
The Toughest Adversity I've Ever Faced - scobar
http://scottbarbian.com/the-toughest-adversity-ive-ever-faced
======
johnnyg
I think it is funny that the YC crowd points to "naughty" when it benefits
them and says things like "Am I supposed to feel sorry for someone that got
caught exploiting online games?" when it doesn't.

When someone will take apart a game for fun, for better or for worse and often
both, it is intrinsic. We praise capncrunch and damn this guy?

I'm sorry you lost your parents Scott. Congratulations on your child and
marriage. YC is a mixed bag but I feel home here too.

There are a lot of ways to hack the world. I'm not sure if you've picked
inconsistent/risky ones because of personality type/thrill or because it is
where you landed. If its where you landed, move toward the center.

Sounds like you've got the basic small business skills to sell many things and
you don't require permission or motivation to do so.

Consider hacking on your life instead of the games. What do you know that's
inefficient where you are and could be interesting?

I hear heavy equipment auctions are big and profitable in rural areas and I
know from experience it is a space software hasn't touched.

Pick a product or set of products (wave energy harvesting equipment?) and
niche it via PPC. See what the market is like for them on eBay.

Go with the black hat and get picked up by a security consulting firm. I've
rarely seen them be degree choosy with people who have the chops.

Don't make the mistake of thinking the only interesting things are on the
fringes.

Lastly, ignore the rest of the noise of this thread. Keep your head up. Stay
interested. Stay playful.

~~~
dang
Thanks for this comment. It's filled with warmth and insight. "We praise
capncrunch and damn this guy" is a great point.

I don't think the responses here are a single "YC crowd" being hypocritical.
The thread is more interesting than that. It's at least two different groups
having polarized responses to the article.

One group is rule-oriented and binary, quickly seizes on any violation of the
(personal or social) code they believe in, and extends that into a personal
judgment of the violator. Such people often express their judgments harshly.
It's worth remembering that the same harshness inevitably applies to
themselves; one doesn't get to handle that acid with gloves.

The other group, of course, identifies with the author's pluck and self-
motivation and doesn't hold his dodgy beginnings against him. They don't
necessarily support the cheating but admire the ingenuity more, and are
generally more indulgent. They probably read the story as what PG called being
"relentlessly resourceful".

This dichotomy plays out on HN all the time, though rarely so vividly. Both
groups are well-represented both on HN and among programmers in general.

~~~
sanderjd
I think there's a great point inside your comment, but that the way you have
expressed it is unkindly biased against those on what I surmise to be the
opposite of your side of the debate.

When describing the first group, you use lots of seemingly negative
descriptions: "rule-oriented and binary", "quickly seizes on any violation",
"extends that into a personal judgment", "express their judgments harshly",
and "that acid".

When describing the other group you use lots of positive language: "pluck and
self-motivation", "admire the ingenuity", "generally more indulgent", and
"relentlessly resourceful". Plus there is an appeal to PG's authority on this
site.

There are positive and negative aspects of both sides here, and I think you're
being pretty harsh toward one of the factions.

~~~
Retric
I understand his stance, but I don't think the point really stand up.

Articles about SPAM can be engaging. But, that hardly means people support the
activity. IMO, duping in online games is the same basic thing as it's a
classic free rider problem. People are not going to buy duped items in a
single player game it's only the 'non' duping players that make item duping a
profitable activity and their game play is harmed by it.

Performance enhancing drugs fall into the same category. The methods/chemistry
might be interesting, but clearly 'clean' athletes (and arguably the fans) are
harmed by the activity.

PS: Or can you actually see a benefit from doping that I am missing?

