[sidewndr46]

unless I'm mistaken John Carmack is unbelievably wealthy. Like give away a Ferrari and start a rocket company for fun wealthy. There's a number of people who read this and conclude that the message is you can't push someone hard enough, it's impossible to fail if you just push hard enough.

[georgemcbay]

> unless I'm mistaken John Carmack is unbelievably wealthy.

Depends upon how you define unbelievably wealthy, which has rapidly expanded in recent years.

According to "the internet" (which is, of course, going to be wrong, but probably not by orders of magnitude) he's worth ~$50 million, which is an awful lot of money from my perspective, but still places his net worth a lot closer to us plebs than it is to all of the centibillionaires and the one trillionaire who briefly existed.

> There's a number of people who read this and conclude that the message is you can't push someone hard enough, it's impossible to fail if you just push hard enough.

It is, of course, possible to fail no matter how hard you push. Working very hard sets you up for the possibility of success, but does not guarantee it.

[sidewndr46]

Lifetime earnings in the US is less than $2 million for most individuals. John Carmack is all of 55, he potentially has decades of life ahead of him. It's important to realize that Carmack was very wealthy even back in the late 90s. He doesn't have insane multi-billion dollar empires because he seemed to just shift to trying to enjoy life rather than pursuing more wealth. My general analysis here is that while money certainly can help buy some happiness, you can really only use so many yachts.