
The Guilt of the Video-Game Millionaires - sizzle
http://newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2014/04/the-guilt-of-the-video-game-millionaires.html
======
jcampbell1
Consider the following statements:

A) We live in a meritocracy

B) Meritocracies are fair

Most people accept that A is false. We all know a fucktard that managed to get
rich by being manipulative and destroying value. The problem is that people
then fail to realize that B is also false.

Meritocracies are not fair. Allocating wealth to the people that provide a
large amount of entertainment, seems fair, but it is not fair in a broad sense
of the word. Meritocracies reward those with good health, good luck, good
parents who are encouraging, and the lucky gamete club who have high
intelligence or exceptional physical skills.

Meritocracies are like democracy: "the worst form of government except all the
others that have been tried."

Working hard on a startup doesn't really earn you anything. The best you can
hope for is that hard work increases your luck surface area. Keep in mind,
that there are people that came from better sperm and eggs who will work just
as hard but have a much higher chance of success.

~~~
brc
I read a lot of whining on this thread (and many other, recently as well).
'Fair' pops up a lot.

The world is not fair. You can either spend your time griping, or you can
spend your time living.

I sense a lot of 'daddy' models of wealth swimming in peoples heads.

[http://paulgraham.com/gap.html](http://paulgraham.com/gap.html)

If you didn't win the birth lottery it's not a death sentence. You _can_ still
win. Measure your progress against your own expectations, not against the
lottery winners.

~~~
ACow_Adonis
While I agree with Paul Graham about a lot of things, its worth pointing out
that the man's wikipedia page says he was born (in the US, sorry, in the UK,
my bad), went to Cornell where he graduated at 22, then practically straight
on to Harvard to do masters, and then a PhD, and is primarily noted for being
rich because he was bought out by Yahoo. Something that cannot happen for the
majority of people, merit or no, and if that black swan didn't happen for him,
i imagine we'd have a significantly different opinion of him. Indeed, who is
to say that Yahoo didn't make a complete mistake? We'll never know i guess
because we can never see the opportunity costs of alternate futures we haven't
experienced.

While its possible to end up being rich if you didn't win the birth lottery,
its pretty obvious Paul Graham did win it, and you'd have to be numerically or
statistically illiterate to not realize that where you start the game is
basically the most powerful predictor of both riches and poverty...

Frankly, i wish we could just get over this nonsense of equating extremes of
wealth and merit, since there seems to be such little empirical evidence of
how to equate the two, or agreement on what merit even is...

One thing that does seem empirically obvious though. Rich people aren't
"individually responsible" for wealth themselves. No one has walked out of the
amazon forest in a loin cloth and already been a billionaire because of how
much wealth they were able to create while there by themselves...

/no offense intended to Paul Graham, he was just used in the example, but from
reading his essays I'm guessing he's not terribly insecure :P

~~~
bootload
"... says he was born in the US, went to Cornell, then to Harvard, ..."

pg is a Pom, "is an English programmer," cf: ~
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Graham_%28computer_program...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Graham_%28computer_programmer%29)

~~~
ACow_Adonis
Just caught my error :P

------
refurb
Interesting and well written article.

I think the issue that causes a lot of this emotion around money is the fact
that we as a society like to think that the harder you work, the more money
you make.

It's obviously not a true statement at all.

When you come into a lot of money for relatively little effort (the comparison
of the kid vs. the mother), you start to feel like you don't deserve it at
all.

"Why do I get $1M for a few months work when my mom gets $20K/yr for busting
her ass?"

~~~
andrewljohnson
I don't know how you got from the fact that hard work doesn't guarantee more
money, to the proposition that hard work does not correlate with more money.

I think hard work correlates heavily with money - the people who both work
hard and work smart are the ones who make the biggest waves in history.
Showing up early and staying late are part of the winning equation, for
founders at least. And even if you have all the luck, smarts, and connections,
hard work is going to give you a better financial outcome.

pg said, _" Economically, you can think of a startup as a way to compress your
whole working life into a few years. Instead of working at a low intensity for
forty years, you work as hard as you possibly can for four. This pays
especially well in technology, where you earn a premium for working fast."_

[http://paulgraham.com/wealth.html](http://paulgraham.com/wealth.html)

~~~
asolove
I think the point is that while hard work has a strong positive correlation
with success in most circumstances, the scale of that correlation is dwarfed
by other factors like where you were born, how you were raised, and who you
have access to.

