of, "Well, I can't believe Notch would work on something that he would abandon?" Or, "Notch should spend his money this way or that way."

It just feels, well, extremely egotistical. Who is anyone to call out how someone else should spend their money, enjoy their time... live their life?

A similar situation happened with Dong Nguyen. He essentially tapped into the modern-day equivalent of Pac-Man Fever. In the 80s, it swept the world, to the tune of billions of dollars. It was the highest-grossing arcade game ever produced. People simply loved the game, and they couldn't get enough of clearing boards of dots, power-pellets and ghosts.

In a similar way, Flappy Bird took very simple game-play, and combined it with a simple challenge. This is, of course, not the first game to do this, but it took off. The power of the Internet has made Nguyen's name known, and quite sadly in some circles, despised for his financial success, when how much he was making on ad revenue was revealed. Or, with comments like those found in this piece [1], its intellectual lamenting with, "[...] I begrudge a society that would turn it into a phenomenon."

I suspect that the author would have said the same about Pac-Man.

I really feel for Notch, Dong Nguyen and those creatives of the world that worked to bring a dream to reality, only to have this happen to them. I'm reminded of a phrase from the song Limelight [2] ...

Cast in this unlikely role

Ill-equipped to act

With insufficient tact

One must put up barriers

To keep oneself intact

[1] http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2014/02/03/flappy-bir...

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKpn0esJ73w

clarkevans2• 12 years ago

"I really feel for Notch"

I don't. He cashed in and, well somehow wants the sympathy of free & open-source wish-keepers.

He's in the money; and that was his choice.

tejon• 12 years ago

Skip forward a few tracks:

Quiet in conscience, calm in their right; confident their ways are best. [1]

I would say that a lot of us dream of being able to lead entirely self-directed lives that financial freedom can afford. Therefore, why is it bemoaned when we see the very success that we dream of unfold for someone else?

A lot of us do share that dream, but many feel most alive when they're part of a group movement. There's a little of each in everyone, but it's easy to understand how those who lean strongly to one side or the other might not be able to see through the eyes of folks across the gap. I think that, for the most part, any backlash against Notch isn't fueled by jealousy from those who aspire to the position he's reached; rather, it's from a sense of betrayal and abandonment from people whose core values are loyalty and unity.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHH17-cMOu0

CamperBob2• 12 years ago

I just hope he didn't make a mistake by posting what he did, when he did. Rest assured there are clauses in the purchase agreement that cover anything that might lower the value of the business... such as announcing that you're jumping ship before the ink is dry.

If nothing else, he's got to be leaving an astonishing amount of cash behind. These agreements always come with long vesting periods ("golden handcuffs").

nknighthb• 12 years ago

Notch didn't make his blog post until well after the official Mojang post (which he obviously did not write, and which announced the founders were leaving) went up.

Also, Mojang as a whole went almost dead silent between the time the WSJ article hit and today. Even routine twitter interaction that had nothing to do with the deal was greatly curbed. Somebody was making sure nobody said a word until they were allowed to.

And I'm sure Notch has an expensive lawyer telling him what he's allowed to do and when. He could certainly afford it even before this deal, and there are signs that he's had skilled legal advice in the past (e.g. the licensing of Minecraft to Mojang rather than outright transfer).

deciplex• 12 years ago

Woz doesn't stir up drama on Twitter every time someone in his industry does something he doesn't like. Notch sorta does (cf. "I’m a nerdy computer programmer who likes to have opinions on Twitter.").

(For the record, I think most of his opinions are great opinions.)

I'm open to the idea that people can change their minds, or that the circumstances might be different, or that he felt he couldn't do the job anymore, or didn't fit in, or whatever else. But the fact remains that this sale runs in direct opposition to basically everything he's ever said in public. Now, maybe he doesn't want to live a life where what he says "in public" has some kind of significance apart from what he just says in general. That seems to be the case - it's his prerogative and if he thinks that's what best for him I'm sure he's right. But people are still going to call him a hypocrite, and that's the price he's going to have to pay.

And that's the part that makes me a little sad. I like Minecraft, but not so much that I'm going to be heartbroken when Microsoft inevitably ruins it. But I did find myself in agreement with Notch on a lot of things, and I was glad that he was able to do what he did and be outspoken about things he thought were important, etc etc. And with this sale, we also lose that. Oh well.

easytiger2• 12 years ago

Yea but Woz isn't contributing technically anymore

jokoon6• 12 years ago

Not everyone can be an entrepreneur

can't you have a company by hiring someone to lead instead of you, only giving him directions ? I mean couldn't mojang become some sort of game development laboratory instead ?

for example google throws money they get from advertising at other experiments, I'm really dreaming of doing that for game development.

AnonJ3• 12 years ago

Such a reaction is borderline ridiculous and coward. Others like Wozniack are mature and strong enough and are definitely able to sustain a business well. Several levels apart!

chernevik• 12 years ago

This is why we can't have nice things.

I don't know much about Minecraft or whatever issue Notch is referring to in his post. But I'm always struck by how quickly people snap to emotional argument and response, without thinking about the other side of the question, without thinking about how their response will be read or felt by others.

The first step in any dialogue is trying to understand why the other side has said or done what they have, and how that might seem reasonable and right to them. Without that, how do we have any hope of learning anything, or moving to any actual agreement? And yet 98% of what I read presumes that any disagreement must be ignorant, stupid or evil.

I understand many of the reasons why people talk this way, and yes, it's hard to avoid it. But we now have more communication amongst ourselves than at any other time in human history. Maybe it's time to start thinking hard about how each of us can communicate better.

Wouldn't it be great if we could get to a community where some idiosyncratic dude could write a monster hit without feeling himself battered for reasons he can't understand?

madeofpalk• 12 years ago

I think it's just simpler than that. The impression I got was not that he left because of hate he was getting, but just because Minecraft got really popular and turned into something much bigger than he expected.