~~~
dang
To my mind the issue isn't whether the game cheating business was good, but
whether its badness deserves to overwhelm everything else about the story.

~~~
wpietri
I think the problem isn't entirely the badness, but that the author seems so
oblivious to it despite its pervasiveness in the piece.

If the guy had said early on, "Ok, now I realize that part of my problem is
that my business was essentially parasitical, and I'm trying to learn from
that" I would have been able to read the rest of the article with more
equanimity.

I really do admire his pluck, and for his age he is learning a lot of hard
lessons. But reading this reminded me of watching a horror movie where some
goof obliviously walks along with the serial killer right behind them. You
just want to shout, "TURN AROUND! LOOK BEHIND YOU!" So I'm not shocked that
commenters have to get that off their chests before they can process the rest
of it.

It also reminds me of the conversations I had in the mid-1990s with spammers,
because back then you could actually track 'em down and get 'em on the phone.
They had this same inability to see that they were their own worst enemy. They
saw problems on all sides and thought the world was against them. But really,
the common factor in the problems was them.

It is for all of us, of course. But it can be hard to watch others struggle
with that.

------
mlangdon
As the father of a three year old and an English BA holder in his second year
professionally programming, I can relate.

As someone who inputs on hiring, I would recommend that you become a serial
project completer rather than just a starter. I don't get the impression of
follow through, which is unfortunately what the unfinished degree also
communicates. The only way to combat this is to choose smaller chunks (don't
start with solving energy) and see them through to decisive conclusion.

What is something you can build in six months that does not require government
funding and also teaches you something for that bigger project?

~~~
wmt
It's very typical for people in demanding positions to learn that even really
good ideas are quite common and not even that valuable. Good execution of good
ideas is however extremely rare and is also extremely valuable.

The above recommendation is really really good. Anyone can start ambitious
projects but only a rare few actually can finish them.

------
nugget
Great story. Many parallels to the performance marketing and affiliate worlds,
where mostly young people stumble into great opportunities, usually exploiting
loopholes or underserved markets such as this, and suddenly start printing a
thousand dollars a day in profit. The vast majority of them know, deep down,
that it can't last, but somehow still end up getting lulled into a feeling of
complacency. That's the feeling I got from your post too. You are definitely
not alone in your experience, and you already learned the most important
lesson, which is you don't need anyone's permission to start a project and see
if it works. If you're ever in a similar situation again, take the money day
by day and remind yourself that at some point the ATM machine is going to shut
down. Of the dozen or so liquid USD millionaire affiliates I knew in my 20s,
I'd say half are bankrupt or close to it today.

------
j_s
Thanks for sharing your story Scott; I've lurked on HN far longer and never
had the courage to stick my neck out like you have today. I hope this leads to
something amazing for you and your family!

~~~
scobar
Thank you so much for your kind comment. Like mentioned in another comment, my
post was primarily meant to be cathartic. I didn't expect it to get much
attention so I've been kind of overwhelmed by the responses.

------
serf
It's interesting to read the story of someone else who has profited from the
exploitation of video games.

I did so from a more human perspective, I sold gold either bought from other
player characters or harvested using automation in popular MMOs.

I would have _never_ thought of it as a business. My income was steady for 5 +
years, and not a day went by where I didn't consider the possibility of the
game company wiping out all of my 'assets' in entirety, leaving me penniless
had I not saved, and worst -- jobless.

Fun times. Thanks for writing this, although I think that "I would've been a
great employee at..." is too speculative. It's so hard to say without actually
doing it, it's not just your own skills/actions that you have to worry about
in business.

------
wglb
As a former (in reality, and in some ways still internally) farmboy from
Montana, I applaud the resourcefulness that 'scobar is displaying.

Google may be a tough choice, as they do seem to favor PhDs.

But you ('scobar) have a lot of talent and initiative and a very marketable
skill set.

------
diminoten
How does someone get 100k in debt from undergrad? Is that a thing? I know
folks with graduate and professional degrees from not-very-cheap institutions
who aren't at the 100k mark. That's med school level.

I too haven't graduated from college, and I have had _no_ trouble finding work
because of it. AOL wouldn't look at my resumé, and I assume other large
companies won't either, but there are a _ton_ of startups and other shops that
will beg you to work for them if you demonstrate a clear ability to excel in
their environment. This is probably the most non-graduate friendly career
industry out there.

Your first step should be to get a job, and QA sounds like a great place for
you. You'd be surprised how easy it is to move out of QA and into dev if you
can demonstrate aptitude for development tasks. _Many_ people got their foot
in the door this way, including myself.

Anyway, I bet this was cathartic to write, but I dunno what I was supposed to
take from this. Selling illicit goods is a high-risk endeavor?

