[Arjuna]

John mentioning his NeXT computer in this post reminded me of his NeXT computer purchase story from Masters of Doom:

"On a cold winter day, Carmack laced up his shoes, slipped on his jacket, and headed out into the Madison snow. The town was blanketed in the stuff, cars caked in frost, trees dangling ice. Carmack endured the chill because he had no car; he'd sold the MGB long before. It was easy enough for him to shut out the weather, just like he could, when necessary, shut Tom and Romero's antics out of his mind. He was on a mission.

Carmack stepped into the local bank and requested a cashier's check for $11,000. The money was for a NeXT computer, the latest machine from Steve Jobs, cocreator of Apple. The NeXT, a stealth black cube, surpassed the promise of Jobs's earlier machines by incorporating NeXTSTEP, a powerful system tailor-made for custom software development. The market for PCs and games was exploding, and this was the perfect tool to create more dynamic titles for the increasingly viable gaming platform. It was the ultimate Christmas present for the ultimate in young graphics programmers, Carmack."

[sylens]

Thought of that very passage when I read this. It's not often you get to read a book that is so biographical about a person who is also still posting about their life on social media.

[drzaiusapelord]

Not really. Tech is still very young. The home PC as a popular item is only around 30-40 years old depending on your criteria. Most of these guys are still around and active. I mean, you can email Vint Cerf today or read endless books about Apple, Woz, etc. You can tweet Bill Gates, etc.

The dead in this industry are the super old timers, many of whom you really never hear about, or the unfortunate souls who passed away relatively young. Jobs was only 56 when he passed away.

[electrum]

John Carmack was also successful at a relatively young age. He released Doom at age 23.

[BigChiefSmokem]

Your comment made me think of Robert Noyce.

[fsloth]

Um, there are lot of biographies of influential people who still are alive.

[_arvin]

I think you missed his point. This is like getting never-before-seen bonus material for your favorite book. It reads similar to the book as well. All in all, very cool.

[mylons]

i just finished masters of doom's audiobook a week or so ago. it was the most addicting story i've heard in some time, and elevated carmack even more in my mind.

the book was also strangely motivating.

have you (or anyone else) read anything else like masters of doom recently?

[doomlaser]

I'm a huge fan of the biography Jean Renoir (the acclaimed film director) wrote about his father, Auguste Renoir (the acclaimed Impressionist painter), Renoir, My Father - https://www.amazon.com/Renoir-My-Father-Jean/dp/B001MPDDME

For a gripping tale of technology and hacking, The Cuckoo's Egg never fails: https://www.amazon.com/Cuckoos-Egg-Tracking-Computer-Espiona...

And, as someone reminded me in the thread about Xerox and Fujifilm, Dealers of Lightning tells the story of Xerox PARC, the Alto, Steve Jobs' visit, etc: https://www.amazon.com/Dealers-Lightning-Xerox-PARC-Computer...

[Famicoman]

I have read Masters of Doom and both The Cuckoo's Egg and Dealers of Lightning and these recommendations are spot on. I'd love to reread all of these soon, especially Dealers of Lightning.

Something similar but perhaps a bit drier may be Accidental Empires by Robert X. Cringely about the personal computer wars. And yes, that's the same Cringely from the Triumph of the Nerds documentaries.

I also do not recommend David Kushner's Prepare to Meet Thy Doom and The World's Most Dangerous Geek audiobooks which I believe are anthologies of loosely related articles he has written over the years. The prose was a little too purple for me.

[bdickason]

I'm a big fan of the book and got a similar feeling from watching Indie Game: The Movie. Good documentary about a few small indie game studios that makes you feel like you can start something amazing.

trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhaT78i1x2M

[joefritz]

Another book (also great audiobook) I'd suggest is Console Wars. I've listened to that audiobook just as much as Masters of Doom. It tells the story of Sega vs. Nintendo in the 80s/90s.

https://www.amazon.com/Console-Wars-Nintendo-Defined-Generat...

[sreyaNotfilc]

I just purchased it. Its nice that you felt motivated from an audio book! I definitely need it. I'll let you know how it is once I'm done.