It sounds like he doesn't want to be a part of anything that big - he just wants to have fun hacking on games.

arcatek• 12 years ago

I would guess that the EULA shitstorm has been the last straw.

watwut4• 12 years ago

The hate weeks ago was about money, basically. Part of EULA that disallowed servers to earn money, but was often ignored. Mojang clarified that that part of EULA is indeed meant as written.

People do not tend to be understanding when it comes to loosing money they wanted/expected.

Moreover, I suspect that managing Minecraft is a lot about merchandize selling, cons organization, making deals with lego and everyone else who want to produce themed items and so on. Not necessary what you want to deal with if you consider yourself gamemaker or programmer.

wtbob3• 12 years ago

Remember that the money was necessary in order to pay for the (really quite expensive) servers which people play on. And that Mojang were changing the culture as it has been, and as it has been successful.

It's sad to see the effect this has had on the servers I've played on. And it was all so pointless: at the end of the day, who really cares if players who chuck in $10/month get a free set of diamond armour or a house?

chasing2• 12 years ago

This is why we can't have nice things.

This is a nice thing.

Notch gets the resources and freedom to do what he actually wants to be doing: Exploring and experimenting with game ideas. And Minecraft gets to continue developing as a product people enjoy.

serve_yay2• 12 years ago

I don't know much about Minecraft or whatever issue Notch is referring to in his post. But I'm always struck by how quickly people snap to emotional argument and response

Wow!

rmrfrmrf• 12 years ago

lol it's almost beautiful, in a way.

Sir_Cmpwn• 12 years ago

I've been involved in the Minecraft community for a long while, but mostly from the sidelines as an observer. it's a nasty community full of more bitter and hateful people than any other community I've ever seen. It doesn't help that many of them are children. I don't blame Notch for wanting out.

ianstallings• 12 years ago

He reminds me of Steve Wozniak a little bit. He's disconnected from the scene and it's refreshing in every way. Good luck to him.

rafaqueque• 12 years ago

It's not always about money, as he said.

Classy move by Notch. Respect.

nXqd• 12 years ago

this is so awesome that he can make things that he loves. Become super rich with it, but still staying who he is. This kind of achievement is incredibly hard.

Thanks for great work !

archildress• 12 years ago

At the opposite end of the spectrum of the startup CEO who's intent on cashing out for fame is Notch, who sold to remove himself from the center of attention.

I think we all believe we could handle the spotlight and the attention and fame that comes with it. But until we're faced with it, we'll never know.

All the best to Notch and thanks for a game that brought many people many hours of happiness and shared experiences.

joshfinnie• 12 years ago

This is super sad. I never want to read the following from a programmer:

    As soon as this deal is finalized, I will leave Mojang and go back to doing Ludum Dares and small web experiments. If I ever accidentally make something that seems to gain traction, I’ll probably abandon it immediately.

I feel for anyone who has felt such stress to want to kill anything that they are working on that gains traction...

xarien2• 12 years ago

It's actually quite inspiring. He's essentially saying that he's chasing curiosity instead of profits. A lot of us would love to be able to do that. For many of us, it's why we got into programming or engineering in the first place...

MadManE• 12 years ago

How is that inspiring? To me, it's incredibly depressing. It's basically saying that he will aim to make mediocre (or terrible) things now that he has more money than he needs.

This means that unless I win the lottery of life, I am condemned to doing what I'm doing and if I actually do succeed in what I'm doing, I'll never want to touch anything like it again.

Edit: Sorry that I inadvertently insulted one of your heroes.

I realize that I'm incredibly lucky already because I have food/water/shelter/etc. But "gaining perspective" seems like code to me for "I've given up, so you should too".

craigching• 12 years ago

I'm really happy for Notch as long as he's happy. To me, the most disappointing thing about this is that the story becomes more complex. I loved telling my kids "this was created and developed by one person in his spare time." That's not been true for awhile now I realize, but it was fun telling my kids that. I guess I can figure out a different way to convey reality, but it's more complex when they say "but isn't it from Microsoft?"

Anyway Notch, good luck to you and I love you too! You really gave us something great and no matter what you do going forward, you can't take back what you've given!

antirez2• 12 years ago

He should not give a fuck about random people on the internet, but just about opinions of the few he knows in one way or the other and respect. I understand this is more complex to do than to say, but still, how to have fun working in the current IT development scene without this crucial step, especially for a famous person like him?

burkaman• 12 years ago

Don't run a company. You cannot run any kind of business without caring what people think and are saying about you.

jacquesm7• 12 years ago

You actually can and and you probably shouldn't.

And Antirez: please do continue ;).

See also: Henry Ford, horses and cars.

antirez2• 12 years ago

You can get a "general feeling" about your customers without actually feeling responsible/bad about the individual opinion of each of your users. Actually IMHO it is probably not possible to run a company caring in depth about everyone of your users. Of course there is from time to time this totally stranger that may send you a well argued / fact-supported opinion that may ring some bell, and this is great when happens, but here I believe we are talking about "Notch you suck because of the TOS change!" or similar toned messages.

tosh• 12 years ago

Looking forward to more Dart programming streams.

I think more and more people should stream like Notch does. It is incredibly entertaining and educating to watch how people write code similar to how people play games.

A great learning opportunity. Different format compared to prepared talks and tutorials. I wish there was a list of people with programming streams that I can just tune in.

sergiotapia• 12 years ago

"It's not about the money (BECAUSE I HAVE TWO BILLION OF THEM!)."

Haha, and who can blame Notch, I wouldn't work a day in my life and become a full time carpenter for the rest of my life.

masklinn• 12 years ago

He already had "fuck you money" before that deal, it's not like he needed the deal for that.

talmand2• 12 years ago

Reminds me of the scene in The Aviator where the Hepburn family obviously can care less about money to the point of obnoxiousness, and state they don't discuss it.

Hughes responds with "That's because you have it."

hyperliner• 12 years ago

This is really a sad statement about the evil "consumers." It does not happen only to simple nerdy game developers. It happens to everybody who does something huge.

It happens to small business owners. Then, people "tell them" that they "must" raise the wages of their employees, without ever having created a small business.