~~~
superuser2
In-state price at a good state school is about $22k/year with room and board.

Figure you work a minimum wage 40 hours a week for 12 weeks during the summer.
There's $3480. Now, figure you average 10 hours a week for the other 40 weeks
of the year. There's $2900. Figure you're an outstanding student, so you got a
one-time $2000 scholarship payout from winning a bunch of awards in high
school.

There's a good chance at many large state schools that, even if you're
focused, you'll need an extra semester or two due to limited course
availability. Not counting the possibility of recovery from a leave of absence
related to (mental) illness or family emergency, etc. Let's say you do one
summer semester and it costs exactly half of a traditional year's net price.

So we're looking at:

\+ $99k in bills and spending \- $10k for 3 summers of work \- $13k for 9
semesters of work \- $2k in total merit scholarship payout.

That leaves us with a $74k education. If mom and dad aren't buying, then
there's $75k in principal. At 6.8% over 10 years (the federal government's
deal, but it's capped; your actual rate from the private sector will be worse)
that's $102k in payments.

That's for someone who did the "responsible" thing: went to state school, got
scholarships, and worked continuously.

Now imagine that you go to a private school where the price after need-based
financial aid is in the $30k-$40k range. Or, worse, that you go to private
school and your parents are rich, so you qualify for no need-based financial
aid at all, but your parents still don't want to fund your education. Then
you're looking at $60k/year.

See where this is going? It's easier than you might think.

~~~
diminoten
Heh, the comments are piling up, and I'm willing to admit maybe my experience
isn't the norm, but what you're saying does make sense.

Like I said though, I know a bunch of post-grad folks who aren't hitting
$100k. It's just a big clash with what I've seen, to hear 100k after just four
years.

~~~
superuser2
The people you're thinking of, like most of the people I know, either have

1) Families that have contributed $60k+

2) Families that are poor enough that financial aid has contributed $60k+.

I'm guessing that anyone with $100k in debt has neither of those things.

~~~
refurb
The other thing that matters is when you got your degree. Graduating even 5
years ago means you've likely had to take on less debt than someone who
graduated this year.

That's how fast tuition is rising.

------
reduce
Get out of Montana. Seems you already feel you should. Top people in top
cities will laugh at the idea of a degree being everything as much as you do,
probably more.

I can't believe this has been up for 4 hours and I'm the first person to
suggest this.

~~~
wglb
Hey.

Well, I actually did that when I went back east to college.

But in today's world, you don't need to be anywhere. It wasn't that long ago
that one of the top .net consultants lived in Billings, Montana. He, like many
consultants, would fly out Sunday evening, and back on Thursday. And he also
wrote a book or two.

So today it is even easier to be remote and be a major contributor. As in 37
signals.

 _I can 't believe this has been up for 4 hours and I'm the first person to
suggest this._ Perhaps as the comment is a little harsh.

~~~
atomical
37 signals is an example of a remote company. It isn't an example of the
abundance of remote jobs. Without the right experience and connections it will
be hard to find a remote job.

------
Igglyboo
> "I know you're full of shit because I have connections in the elite crowd of
> the game hacking community. These are the two most popular games right now.
> My connections tell me it's impossible to duplicate items in either game,
> but you claim to have a dupe method for both. Don't waste my time by
> contacting me again."

For some reason reading this quote really bothered me. Probably be it
reinforces the theme that hacking is some magical art that can grant nuclear
access codes to some random 13 year old slamming away on a keyboard, and this
site owner bought into that and praises this "elite hacking community".