Working hard is like going uphill: anyone who does it is getting higher, but
some people are busting their ass just to climb up a trash heap and others are
getting to the top of Everest by helicopter.

------
sizzle
I have a hunch that successful start-up founder that did not come from
affluent families would share the same sentiment expressed by the game devs in
the article.

I'd like to hear some opinions on this issue. Being a first generation born in
the U.S. myself, this cognitive dissonance in terms of higher tech-job
salaries compared to my parents, resonates with me deeply. This really bothers
me now since my parents spent their whole lives providing to get me here. I
had a highly parsimonious upbringing, which has helped me spend wisely and
save money. I can totally relate to these guys feelings.

~~~
jeremymcanally
I can relate, too. My mom was a single mom, and for much of my childhood, she
worked as a lunch lady where she made about $375 a month after taxes and the
extortionately priced (IMO) insurance plan we were offered. She's now 60 and
still works 12 hour days in a factory and has no retirement to speak of
really.

I do carry a lot of guilt that I easily make more in a week than she makes in
a month, but at the same time, I know that's what she wanted for me when I was
a kid. She was incredibly supportive of my hobby of programming and "computer
stuff." She was super encouraging when it came to technology and learning more
about it. I think she knew it would lead to a better life for me in the end,
and for that, I'm incredibly grateful to her. And hey now that I'm doing well,
I'm sure to return the favor whenever I'm able to (though she's rather proud
so I usually have to slip it in around her birthday or Christmas ;)).

So while yeah I still carry a bit of conflict over it, I also see it's what
she wanted all along and am sure to show my appreciation as much as humanly
possible.

~~~
F_d_anconia
You're mother sounds like mine. That being said, I can almost guarantee that
the single thing your mother wants for you is to be happy. I can also almost
guarantee that what makes HER happy is knowing she did her part to provide the
best possible situation for you to become successful and more importantly
happy.

What's funny is that us (the offspring) feel guilt over the one thing that
both us and our parents had been striving for (our personal success).

I am by no means successful by coloquial definition but I remember when my
mother and I were living on welfare. I remember when I would help her with her
janitorial job (it was embarrassing and I couldn't stand seeing her do it).
But tl:dr... She and my father are comfortable now and I'm happily living
paycheck to paycheck in the city I love.

Come future success or not (I hope for the former) I support my mother's dream
of seeing me happy and successful as she supports my dream of building a
successful company. So do yourself a favor and called your mother, tell you
you love her and you're happy with the life you have and will have. She'll
appreciate it.

Tl:dr:Call your damn mother and tell her you love her. Be happy with the
success that you have that she set you up for the best she could.

------
noname123
I think it has to do with the cognitive dissonance between society's judgement
onto individuals to amass wealth and that individual's sense of personal
fulfillment. Suppose you're an immigrant who won the H1B lottery to come to US
from Nepal and earn 10-20x the notional amount of income you'd at home, way
more than your parents. Would you be happy?

Like the immigrant, children of the families whose mom's earned only $20K was
launched from their socio-economicsphere to another one, the millionaire and
above and one citizen in the elite citizenry of one million. Like the
immigrant, the children of suddenly acquired wealth still identify the values
of his/her original "homeland," values such as humility and hard work instead
of vanities and the weariness of those who have had a luxury to be "anxious"
about self-fulfillment.

The immigrants will not find a sense of belonging, a sense of even
accomplishment in the new land. Strangely, they find themselves bewildered as
their families and the mantras of what they've been reciting all their lives
all have touted as the "touchstone" of their journey. Now that they've
arrived, they feel first elated, then slight flatlined, then keeping up the
appearances and confused and then cheated and robbed.