It happens to activists. Then, people "tell" them they "must" support this other cause, when those activists simply want to change a small part of the world that they care about.

It bothers me the most when it happens to presidents. (Pres. Bush, Pres. Obama, depending on your political inclinations). Just simple guys asked to carry the weight of a nation just because they were at the right time, the right place, did the right things, a few mistakes, wanted to change the world a little, and worked really hard.

Maybe all of us who instead of sweating are going for the ride should simply enjoy the game. Just put a few blocks on the game, build a small tiny house, put a glass window, a small bed in there with the tiny cool candle on the wall (my favorite block in Minecraft), and stare out the window. And watch for creepers.

But leave these folks alone to do what we did not do, and let them enjoy a reward for their hard work.

scottjad2• 12 years ago

The other day there was a post about some Doom map viewer Notch had written in Dart. One of the top comments said something along the lines of "This is why we all need to be rich, so we can work on stuff like this." I thought the comment was so sad because honestly, almost no one is going to benefit from a mostly broken Doom map viewer in Dart that's abandoned after a few days. Same with the numerous games he's started (often with no idea where he's going) and abandoned after a few hours/days. Don't get me wrong, I like watching his coding stream as much as the next person, but compare that to the millions of people who benefitted from the sustained and focused effort on Minecraft.

Notch says:

If I ever accidentally make something that seems to gain traction, I’ll probably abandon it immediately.

So sad. Imagine if Jobs/the PayPal guys/etc had taken this approach after their initial succcess.

Now I'm all for people being free to do what they want and only this guy owns his life and no one is entitled to have him work for them (hat tip Ayn Rand), and obviously this guy has had a bigger impact on the world than I have, but I tend to agree with Immanuel Kant (and Jesus) that we all have a duty to develop and use our talents in a way that benefits humanity and not just indulge ourselves in idle amusement once we're comfortable. And to be honest, this probably applies more to me than to Notch.

From "Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals":

A third finds in himself a talent which with the help of some culture might make him a useful man in many respects. But he finds himself in comfortable circumstances and prefers to indulge in pleasure rather than to take pains in enlarging and improving his happy natural capacities. He asks, however, whether his maxim of neglect of his natural gifts, besides agreeing with his inclination to indulgence, agrees also with what is called duty. He sees then that a system of nature could indeed subsist with such a universal law although men ... should let their talents rest and resolve to devote their lives merely to idleness, amusement, and propagation of their species- in a word, to enjoyment; but he cannot possibly will that this should be a universal law of nature, or be implanted in us as such by a natural instinct. For, as a rational being, he necessarily wills that his faculties be developed, since they serve him and have been given him, for all sorts of possible purposes.

nightski4• 12 years ago

Minecraft was grown out of the way Notch works.

What you are suggesting is impossible. No one, not even Steve Jobs sits down and says "My life mission is to benefit humanity". This is because we really do not know which efforts will have the largest impact on humanity. You could waste a lifetime trying to make a better battery - but it might never happen.

Or you could hack around on a game and watch it explode and impact millions of lives around the world.

In my opinion the important part is that you are doing something meaningful to you as an individual. If it ends up exploding and benefiting humanity all the better. But the world would be so much better off if we just had everyone doing this.

yupmetoo3• 12 years ago

I know this is outside the topic, but to critique your analogy - you could spend a lifetime trying to make a better battery, and share the knowledge of 1000 ways to not make a better battery, which is useful in and of itself.

scottjad2• 12 years ago

Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with the way he works or toy projects or experimenting or not knowing beforehand what will be successful. I'm just a bit concerned that if he actually takes the attitude of (paraphrased) "if something I do is appealing to many people I'll abandon that and find something nobody cares about," he'll end up shortchanging himself and others. And in fairness to Notch, he probably does mean something more nuanced, transitory, and reasonable.

tempestn• 12 years ago

No one, not even Steve Jobs sits down and says "My life mission is to benefit humanity".

Musk might be considered a counter-example here. In fact, part of his mission is literally to "make a better battery". Of course in depends on how much you buy into his mythology. Certainly he could have comfortably retired after Paypal though. (Rather than moving on to run two groundbreaking companies - something I'm not sure how one person manages to successfully do.)

norswap2• 12 years ago

I think the op just suggests that it would be a pity if Notch killed something he did because it turned popular; not that he should strive to build something popular or benefiting humanity.

ceol3• 12 years ago

Minecraft was grown out of the way Notch works.

I'd say Minecraft was grown in spite of the way Notch works. The way he works has been the bane of a lot of modders, who are (arguably) the reason his game is so successful.

In my opinion the important part is that you are doing something meaningful to you as an individual. [...] ...the world would be so much better off if we just had everyone doing this.

You can't separate yourself from humanity as a whole. That's like saying your liver should do something meaningful for itself as an organ, and if it ends up helping your body, all the better. We don't work individually. Humans require other humans, and all of our motivations and desires are influenced by this requirement.

Notch may not have begun Minecraft with the larger gaming community in mind, but he certainly continued development in some small part because of it.

saraid216• 12 years ago

No one, not even Steve Jobs sits down and says "My life mission is to benefit humanity". This is because we really do not know which efforts will have the largest impact on humanity.

Not knowing how to do something doesn't stop me from trying to do it. Why does it stop you?

clavalle• 12 years ago

I hope he means 'abandoning it to people who will develop it further so more people can enjoy it: I'm not going to deal with that aspect anymore'.

But I could just be optimistic.

tedks• 12 years ago

There are a lot of artistic types that can't handle fame at all and become very destructive to themselves, others, and their work when they break down. John Campbell of Pictures for Sad Children comes to mind as a particularly compelling example.

I wish I had a pithy explanation as to why this was but I haven't figured it out yet. "some people aren't cut out for fame" doesn't really do it justice, because the problem isn't entirely in the Notch's of the world, but also how we relate to them and how fame is characterized in our culture.

mikeash9• 12 years ago

I get the impression that Notch may not actually be all that talented. I mean, he's probably more so than the average Joe, but not super exceptionally talented.