~~~
Terr_
I strongly doubt that's a direct quote.

Even paraphrased, it doesn't make logical sense: It should be really easy to
_prove_ that you have a duping exploit in a game, so why didn't the
prospective-buyer at least _ask_ for a demonstration, or why didn't the OP
_offer_ such a demonstration? It's just too convenient.

It's far more likely that OP was either unable to prove it or refused to do
so, and the potential-buyer said "stop wasting my time then".

~~~
serf
> Even paraphrased, it doesn't make logical sense: It should be really easy to
> prove that you have a duping exploit in a game, so why didn't the
> prospective-buyer at least ask for a demonstration, or why didn't the OP
> offer such a demonstration? It's just too convenient.

Agreed. Most dupe hacks are not found by report, but by database analytics.

It's an extremely easy phenomena to spot, and in my experience the only games
that allow such a problem to exist for any period of time are games that are
either operated by a single person and lacking in employee resources to deal
with the problem, or games that are so old that they are no longer concerned.

~~~
scobar
Thank you for explaining how easy it is for a game developer with plenty of
resources to identify this type of exploit if used excessively enough to
affect the game's economy.

Everyone who's complaining about game exploiters seem to focus on the ones
who've caused obvious damage to the game's economy. What about the ones who
are subtle enough, and possibly will never be caught?

------
polarix
> I just wished there were some way (beyond a traditional resume) that I could
> express how I truly would've been a great employee at Google[x].

Well, actually, there is -- the only thing that can express that would be
making progress on the problem...

If you're ready for a big dose of realism (and at the risk of fueling some
dangerous fires), one can dig deeper into the trust disconnect that fuels
acqui-hires here:

[https://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2013/12/23/vc-
istan-7-s...](https://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2013/12/23/vc-
istan-7-solving-the-wrong-problem/)

------
ownagefool
There is no malice in my post but the author really needs to think about the
world from other peoples perspectives.

> I'm not a fan of your previous methods of making money. Not because I see
> things in binary or I have a strong desire to follow rules, but because I
> enjoy the sport of it. When using an exploit, you detract from that sport,
> whether doing it from the supplier side or whether you play the role of the
> kid walking about kicking over others sand castles, you are talking a stance
> that you don't give a toss about the victims and they're pretty well
> justified in feeling the same way about you.

> If you want someone to give you money for a research grant or another type
> of funding, or even just a job, you're going to have to give them a reason
> to believe in you. Your life story may make them feel sad for you but it's
> not going to land you a well paying job.

> The fact you've built a 'successful business' on a house of cards and either
> forgot to save or never made enough money to justify it in the first place
> is not something that reflects amazingly well on you.

> If you want to be employed by someone else, you'll need to build a
> reputation. You can do that by taking an entry level job and working your
> way up, or by getting a degree and then taking an entry level job and
> working your way up. Unless you're doing some pretty prolific and utilised
> works, you're not gonna skip those entry level jobs.

> You come across as a bit lazy or too cocky, always looking for the quick fix
> or to skip to the end. Fact is, a lot of people know enough to build things,
> few know enough to build things well. There's a lot of knowledge that is
> supposed to be passed down during those junior roles that you want to
> bypass.