We've been telling ourselves that starting that startup, taking that job
offer, going that school will enable us to have the X: the money, the respect,
the cachet, the X and only after X, we'll be whole and then we'll really do
the Y, what we really want to do. Or we lock ourselves in a mental prison,
disavowing what society have imposed on us regarding X and paint a black &
white picture of us pursuing Y and the man forcing X on our throat.

But why do we not consider ourselves whole? That is the question we push to
the back of my mind chasing the X's and Y's of the day in an attempt to make
up for the feeling of incompleteness (like a snake devouring its tail).

~~~
sizzle
I often go down these paths of reasoning, then end up questioning my existence
and realizing how short life truly is. This keeps me from dwelling too much on
unavoidable situations in the day-to-day.

I have experienced the phenomenon of "launching" into a higher socio-economic
sphere, being a first generation born in the US. Once I realized my parents
could never relate and that they provided this opportunity for me to surpass
their standard of living, the money stopped mattering as much as the time I
spent with my parents fleeting existence.

I would live with the lifelong regret of chasing more money over helping my
parents in their last stages of their lives. That's why I chose to stay
somewhat local and take care of them, a nursing home would never even begin to
cross my mind.

I owe my successes in life to their hard work, and it makes me feel complete
to make sure they never have to suffer through that stress of providing again.
I often wonder what it's like with friends that get kicked out at 18 and have
to fend for themselves. Interesting dichotomy.

------
ken47
This speaks to the humility of said developers. There are plenty of people who
would happily take the sudden millions without giving much thought to the
morality of the situation.

------
jeffmo
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudden_wealth_syndrome](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudden_wealth_syndrome)

~~~
gammarator
This article also talks about some of the unexpected emotional complications
of extreme (relative) wealth:

[http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/print/2011/04/secret-
fea...](http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/print/2011/04/secret-fears-of-the-
super-rich/308419)

------
sparkzilla
Forbes estimates that the average game earns four thousand dollars? That
doesn't seem right. I got 32 downloads ($32) for mine.

~~~
natejenkins
That's the difference between the mean and the median. The median profit for a
game is probably much closer to your number, but the mean is the average of
all the games like yours (there are many) plus the rare game that makes $10
million or more.

------
ssully
Not sure if this happens to many people who are well immersed in the tech
industry now, but I have had my future career reduced to just "sitting at a
desk all day" by friends going into more "labor" intensive careers. They
constantly bring it up as something they would never want to do because it
sounds boring. This also leads to some resentment from them when I have had a
steady paid internship since my sophomore year of college, while all they have
gotten is unpaid internships or nothing at all.

I personally have never let this bother me because I know what goes into my
work and I know how difficult it can be. Despite that I do believe those
stigmas attached to my job from friends could creep in on me if I were in a
bad place in my life, or maybe even in an excellent financial situation like
many of the devs in this article.

It's

------
drawkbox
Games, like comic strips and a good laugh, are crucial to keeping people
happy. There is lots of value to what games bring for education and allowing a
person to get lost in fun for a few moments. Games that bring joy should
enrich a developer that brings it.

It is amazing how things have changed though, he wouldn't have gotten rich
even 10 years ago as there would have been no outlet. That shows the
importance of the new industries and how the money is somewhat actually going
to creators, where before they create and come away with nothing.

------
thelogos
I can't really relate to how these guys feel because I've never been that rich
but I can definitely relate to some of that guilt that they're speaking of,
watching my own mother wake up every morning to slave away in a factory.

Just travel around, go to SE Asia for example and look around. You'll see
little 6 years old kids selling chewing gum and bottled water at the bus
station. I really can't tell you how I feel seeing this day after day.

Little kids should be happy. They should be playing with their friends and
going to school. Not selling lottery tickets and chewing gum at a bus stop.

When I was young, I went to school with many kids like this. Most of them drop
out because their parents couldn't pay for tution and books.

While I'm not anywhere close to rich, I might as well be Bill Gates compared
to these kids.

So I wonder to myself, why should I have all this while they have nothing? The
guilt plays itself on many levels. When I feel like I'm slacking off, I think
about my mother. I think about all those poor kids.

I've been given so much, yet I'm still not good enough to take full advantage
of it.

I hope that one day if I ever become rich, I won't be so delusional as to
think that that a huge part of success isn't just luck.

For some reason, the older I get, the more I keep dwelling on the fact that
life is incredibly shitty and unfair to 99% of the people out there. Strange,
whereas many people I know instead look at their richer peers and wonder, why
shouldn't I have more?