It seems like he got lucky, and was good enough to leverage his success into more success and was good enough of a businessman to profit handsomely from the whole thing, but that's about it. I understand that he hasn't done anything on Minecraft in quite a while. His attempts at something new don't seem to have gone anywhere. (That weird space programming game from a while back got a lot of attention but never resulted in anything.)

So, maybe that was it. Notch is a one-hit wonder. And there's nothing wrong with that. I'm sure he's already contributed more to the world than most of us ever will. But that doesn't necessarily mean that we're all losing out on anything significant if he doesn't keep trying to make more big things.

And from the other side of things, it seems like Minecraft came out of one of these ridiculous idle amusements. If you had described Minecraft to people before it was made, they would have thought it was ridiculous. Oh, a volumetric 3D world with a 1990s-era renderer. Great. Sounds about as useful as a Doom map viewer written in Dart. Yet it turned into something huge. So if Notch does have another hit in him, it will probably come about the same way, through more strange messing about.

bsaul• 12 years ago

You may confuse talent with algorithmic or scientific skills. Which, in the case of videogame is just one small part of the whole.

People like notch and other indie developpers are looking for things beyond immediate technical prowess or easy instant fun. They are after something you may call poetry, and how to explore new opportunities created by technology.

In this regard and judging by the large interest of children for minecraft, this man is talented.

reledi5• 12 years ago

What exactly makes you think he's not talented? Because I on the other hand think he's extremely talented. That's the opinion I have based on occasionally watching his streams and reading his writings, not even considering the huge success that Minecraft is.

norswap2• 12 years ago

He is talented, at least insofar that he is a great programmer, and has a knack for gameplay mechanics. Just watch his streams or look at this game (even the ludumdare one, they may not be much, but they're slick).

I sure failed to deliver a follow-up to Minecraft, but that was never his goal. He just wants to tinker and have fun, which is also why most of his game projects just stay at the embryonic stage; it seems to burden him greatly to follow up on the ideas, when the initial glee of tinkering with a new idea has worn off.

miketuritzin• 12 years ago

I don't think it's sad at all. It's great that Notch is doing what makes him happy. And honestly, I think he's much more likely to continue to do things that benefit the world if he follows this intuition rather than feeling duty bound to build things that are as big and impactful as possible.

Honestly I think his is more of an artistic than entrepreneurial mindset. How many artists set out to "change the world" with their art? Not many. But still many do.

auxon02• 12 years ago

Stress is a bitch. But given some time, he'll get bored and do something with all that money.

mopedDreams2• 12 years ago

Don't get me wrong, I like watching his coding stream as much as the next person

Can you please post a link to his streams? I bet it'd be fascinating to watch.

reledi5• 12 years ago

Watching him create a game is unlike any other coding streams I've seen: http://www.twitch.tv/notch, http://www.hitbox.tv/Notch

cLeEOGPw2• 12 years ago

It's sad. But it looks like he simply doesn't have what it takes to be the kind of person we all wish he was. Nobody can't blame him for that. Leading of something big is hard and exhaustive process. Especially for introverts like Notch.

yupmetoo3• 12 years ago

Or perhaps he doesn't WANT to be the kind of person you "we all" wish he was. This idea that people who are good enough at a thing must somehow become a CEO or leader creates a lot of unhappy people. Let the managers manage, and the engineers make things. Don't put pressure on people to do something they don't want just because you want to see what happens.

rpdillon3• 12 years ago

I find it ironic that the laws that allowed Notch to cash out were expressly created to forward the progress of science and arts. Yet we find ourselves at a place where the dream is not to work and perfect craft, but to Get Rich Quick so we can relax for the rest of our lives. I, too, find it sad.

DanBC11• 12 years ago

Notch has said that he wants to continue working but that he finds the millstone of Minecraft too weighty.

He is getting away from Minecraft and Mojang precisely so that he can perfect his craft and continue to work.

He's not leaving Mojang so that he can go and kick puppies or club seals. I find the calls on him to do something noble to be deeply unpleasant.

drzaiusapelord4• 12 years ago

Oh come on. The reality is that most people who get freak success are very often one-trick ponies. They don't often have a second chapter and some/most of the ones that do, do so only because they are highly driven type-A personalities who thrive on competition, which is the opposite of who Notch is, from what I can tell. Notch probably understands this and pardon me if I don't accept your morality argument over whats essentially a mild distraction (a video game).

With Notch's new found wealth, he could, say, start a charitable foundation or whatever he wants which could impact people a whole hell of a lot more people and in arguably better ways than Minecraft 2: Electric Bugaloo.

eyeareque• 12 years ago

So sad. Imagine if Jobs/the PayPal guys/etc had taken this approach after their initial succcess.

I for one would be happy if paypal didn't exist. However, I like Musk's other companies.

oliyoung• 12 years ago

That's kinda the point, Tesla, SolarCity & Space-X just don't exist without Musk's $165m exit from PayPal

mwfunk• 12 years ago

No one is obligated to make themselves miserable by forcing themselves to assume a role in life that they do not want. It might be debatable if he was some sort of political leader or humanitarian icon or something, of the sort where humanity's misery index actually increases in their absence.

However, for all of his good qualities, like 99.9999% of humanity, Notch is not wired up to be a hugely public figure, who is constantly interacting with the public, and is under continuous scrutiny to make another Minecraft. That's right, for the rest of his career, everything he does will be held up to the yardstick of being "the guy who created Minecraft".

I know, boo hoo and all that, given that he is now possibly a billionaire (on paper at least, and maybe only before taxes, but still!). But that doesn't instantly change his psychology- it doesn't flip any of the axes of whatever his Meyers/Briggs personality type is. If he's not comfortable and not happy being a public figure that everyone stares at waiting for the next Minecraft to pop out, no one should be able to hold that against him. He's not obligated to continue being that guy if it's not who he is.