Still, like I said there's no malice here. I wish you all the best and I
figure if you really have that much drive, you'll land on your feet
eventually. But don't get caught in the trap that you're too good for QA work,
you'll find most of your peers eat some dirt climbing the ladder, degree or
no.

~~~
scobar
Thank you for your comment. When I wrote the blog post, I had no idea it would
be read by so many people. I wrote it thinking some friends, family, and
acquaintances would be the majority of the audience. Those people already know
who I am, and would understand that it was not written as a plea for more
respect or attention, nor to seek employment.

You are right, I'm not too good for QA work (remember I also delivered
newspapers to make ends meet), but I couldn't afford to relocate and pay my
monthly expenses on a QA job salary at that point in my life.

Having been born in the US, I have it easy (even if I haven't taken full
advantage of my privilege) compared with many others in the world. Your
suggestion is to get an entry level job, or finish the degree first, then get
an entry level job. I'm curious, is that is the same advice you'd offer to a
non-US citizen?

We take for granted how easy it is to climb the corporate ladder or get a
degree, and our society values those indicators. It seems as if the objectives
behind them have been forgotten though. What should be valued is humility, a
good work ethic, and a solid education with curiosity to continue learning and
improving. If one meets the objectives but hasn't accomplished the accepted
indicators, then that person often faces prejudice (at least in the countries
I've lived in).

I'm not trying to imply I've met all of the desired objectives. I just
strongly disagree with jumping through the necessary hoops to get ahead
because everyone has to do it; especially if jumping through the hoops gets
someone no closer to meeting the desired objective.

I'm sorry for the rant. I hope you understand my response is not about me, but
about how unfair I think it is that most are so fiercely judged by indicators
rather than the characteristics they're meant to imply.

~~~
stickfigure
_I just strongly disagree with jumping through the necessary hoops to get
ahead because everyone has to do it_

While I agree with this sentiment in general, I think you have to look at some
hoops as just part of hacking life. If you aren't finding the kind of success
you seek using alternative strategies, maybe incorporating some conventional
approaches could help.

I'm somewhat surprised that you didn't take the QA job. Even if it didn't make
immediate economic sense, it was a foot in the door and after a few months
you'd likely be doing something more lucrative, especially with tech chops
exceeding what I've seen from typical game QA workers in the past. It sounds
like this company already has a ladder like this in place. And even if "random
employee in a game company" isn't your end goal, it's probably a good step
along the way. Think of it as a months-long internship; it can't be worse than
delivering newspapers. Speaking of non-US citizens, I can't help but think of
the countless immigrants to this country who sailed over alone, working until
they could save up enough to send for their families.

My overall feeling from reading both of your (well-written and interesting)
blog entries is that you have had the misfortune of hitting upon a startup-
type "success" early and that has given you an unrealistic expectation about
how easy it is to replicate that kind of success in the future. Also, you're
entering a stage in your life at which you need to dial down the amount of
risk you can assume. It sounds precarious.

------
morgante
Don't you know how to code?

(I'm not in the video game or affiliate marketing scene, but I'd assume
hacking games & building websites requires some technical ability.)

If you can code, it should be trivial to find a job of some sort regardless of
your education.

~~~
scobar
I've written programs for myself whenever I needed something that didn't exist
(or I needed to improve), but I'm pretty certain I don't know as much as I
should to consider myself a decent programmer. So, I'm learning as fast as I
can. I didn't mean to imply I was still searching for employment; in fact I'm
not. I'm working on a startup to help others who are struggling to get
employed, and who (with better guidance) can acquire the skills employers want
them to have.

I considered the biggest adversity to be losing my father. He'd always been a
pillar of support for me, and really showed me what unconditional love meant.
I lost him right when I had to become that pillar for my own son. But the
thread kind of blew up about how I'd struggled financially.

~~~
morgante
Ah, thanks for explaining — from the discussion of your job applications for
Google and financial situation, I'd thought you were still seeking employment.
Glad to hear that you're working on something!

I can't even imagine the pain and adversity of losing your father, especially
in such a rough period.

------
diziet
One of the games in question is without doubt World of Warcraft, correct?

------
duckingtest
I am jealous of your energy.

One tip for quick and one time easy money, in similar vein to exploiting dupe
bugs (especially when it comes to people dismissing it as impossible :) -
sport betting odds arbitrage. Made ~35% in one month. At the end of it, I was
banned almost everywhere, which is why it's an one time affair (unless you
start to use fake identities - I didn't).

------
tomrod
Scott-- Sorry to hear about the bad times. Don't quit, and don't let no
discourage you!