[mylons]

i was taking walks just to listen to it! enjoy!

[archagon]

Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, though it's a bit more dry IMO.

[segmondy]

How many people will spend that money today? I see folks refusing to spend $10/$20 of their own money to get better. It's the weirdest thing. I told someone to spend $100 and run an experiment this past weekend, they looked at me like I lost my mind.

[fiblye]

Most people wouldn't have spent that money during that time either.

The reason this story is told is because it's pretty unusual. Carmack's success is a result of him doing fairly exceptional things.

[shams93]

Developers outside of the machine learning PHD world don't make that huge an income, especially if you live in a high rent area and are single they tax the heck out of you in california today. Back then people could afford to drop these large amounts on projects because rent was like $125 a month and taxes were very low compared to say modern california. It actually goes to show how an economy that benefits the rentiers has a way of shutting down innovation and experimentation as all resources go to cover the basics.

[encoderer]

There is a pervasive idea that developer salaries in sf and other tech cities only cover the rents, etc. Not at all true. Thousands and thousands of career developers making great wages. It’s not VCs driving real estate prices.

[phendrenad2]

It is true, the salaries keep going up and the rent goes up to match it.

[rhizome]

There's a saying that wage increases are absorbed by landlords.

[kridsdale1]

Not everyone has rents that can rise.

[spannedtheusa]

Rent in SF has been going down a little last I checked.

[spannedtheusa]

My rent is high, but my cost of living isn’t that high relative to everything (not that different from pricier parts of the Midwest). My salary is high to keep the cost of living maintainable, so I don’t become tempted to move back to the Midwest where my rent was medium and my salary was high, and the cost of living was similarly medium.

[kalleboo]

Well he was the founder of the company. People are more comfortable doing this stuff if they feel like they have a stake in the company/their work. If you're just a code-money in a megacorp you don't care.

[valuearb]

I spent $6,000 on a Mac back then, when I only made $60k. Spending on better tools for developers is a no brainer.

[selestify]

What was so good about the Mac back then?

[valuearb]

Well, I was a Mac developer for one.

[onion2k]

Most young people today are either massively in debt due to student loans or they don't see themselves earning high wages because they don't have a degree. Either way it's understandable that they're averse to speculating with the little money they have.

[Volt]

John Carmack is a very specific kind of person. You should be asking if he'd spend that money today.

[gitgud]

I too fall victim to the don't pay for learning or improving skills. What was the experiment? if you don't mind.

[rypskar]

> I see folks refusing to spend $10/$20 of their own money to get better.

And still many buy iPhone and Macbook

[STRiDEX]

The entire post reminded me of the book. Very similar in tone.

[myth_drannon]

What are these "Tom and Romero's antics" ?

[BinaryIdiot]

You should read the book! I'd do a TL;DR but I can't really remember the specifics other than John really hated the distraction of pretty much anything.

[jmts]

IIRC there was a lot of smashing keyboards, and the occasional cutting down of office doors with axes.

[mandeepj]

> occasional cutting down of office doors with axes.

What? Who was cutting down the office doors? Job frustration? and , still survived getting fired?

[jmts]

Seems Google, Reddit (u/Ungard at [1]), and Amazon [2] have all the answers. Turns out it was Carmack with the ax. An excerpt from the book:

This happened after Romero accidentally locked himself in his office. Hearing the pleas, Carmack gave the knob a twist, paused, then deduced the most obvious and immediate solution. “You know,” he said, “I do have a battle-ax in my office.” Carmack had recently paid five thousand dollars for the custom-made weapon—a razor-edged hatchet like something out of Dungeons and Dragons. As the other guys gathered around chanting, “Battle-ax! Battle-ax! Battle-ax!” Carmack chopped Romero free. The splintered door remained in the hall for months.

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/Doom/comments/4l1si4/questionstory_...

[2] http://amzn.to/1TE2lPV

[kalleboo]

> and still survived getting fired?

It was a tiny company and they were co-founders. Who was gonna fire them?