After a few years out of the limelight, if he wanted to he could be a Mark Shuttleworth kind of guy: someone who struck it big while still young, and decided to invest a chunk of that money (and most or all of his time) to a passion project. I've gotta think that after the Microsoft deal, Notch won't have to work, but maybe in a few years he might decide to reinvolve himself with the community in a role that is a better fit for him. Or not, it's up to him. I would personally like to see some kind of Act 2 from him, because he is clearly a very creative and occasionally inspired person, but I won't hold it against him if doesn't want to.

sytelus• 12 years ago

At higher state of mind you do things for sack of doing or some intrinsic pleasure or even no purpose at all. G.H Hardy puts this best in his book Mathematician's Apology by describing why mathematicians do math. He mentioned, as a mathematician, he never cared about utility of its work. In fact he avoided anything that he thought could be remotely useful after many centuries. Euclid didn't created Elements to be "useful" in a practice sense. Mountaineers don't climb mountains because it benefits humanity. They climb them because they are there. I'd been kind of person in my early life where everything needed purpose and goals. It took me long time to understand and come to terms with this line of thinking. The reason I call it "higher" state of mind because I think you arrive there when you understand something very intrinsic about universe. I've written tons of code purely for sack of writing with no intent of it ever getting used by anyone. Some people try to explain it by saying that they do it "just for fun" but its akin to explaining quantum mechanics to a pre-schooler by watered down analogies.

ionised3• 12 years ago

I'm not sure I would ever agree with the idea that a person owes the world their blood and sweat just by coincidence of being born.

AnonJ3• 12 years ago

Ayn Rand? What good does that kind of stuff do at all anyways? If you want some libertarian ideas, fine, there are countless philosophers out there for you to cite, even Robert Nozick. But Ayn Rand? That's just disgusting beyond belief, seriously.

mentos• 12 years ago

I would love to see him consider investing in other video game projects. There is a game 10x better than Minecraft out there somewhere and he has the money to find it.

LeicaLatte• 12 years ago

Say Facebook had acquired Minecraft I believe Notch might have had a chance at continuing at Mojang. But Microsoft's history with killing talent is legendary (Nokia, Rare, etc) and there was no question of him taking a chance with them.

barnumdee• 12 years ago

No, he probably wouldn't have sold it to begin with if they were the only ones buying. Notch specifically said he wouldn't create a Minecraft version for the Oculus Rift after the Facebook purchase because he found it 'creepy'.

_random_• 12 years ago

Yeah, Nokia was sooo thriving.

willvarfar2• 12 years ago

For the interested, Notch didn't enter the current Ludum Dare but thousands of mortal coders did, and they'd love you to go play their games!

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/

dmpk2k• 12 years ago

Unrelated, but maybe he did enter, under a different pseudonym; it's what I'd do in his shoes.

SunShiranui• 12 years ago

He wanted to enter but didn't manage to get any ideas for his game.

shurcooL• 12 years ago

If only there was an OnLive-like roulette-like way going from one game to another without download and install times, that'd be neat.

Udo• 12 years ago

If you participated, the rating UI kind of works like that. You can just stick to browser-based games (which is more than 50% of all entries).

AndyKelley• 12 years ago

That includes me! http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-30/?action=preview...

It's a multiplayer html5 game, so drag a friend into it with you :-)

melvinmt• 12 years ago

There was once a businessman who was sitting by the beach in a small Brazilian village. As he sat, he saw a Brazilian fisherman rowing a small boat towards the shore having caught quite few big fish. The businessman was impressed and asked the fisherman, “How long does it take you to catch so many fish?” The fisherman replied, “Oh, just a short while.” “Then why don’t you stay longer at sea and catch even more?” The businessman was astonished. “This is enough to feed my whole family,” the fisherman said. The businessman then asked, “So, what do you do for the rest of the day?” The fisherman replied, “Well, I usually wake up early in the morning, go out to sea and catch a few fish, then go back and play with my kids. In the afternoon, I take a nap with my wife, and evening comes, I join my buddies in the village for a drink — we play guitar, sing and dance throughout the night.”

The businessman offered a suggestion to the fisherman. “I am a PhD in business management. I could help you to become a more successful person. From now on, you should spend more time at sea and try to catch as many fish as possible. When you have saved enough money, you could buy a bigger boat and catch even more fish. Soon you will be able to afford to buy more boats, set up your own company, your own production plant for canned food and distribution network. By then, you will have moved out of this village and to Sao Paulo, where you can set up HQ to manage your other branches.”

The fisherman continues, “And after that?” The businessman laughs heartily, “After that, you can live like a king in your own house, and when the time is right, you can go public and float your shares in the Stock Exchange, and you will be rich.” The fisherman asks, “And after that?” The businessman says, “After that, you can finally retire, you can move to a house by the fishing village, wake up early in the morning, catch a few fish, then return home to play with kids, have a nice afternoon nap with your wife, and when evening comes, you can join your buddies for a drink, play the guitar, sing and dance throughout the night!” The fisherman was puzzled, “Isn’t that what I am doing now?”

http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2010/09/08/the-fisherman-and-the-...

raldi2• 12 years ago

And then the fisherman got a horrible toothache and there was nothing he could do about it. A few years later, overfishing led to near-depletion of the local supply, and new restrictions were implemented on fishing licenses. The fisherman was unable to afford one, and yet he had no other means of supporting his family. By the end of the decade his wife and children were begging on the street.

Meanwhile, the businessman was getting a massage at a ski resort in Switzerland.

technofiend• 12 years ago

Hah. Funny, but Brazil has socialized medicine.

TeMPOraL15• 12 years ago

The point being, we who are like the businessman are the slaves of our economy. We get great perks from that Moloch, like healthcare, million types of foods, computers, cinemas, all the awesome technology - but in exchange, we need to slave away our lives. It's a trade-off.

We're entering the times when we can build machines to relieve us from our chains, but (apart from needing to restructure the capitalist economy) the transition is being slowed down by the deeply ingrained meme that Everyone Has To Work, Or Else Is A Lazy And Bad Person. It was a reasonable assumption in the times of high scarcity, but nowdays it's becoming hurtful.