------
GFK_of_xmaspast
That whole googlex thing and sending handwritten letters and more directly to
Teller is a little creepy and verging on stalkerish.

------
Terr_
I read the whole post, and it's just left me with a strong sense of unease. A
gut-feeling that strongly reminds me of self-stories I've heard from certain
people in real life, among them a next-cubicle coworker who was eventually
institutionalized.

> When he finally responded, I was so excited that I sent him a long story
> (like this one) explaining my life, and gave him a link to a website with
> some of my ideas. After receiving no response, I realized how selfish I was
> to think he had time to read all of that.

> I still had hope though, so I narrated all of it and sent him .mp3 files so
> he could listen to it while he was jogging or something.

Putting your autobiography on tape for a prospective employer after already
sending a text version... well, I think it's a sign.

In all seriousness, I believe the author could see big personal benefits from
some kind of professional counseling about this stuff, as opposed to throwing
it all out on the internet.

~~~
dropit_sphere
>I think the author needs some kind of mental help or therapy which I am not
qualified to provide.

Maybe, but I doubt it. This just seems like inexperience. It took me a very
long time to figure out the transition between worlds that are about you
(school) to worlds that are not about you (work). The transition is not one of
"selfishness" as much as it's about perspective.

PG describes the dichotomy well in "Two Kinds of Judgment:"
[http://paulgraham.com/judgement.html](http://paulgraham.com/judgement.html)

Venkatesh Rao explains similar phenomena in his Gervais series:
[http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-
principle-o...](http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-or-
the-office-according-to-the-office/)

~~~
scobar
Thank you for expressing it better than I had. When I tried to see my actions
from his perspective, that's when I wanted to apologize.

~~~
dropit_sphere
If I were to give you some advice, it would be to:

a)keep working at _any_ job you can find. Wading through sewage for minimum
wage? Take it.

b) Spend as little money as possible. Put all your earnings in a big pile on
the kitchen table if you have nothing else to do with them. Your wife may be
able to help in terms of keeping expenses to a minimum.

c)Since that job will most likely suck, spend off hours looking for a better
job. Don't quit the first one until the second one is in the bag. Meanwhile,
do good work at the first job. It's not like you're going to stick around for
20 years, so why not do great?

d) Repeat steps a-c until you have enough saved up for EITHER a bachelor's in
a technical field + living expenses for the time OR some other boring,
predictable, spreadsheet-friendly investment.

e) email me any time at dropit.sphere at google's email service if you need
someone to talk to. I earned a perfect SAT score and am working as a valet, so
I know how it is.

~~~
morgante
> I earned a perfect SAT score and am working as a valet, so I know how it is.

Whoah—that seems like a fascinating story. Have you shared it?

If you don't want to post a link on HN (this crowd can be pretty aggressive),
my email is morgante@cafe.com

------
h43k3r
Hey get on www.instaedu.com

You can learn 20$ an hour teaching computer science in your part time.

You can easily make more than 60$ a day.

------
lmm
I was expecting some kind of payoff at the end, but nope. Just a whole lot of
money lost and little to show for it.

Confidence is important but so is doubt. Not all ideas are good, and just
believing in an idea isn't enough to make it a success. And the "safe"
corporate jobs can be just as fulfilling in their own way.

------
eclipxe
Exploiting games for profit is not something to be proud of. It seems like you
have some of the necessary skills to run a business, but you need to find a
product that is not based on theft.

~~~
nmjohn
Who is being robbed?

Throughout my teenage years I taught myself to program by writing bots to play
mmorpgs for me then I would sell the gold. I made a fraction of what this guy
did, but for a 13-17 year old I was doing quite well.

I have no delusions that what I was doing was "virtuous" or benefiting the
world and what have you. But by the same token I don't think what I did was
the opposite of that either - I certainly wasn't selling a product based on
theft as you put it. And in the end it's the main reason I'm a programmer
today, nearly a decade later.

