[jasonkester]

Indeed. This whole article seems like it must be an elaborate HN Karma Lottery, where the first person to read the headline then post the above comment will immediately walk away with 300 points.

The conclusion is so obviously false that it doesn't even require saying as much. If somebody ever offers to buy one of my businesses for a price that makes me happy, I'm going to consider that a win.

And I'll let the parent explain to the author exactly where he can place his opinion of me.

[hobs]

I think if you read the post a different way, what you will find is that the writer had an emotional connection to success and to doing something interesting, and I think he valued that more than the money he got, because as he said, his boss was dropping 50 thousand dollar checks on his desk while he was coding something.

You can see it when he speaks about the media companies paying attention and trying out all his ideas, both of those are measures of respect and acknowledgment that his/their ideas were useful and a positive contribution to society.

If anything, I read this as a warning that "life isn't just about stacking bills" and that money is a means to accomplishing the goals you set before yourself. If you short circuit the fun you are having for money, you either will find something else that makes you happy, or you will pine for the meaning in your life that you lost, and write this article.

[mindcrime]

This whole article seems like it must be an elaborate HN Karma Lottery, where the first person to read the headline then post the above comment will immediately walk away with 300 points.

LOL... it's so funny you would say that. I was thinking last night, after this comment started getting upvoted like mad, how pathetic it is that this comment, which is basically just an emotionally charged rant, gets massive upvotes, while my much better comments - the ones full of research, thoughtful commentary, links, etc., - languish with no upvotes. I mean, I stand behind the above comment 100%, and would repeat it today. But it isn't a particularly good comment. There's nothing actionable in it, and nobody learns anything new from reading it, except for "Phil thinks $BLAH". sigh

[ultramundane8]

I often observe the same thing.

I consider myself the lowest of the low, and even I am disappointed by 9/10 HN posts hiding their valuable comments (they do exist) far below the first thing that I see on my web browser.

Self-indulgent comments like yours and mine should be ignored, not upvoted.

[flixic]

It would be very difficult to find, but John Siracusa has said the same thing when asked which of his Hypercritical episodes were his favorites. In short, he explained why he thinks some of his more emotional episodes were very popular, while actually good, well researched weren't, and that people like to like things that inspire discussion and feelings about things they already know and feel something about, not well researched new material. I may be recalling the whole idea bit incorrectly, but there was a similar angle to it as well.