What is striving to earn "FU money" if not trying to free oneself from the slavery?

dredmorbius2• 12 years ago

Until the ski resort closed due to lack of snow from global warming, his business failed as increasing amounts of financial capital were required for ever falling returns on new energy exploration, globalization collapsed due to increased fuel and energy costs making shipping child-labor textiles and fatuous electronics 12,000 miles uneconomic.

If your model of the world suggests that fishing isn't a sustainable activity, I suspect you'll find that the rest of the economic system is going to fail not too long after that.

zeidrich2• 12 years ago

This is a fearful way to look at things, especially given the context.

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.

leishulang• 12 years ago

Hard working might pay off in the future. But laziness pays off NOW.

yalogin• 12 years ago

Posting this to the wrong crowd here aren't you?

qopp• 12 years ago

This isn't a perfect analogy for this situation because Notch is already wealthy enough to retire. He's worked hard, and made something people love.

It would be like the fisherman worked 2 years can captured a solid gold fish. It's really the CEO that wants something out of the fisherman in this case.

chasing2• 12 years ago

Ugh. Parables can be used to demonstrate just about anything.

There once was a fisherman, much like the one you describe in the parent comment.

One day a businessman approached him with a proposal that would require more work, but would, in the end, result in much more financial freedom and stability.

The fisherman declined the advice and went about his life, happily fishing for the days food and spending the rest of the day playing with his kids and drinking with his buddies.

Then the kids grew up and his buddies started finding other things to do with their time, so the fisherman got restless. But he had no money saved up and no other skills, so he was stuck. Then there were a couple years during which the fishing turned bad and the fisherman and his poor wife nearly starved. Rather than spending all day fishing in frustration, it sure would've been nice to actually retire somewhere. But the fisherman was well past that point. It was either fish or go hungry. Or possibly both.

And then his kids were all hit by meteorites and his town was invaded by aliens and the entire ocean dried up and everyone had to move to Mars.

lem72• 12 years ago

In this situation, It sounds like he got more out of life by following his original goal of hanging out with his family since they all die in the end anyways.

grecy• 12 years ago

There is a similar version of this told from an Australian perspective. Same moral.

I experienced this attitude and culture first hand when I spent 2 years driving from Alaska to Argentina [1]. It's impressive how happy people are when they're not trying to " get ahead".

[1] http://theroadchoseme.com

devinmontgomery• 12 years ago

I know a lot of people like this - smart, talented people who want a lifestyle business. Being able to afford to do what you love for a living is awesome. Good for Notch, now he can.

Anderkent2• 12 years ago

And then the businessman showed the fisherman photos of hundreds children that survived thanks to his charity donations, and the schools he's sponsored, and all the other ways he made the world a better place thanks to the money he made, and the fisherman was enlightened.

debt• 12 years ago

Kind of reminds me of something Richard Feynman said:

"Then I had another thought: Physics disgusts me a little bit now, but I used to enjoy doing physics. Why did I enjoy it? I used to play with it. I used to do whatever I felt like doing - it didn't have to do with whether it was important for the development of nuclear physics, but whether it was interesting and amusing for me to play with. When I was in high school, I'd see water running out of a faucet growing narrower, and wonder if I could figure out what determines that curve. I found it was rather easy to do. I didn't have to do it; it wasn't important for the future of science; somebody else had already done it. That didn't make any difference. I'd invent things and play with things for my own entertainment."

I think we should take serious stock not only in what Notch is saying here but also his overall success: if you get off making ephemeral photo-sharing apps or a Salesforce clone then keep on trucking otherwise you should ask yourself why you're doing it in the first place.

Are your little projects a ton of fun to work on? Notch makes an all around good argument for pursuing your passion.

alexvr• 12 years ago

I hope he puts that money to good use.

nperez• 12 years ago

As someone who took my lifelong fascination and turned it into a "job", I respect the hell out of this. Granted, not everyone is financially capable of just coding small experiments and getting by, but that's where the magic is.

ErikRogneby• 12 years ago

This was the hardest line to read: "If I ever accidentally make something that seems to gain traction, I’ll probably abandon it immediately."

I hope when he says "abandon" he means upload it on github with an MIT license.

Seriously though, what a horrible thing to be fearful of creating something that people might like.

tcfunk• 12 years ago

Yeah that was the line that caught my attention, too. I hope that fear will subside somewhat with time out of the spotlight (if indeed he manages to get out of it in the first place).

pingwing• 12 years ago

I don't blame the guy and now he has plenty of money to do what he wants and not deal with the bullshit. Corporate America sucks. it is a horrible "culture". Not everyone wants fame, fortune maybe, but not fame.

cmdrfred2• 12 years ago

I love ya notch, you inspired me. Games don't have to have a story, great graphics, or even a point. They have to be fun. After years of being a gamer, Minecraft is the only game I come back to.

I will buy anything you have for sale.

chris_mahan6• 12 years ago

Minecraft's my favorite game, and my son's. We also both like Dune2. He's 9. (I'm not :)

cmdrfred2• 12 years ago

I just checked out Dune2, looks good thanks for the recommendation.

JacobEdelman• 12 years ago

Notch has done it. By leaving mojang he can no longer be blamed for any major disasters and has already achieved a place of honor in nerd communities. And now he does what every nerd dreams of doing but isn't sure they can do, leaving their company once it gets to big so they can just go and code. By specifically stating he doesn't want to be a huge symbol for the nerd community he has permanently affixed himself as one.

diltonm• 12 years ago

Marcus has earned the right to do what he wishes, enjoy life instead of stressing. Best wishes to him and continued success to Mojang!

lubujackson• 12 years ago

Notch seems like the closest thing to a modern day Woz, at least in his "doing it for the fun" approach. I wish him well in the future!

lnanek2• 12 years ago

Too bad, his claim that he isn't a developer and just wants to have fun playing and tinker makes him sound a lot like the famous Miyamoto from the StarFox development stories. Miyamoto apparently often played with many different implementations, making the programmers throw out a lot of work, but this was done to find something fun. Notch now had the money and organization to do that without worrying about having to push out a release. I wonder if his descent into writing useless things like Doom map viewers is just sort of chickening out. It's fun and easy to write for him maybe, no stress, but completely meaningless for the industry.

mcguire• 12 years ago

"If I ever accidentally make something that seems to gain traction, I’ll probably abandon it immediately."