~~~
Terr_
The same people being "robbed" when you counterfeit money: It's divided across
everybody else whose achievements and items are reduced in value.

~~~
nmjohn
Except that isn't at all the case.

By botting a video game money isn't being created out of thin air like with
counterfeiting. Resources are collected which are sold for gold pieces from
other players.

The difference may not feel like much - but it's night and day in terms of the
practical economic implications.

------
5F36B5F62640
You call it adversity. I call it karma.

Your business was based on ruining games for ordinary players by exploiting
bugs (in violation of your contract with the game operator) to duplicate items
for sale for real-world currency. This messes up the game economy and it
messes up the game balance.

~~~
scobar
Perhaps you are right about the karma, but you should understand that I loved
playing those games too. I knew I could have ruined their economies if I were
careless or released the hacks publicly. I actually monitored a control group
of servers where I did no duplication, and their economies were nearly
identical to those where I did. Overall, I used the exploit on only about half
the servers. If there had been a glaring difference, the game developer
probably wouldn't have thought it impossible to have existed when I asked for
a bounty to divulge it.

------
WrathOfJay
Hey, it's great that you're trying to find a place for yourself in the world.
Unfortunately, you seem to have a malfunctioning moral compass, and you give
off a sociopath space-cadet vibe. Making money exploiting in video games and
tricking weak-minded people into buying worthless shit is not a path to
anything good. Stop trying to bullshit your way through life and if you're
lucky you might just be OK.

~~~
freshflowers
Sociopath may be a bridge too far, but there's definitely something very, very
off about the way the author describes his scam as a business, and the
apparent lack of emotion with which he describes the events in his life. It's
cold and factual, and all "me, me, me".

~~~
dang
How fascinating that we see such different things in the article. In the one I
read, a guy puts his life on hold to take care of his dying father:

 _I spent nearly every day helping him out. I couldn 't bear to see him worry
about me_

That's not "me, me, me", nor does it lack emotion, and certainly it refutes
the (already self-refutingly silly) diagnosis of sociopathy. I wonder if there
may be some crossed cultural signals here. Montana is not a place where people
effuse.

~~~
Terr_
Totally independently (there were 0 comments when I started reading) I've
reached a gut feeling which I think closely mirrors WrathOfJay's.

> > I couldn't bare to see him worry about me

> That's not "me, me, me", nor does it lack emotion

Switch the emphasis around, and he couldn't bear _his future success being
doubted_.

The story being told still comes back to the author's same universal
preoccupation, which involves his own validation as a famous and successful
person, or failing that one who is destined for it.

No, I wouldn't call it sociopathy, but _narcissism_ is definitely in the
cards.

------
trose
Am I supposed to feel sorry for someone that got caught exploiting online
games?

~~~
scobar
No, the post was more therapeutic for myself. I'd never found a crowd that
could completely understand what happened that caused the night and day
difference in my life at that point. To everyone in my social bubble (except
my father and wife), I was simply a victim of the recession that began in
2008.

A solid message you should take away from that post is: Life will throw you
curve balls, and I'm genuinely grateful to have found a place like HN.

------
nintendo1889
Its sad, but people are idiots. A degree is only about existing knowledge and
keeping the status quo, not about "innovation".

Create a phony degree, someone who doesn't check backgrounds will hire you,
and then your life will improve.

~~~
nbevans
Seriously?

A degree proves ones ability to learn.

------
mukyu
It does not come off as credible to me without any actual details. The largest
online games I can think of do not even have a market for items or do not even
have servers/shards. Also why wouldn't you try to sell a dupe exploit to a
gold seller like IGE. I know they buy them (and other exploits).

~~~
Blackthorn
The level of ignorance from your comment is so high I don't even.

The biggest online game from 2008 most certainly had both a market for items
and a huge number of servers. It's not hard to figure out exactly what game he
was referring to by thinking about it for a minute.