~~~
sizzle
I share this sentiment expressed in your post, coming from a similar
upbringing. If we met at work, I'd imagine that we would quickly bond over the
fact of having a similar outlook of the world we live in.

My parents slaved away working all their lives similarly, and made a point to
remind me of these children in their home country that have no chance of
living a life like me. I grew up with this perspective and balance that guilt
by doing community service and giving back to those less fortunate (note: not
blindly donating but rather things like feeding the homeless etc).

These are the cards that life has dealt us, be humble and give back when you
can but to dwell on being born into an inescapable standard of living is just
mentally taxing and quite harmful after a certain point.

------
cdcarter
If you've suddenly or not so suddenly come into more money than you need for
your day-to-day lifestyle, I am more than willing to help you find a not-for-
profit hunger relief, education, or arts organization in your local community.

It can be hard to find not-for-profits that have good administrations and
align with your values. Working in the industry has helped me identify them,
plus I know quite a few areas of the US from having lived there. I'm happy to
share any expertise I may have to help you find a public charity in your
community worth supporting. Email is in my profile.

------
enowbi
This story encapsulates the complexities of the human nature. For every
individual with guilt about his new-found wealth there at least two on the
other extreme who would loose no sleep over it and sometimes even if the
wealth is ill-gotten.

------
CmonDev
Government workers are an expenditure. Indie game developers are business that
generates money for the country. Minecraft's Notch paid quite a lot of tax by
the way.

------
marincounty
They shouldn't feel guilty, but if thy were hired by their friend in the early
2000's, with no programming experience, and the friends father set up the
Everything; Don't act like you were the Horatio Alger of the Computer
industry. I remember a whole lot of drinking, not much programming, and a
large company buying your company out. The company looked at your company and
shut it down. My real agrivation is this "friend" don't tell me what a cake
walk it was back then(he made it out like they were all geniuses)--yes, when I
found out the real scoop, I was a little surprised he didn't ever come clean
with me. The problem was I gave this dude a fair amout of money when his
family pretty much cut him off, and we were all at the age when we were
looking for a little help.(The dude was always broke whenever we did
anything.) I'm not bitter, but just surprised. I guess he was trying to
impress his girlfriend with all the genius stuff?

------
notastartup
How do you replicate such an overnight success with games? What is the most
common trait for such titles? It just sheer luck of the draw?

~~~
CmonDev
A lot of quality and a bit of innovation for indies - craft is not agile.
Personal brand helps. Marketing for those with money.

------
eeeficus
OK give me the money and I'll deal with the guilt!

------
euske
Although I'm not making much money myself, I can very well understand this
guy's sentiment. As Eric Raymond pointed out, in a hacker community, good fame
is sometimes more valued than money. But even fame can be sometimes too much.

------
jwatte
That article has terrible fact checking. Braid being the first indie success?
How about "Doom"? Games having questionable moral and artistic value? Would
you ask the same thing about a TV show? The article at the same time got out
wrong, and said nothing I thought was worth saying.

~~~
eropple
The modern indie "movement" is largely defined as being a reaction to the
large, corporatized state of game development around when--wait for it--Braid
came out. So using that as a signpost is both valid and sensical.

And many games have questionable moral and artistic value. Maybe even most.
That makes the ones that reach past that so wonderful.