That is a very nice option to have.

corbinpage• 12 years ago

Instead of pulling a Wozniak, why not pull a Sergey Brin?

Use the incredible resources you gained from your first success to finance all the cool side-projects you ever dreamed of?

Notch could start any web experiment he wanted, and when he got bored, pass it along to an army of coders to refine and finish.

AVTizzle• 12 years ago

Great point. He can still do that though, he's walking away a rich man.

jokoon6• 12 years ago

He sounds depressed and frustrated. All I see is bad emotions in all that.

With all the money he has, he could at least try to share or expand his passion in some way.

It's true that he's lucky, you sense the modesty, that he doesn't want to be perceived as talented.

But even if that's true, he could at least try a little bit more. I mean he seems content with his work, but if I had such fame, at least I'd try to use it and approach game companies to negotiate deals, and share his vision of gaming.

Hasn't he ever tried to lead some team and get in touch with programmers he likes to do something ? Can't individuals like him hire a manager to do the job and project his vision into something ? I mean aren't there decent people able to know when there's potential, and solve the relational stuff ?

I mean you can't be modest like that all the time. at some point it's grumpiness, not modesty.

I wish there were businessmen able to notice those modest, hard working loners and just get small companies working with them. Not even companies, just small teams and projects. Some coaching. I wonder what's Carmack's story. I'd love to hear about the work stories of those guys, or maybe hear them talk about work politics. Of course they don't want to, because they might be made fun of, but meh.

ProAm• 12 years ago

It's his life he can do what he wants.

elwell• 12 years ago

That's obvious, but it's often helpful to hear what other people think you should do with your life. That's true humility, and it can get you out of depression. Not saying I necessarily agree with GP though.

peterwwillis• 12 years ago

Are you aware of how presumptive and insulting it is to speculate about someone else's life and tell them how they should be living?

jokoon6• 12 years ago

It's sad to read that he would abandon something that gets traction. It doesn't really make sense.

For indie game developers, this story is kinda sad, that's all. To see a lone dev exiting through the back door like that, it is kinda discouraging.

tacotime• 12 years ago

"...and share his vision of gaming."

I think you may be ascribing meaning to a man with no such vision. He says he just wants to have fun and tinker, not change the world and I think that probably sums up his sentiments pretty well. I myself would love to change the world, I don't think you'd ever hear me speak those words. If you're a like-minded individual then I think it can be hard to put yourself in those shoes. Some people actually are just happy doing what they enjoy.

jokoon6• 12 years ago

He says he just wants to have fun and tinker

Then why no try to promote tinkering ? A game company dedicated to game development in a way he deems fit ?

Some people actually are just happy doing what they enjoy.

There's always some small thing you wish you could be able to make, some quirky, imaginary idea you want to achieve. When you see what's on the market, you know and wish you could just do better. This kind of mindset enables you to feed your tinkering enjoyment. I mean you don't just spend time programming, your sense of creative smell makes you think about projects.

With the fame and money he has, he might be able to hire people and develop those projects, and if he can't, maybe he could try to make a game company or structure that helps other small developers work on their own ideas and concepts.

Something to counter the corporate, uncreative way AAA games are made.

mitosis• 12 years ago

Interesting. I don't get this at all from his message (that he is depressed and frustrated). I understand that this is painful for an entrepreneur to read, but Notch doesn't seem interested in using his fame to project his vision, or change the world, or any of this big Jobs-y stuff. He doesn't owe it to anyone, and people have no business telling him to do it or else he's a traitor, or grumpy, or a fake.

theflubba• 12 years ago

Notch is an idiot. He should just ignore what people say on the internet, stop taking things so personally, and work on a new idea. There's nothing stopping him but himself.

seanflyon4• 12 years ago

stop taking things so personally, and work on a new idea. There's nothing stopping him but himself.

There is nothing stopping him at all; that is exactly what he is doing.

31reasons• 12 years ago

Flappybird situation at a much bigger sale ( I mean scale)

chubot• 12 years ago

This may be a weird reference, but what comes to mind is John Frusciante leaving Red Hot Chili Peppers at the height of their fame. He quit in the middle of the tour after Blood Sugar Sex Magik, after they became unexpectedly huge.

He just wanted to make music and play in small clubs. And he went back to playing guitar by himself and making solo albums. (Also heroin use, but that's a different story).

And he rejoined in '98 or so, had 3 huge hit records, and then left again a few years ago. He made a few more solo albums and experimented with electronic music.

Some people are not cut out for fame. The intrinsic joy of what they do is even more powerful than fame.

benihana• 12 years ago

Really enjoyed his work with ataxia

SuperKlaus• 12 years ago

Kurt Cobain comes to mind, too.

erikb• 12 years ago

I would say most people aren't cut out to get hate from millions of people for stuff they didn't do, and that's basically what being public comes to.

Nib2• 12 years ago

It's the end of an era...

This may be the last time a post from Notch makes it to HN Frontpage...

We all know what's gonna happen next, microsft is gonna try to messup with the game, and, somehow, it'll end up dead...

RIP Minecraft

jacquesm7• 12 years ago

On the contrary, I expect plenty of posts from Notch to make it to the HN frontpage.

Nib2• 12 years ago

I suppose that you haven't read the letter he wrote(the link, the parent of this comment), he clearly says that I'll abandon anything if it gains traction... So, maybe this is it...

im3w1l• 12 years ago

I bought Minecraft pretty late in the game, but I really liked it. It's a great work. I'm glad for your exit, even though I realize that you quit on a sad note. I wish you joy in your future endeavors.

tdicola• 12 years ago

I can't help but think this deal is going to have the exact opposite effect on Notch as he intended. Now everyone knows he's a billionaire and people will come crawling out of the woodwork to try and get something from him. Also parts of the Minecraft community will be pretty upset about the decision, and if a year from now things go sour and Minecraft isn't what it used to be then people will be even more upset with him. I dunno, if he wanted to get away from it all why not just leave? No need to sell the company for billions. Give his ownership to the other founders and walk away.

adventured• 12 years ago

Fine points, but he's not likely to be a billionaire.

He's a part of owner. Throw in the 30% Sweden tax on the sale, he's more likely to land around $600m to $700m (including previous income realized from Mojang). He's close to being a billionaire.

supersystem• 12 years ago

He owned about 70%.

neohaven• 12 years ago

He had money before the deal. Notch is solidly a billionaire.

noonespecial• 12 years ago

He's doing the only thing that makes a repeat of Minecraft possible. If he stayed "on" and tried to make "the next big thing" as part of a Mircosoft team there would be no chance.

Going straight up _why is about the only way he might create another important work. I'd lay even odds.

sgtnasty• 12 years ago

Then why didnt he just open source it? That question deserves to be answered by Notch.

I watched my kids grow up on Minecraft, and how I led them to learning technology, enabling their future. Minecraft is more than just a game, and really the users own it, it's not Notch's anymore.

e3pi• 12 years ago

`luden dare'

There is a latin root word that means 'play', `have fun'. There is a philosophy and a religion whose names are coined off this word. Perhaps `ludens'? Hesse's Glasperlenspiel -Glass Bead Game?

Learning about notch here this morning, I see a master living this reality regardless of philosophy or religion nonsense or the noisy crowds.

He `got game'.

phlakaton• 12 years ago

Something in a novel I just read last night comes back into my head: "I reflected bitterly that I had walked away from people I had known and cared about to avoid the very situation I was now in with comparative strangers. I wondered if there was any way to live amongst other people and refuse to be harnessed by their expectations and dependencies." (Robin Hobb)

If there's sadness I see in Notch's story, it's only that Notch appears to see and define his public persona in such a negative light. I wish he could see his contributions and influence on fellow hackers as a beautiful thing. But I totally understand and support his intent to find a new playground, free of expectations, regardless of his success on previous playgrounds. I hope that Notch finds the happiness that he seeks.

(I also hope his comment about abandoning his next project on the first sign of success was more tongue-in-cheek than it came off...)

dasmithii• 12 years ago

- "If I ever accidentally make something that seems to gain traction, I’ll probably abandon it immediately."

These words describe how I've been feeling since the beginning of this year, when I first became a self-described programmer. Before then, I loved playing around with little toy projects, but I never considered myself as a programmer. Instead, I was a regular kid who programmed sometimes.

After realizing that, over some time, I had gained some real skills, I felt obligated to make use of them. It was no longer a playful activity, I put a burden on my own shoulders that my programs had to be significant or important to others in some way.

This sense of importance ruined programming for me. Though self-imposed, the homework-effect took over and I lost interest right away.

I'm sure many of you code for a defined purpose, whether it be profit or world effect. But for me, my computer is a toy.

grellas• 12 years ago

Why should someone self-immolate in the name of a cause to which he disclaims being a leader when he has a chance to sell his for-profit business on optimal terms with no strings and with an immediate ticket to full independence free of the headaches of having to bear entrepreneurial and ideological burdens that he felt himself unfit to carry?

The question answers itself. There is no earthly reason why he should have. None whatever.

Of course, the price of being a cult figure is many who follow you do not really care who you are but care a great deal about who they think you are. If you are a vital symbol for the cause, then all that you do must conform to the symbol or you become a betrayer, a hypocrite, or both. And that is unforgivable.

And so we arrive at the world of caricature where symbols rule the day, even at the expense of facts. Buck and kick all you want, there is no winning in that world once you fail to conform.

That, I think, is the point of this piece. In effect, it says: "You have made me larger than life. Well, I'm not. I am who I am and I love what I do. If you have made me out to be something more, I can't help that. I am just like the rest of you. No more and no less. If you want me to shape my life by what you think, you will be disappointed. I will shape my own life regardless of your expectations."

Who knows if this really is betrayal or hypocrisy? Usually the reality is much more complex than the caricatures make it out to be but no one really knows except those directly connected with the events.

As for me, I have no ideological axe to grind and can simply stand back and say, as many people likely feel, "that is one helluva ride for one so young to make."

beauzero• 12 years ago

Good for you. When it's not fun anymore...it's just not fun anymore.

dsego• 12 years ago

He could've given a share to Zachary Barth. Just saying.

GigabyteCoin• 12 years ago

If I ever accidentally make something that seems to gain traction, I’ll probably abandon it immediately.

This reminds me of the unwanted flappy-bird fame.

What a strange idea for an entrepreneurial mind to read.

hyp0• 12 years ago

I love Notch.

But since I don't know him, it's for what he represents; how he's handled success, knowing his values and acting on them.

Poor guy can't help being a symbol - a bit like Life of Brian

god_bless_texas• 12 years ago

I'm sorry, but did notch go on reddit and indicate that Minecraft sold for 2.5B. That bastard.

naiyt• 12 years ago

Huh? What are you talking about? This is his Reddit account:

https://www.reddit.com/user/xnotch

Three comments since the announcement that have nothing to do with the money.

ryan-allen• 12 years ago

I say good luck to him I say. Everyone has the right to make their own choices, and I hope he has a good time post-mojang.

A lot of people have thoroughly enjoyed Minecraft, it's a true phenomenon. Hopefully Microsoft do a good job keeping it going (and more importantly, improving it, of which I suspect they'll do a pretty ace job).

jackvalentine• 12 years ago

The only real response I feel is appropriate: "Fair enough. Have fun with what you're going to do in the future."

seanv• 12 years ago

i can respect that, can't argue with honesty.

AnonJ3• 12 years ago

I think what people dislike about this statement is how downbeat and escapist he sounds.

If I ever accidentally make something that seems to gain traction, I’ll probably abandon it immediately.

Frankly I can't think of anybody who would be glad to hear such a almost childish and impetus irresponsible statement. Not to mention from the mouth of somebody who created so many wonderful things altogether.

I'm Leaving Mojang

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