
Antivirus Software Pioneer John McAfee Loses Fortune (2009) - a5seo
http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/story?id=8462247&singlePage=true
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DanielBMarkham
There are so many experiences to have in life, you would think that people
with a lot of wealth would have many of them.

But, as this article points out, it's easy to trap yourself with the things
you like. Like fishing? You buy a huge boat. Like flying? You spend millions
on a cool plane. Like scenery? You buy several houses.

Pretty soon, all your time and energy goes into the things you own. Or, as
people say, the things own you instead of you owning the things. John puts it
very well: you can only live in one place at a time.

Once my startups begin to mature, I plan on renting just about everything.
That way I can try many different things without the pain of ownership. If I
find myself doing something over and over again -- and it would have to be
dozens of times -- I might consider buying something permanently. Maybe.

Concentrate on experiences, not possessions (or money)

EDIT: I heard somebody refer to what happened as a "luxury consumption trap."
Just wanted to add that nothing about this has anything to do with the
_amount_ of money involved. This is more about your relationship to the things
you own, however much they might cost. You can tie yourself up with five
dollar items as easily as you can five million-dollar items. (It's true,
however, that people seem especially blind about this when this happens with
larger-ticket items.)

~~~
sunchild
We all live on some spectrum of consumer vs. producer. Some entrepreneurs
(classic producers) never stop being primarily producers. Those are the people
who remain frugal and are indifferent about their fortunes. Others fall toward
the consumer end of the spectrum, and sometimes lose their way.

I think it's universally true that producing is always better than consuming,
but perhaps someone will refute that point convincingly.

~~~
meric
For society:

 _Society rewards production better than consumption._

Yet, when you think about it, when no one consumes, the value of production
becomes zero, too.

Perhaps my initial sentence should be changed to: _Consumers reward
producers_.

They're like a pair of chopsticks.

For individuals:

One could argue that when possible, consuming is always better than producing.
You're swapping pieces of paper for real goods and services!

We're sort of fortunate that programming counts as "production" while playing
computer games count as "consumption", and we're more interested in the former
than the latter. I see it as just how the world works; "Fate" if you will.
(I'm not religious, though).

EDIT: I save as much as possible and program lots, while my brother spends
almost every dollar of his paycheck. So I'm biased.

~~~
jrspruitt
We are very consumer based, at some level even the producers are just
consumers, that use what they consume to create something else for someone
else to consume usually. I would say that is just part of our way of living,
in a society of people. The only way for us to have no consumers, is if we are
all self sustaining, hunter gatherers really.

Perhaps at one point our species was consumerless, but the fact is, we work
way better in a group, which means there will be consumers. I like turning
steel into usable objects, I don't like mining it, there for I must be a
consumer at some level. If I was forced to produce everything I needed to
build something complex, like say a PCB board and components, it would take a
life time to get everything necessary to produce something not all that
spectacular.

I think the "bad" part of consumerism, is more a psychological state, like
using drugs to escape a problem. Consuming on its own, isn't necessarily bad
and you're right, very necessary. Perhaps its all psychologically based, I
feel better building something, more than I do just waiting around for the
next movie, or video game to distract me from my life. But really, whats the
difference if what I produced just ends up sitting in the corner collecting
dust, why I'm building something else?

In that sense, being a Producer, requires a Consumer, someone else to find
what you have made useful. Otherwise all I've been is a consumer. Producing at
worst, is a consumer, at best, helping make society a better place. Consumer
at best is a Producer, at worst, just collecting, and creating a market, for
junk to be eventually thrown away.

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acangiano
Sad story, but I love that he is at it again.

According to Wikipedia: "Beginning in February 2010, John started a new
venture in the field of bacterial quorum sensing. His new company QuorumEx is
headquartered in Belize and is working towards producing commercial all
natural antibiotics based on anti-quorum sensing technology."

I just love how the man, even at 66, still swings for the fences. He doesn't
dick around with small projects and SaaS. He seems to have a track record of
going after game changing technologies.

~~~
msisk6
I don't know -- this article at FastCompany linked from Wikipedia puts a
different light on his move to Belize:
<http://www.fastcompany.com/node/1615167/print>

Hard to say what the truth is here, but it's an interesting story nonetheless.

~~~
SiVal
The print version of the article linked to here jumps into the middle of the
story. You have to go through a page at a time to get the whole thing.

Frankly, the Fast Company article makes a lot more sense. This, "I lost all my
assets, but I'm a happier guy, and now I'm off to Belize with a few pennies in
my pocket," stuff is pretty convenient for a guy with five pending lawsuits
including a wrongful death that could cost him, well, all his assets.

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daew
There is speculation that he sold off all his assets and moved them all to
Belize etc to protect himself from lawsuits, including a wrongful death
lawsuit.

<http://www.fastcompany.com/node/1615167/print>

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hammock
Paper-rich assets inflated by the bubble are being repriced for everyone, not
just one guy. An airplane is still an airplane, the fact that its unrealized
paper value is less does not change its intrinsic qualities. The tragedy is
when you have debt, etc and are forced to sell in a down market.

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rokhayakebe
This is a life-long training and you do not need to be a millionaire to do it.
Look around your apartment, house, bedroom or closet. I guarantee you 75% of
what is there you haven't used more than twice in the past month. In my case I
just bag stuff I do not find myself using and take a trip to Goodwill. Ah,
sometimes it feels so good to have less things.

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sleight42
"Luxury" is relative.

McAfee is cited as saying, “We are the ultimate consumer society. If you
succeed within that culture, then you’re simply more bonded to it.”

Any item in your possession or service that you command that exceeds your
functional needs of it is, for you, a luxury. It's not just about the rich.
Can you truly claim that you need that 60" television to watch your favorite
sporting match?

Have you seen Independence Day? I found the movie highly ironic. Talking to my
father about the movie sometime after watching it, I remember remarking that
what separated us from the aliens bent on annihilating us to consume our
planet for its natural resources was one thing: time.

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diminish
"..My father always said, 'Real estate, you can't lose in real estate' ... you
know, oddly enough you can."

Mine says it too..

~~~
carsongross
The current crisis is going to destroy that nostrum, and reduce real estate to
what it is: a depreciating liability/consumable that produces no wealth and
that has high transaction costs. Leverage has been the name of the game for 30
years, and the mortgage has been the only way that the little guys could play
that in a major way.

There was a thread a while back talking about how to rationally buy a house,
and bunch of people mentioned what a great hedge real estate is against
inflation. But no one talked about deflation.

Look at the BONES, man:

[http://www.balloon-juice.com/wp-
content/uploads/2009/05/japa...](http://www.balloon-juice.com/wp-
content/uploads/2009/05/japanindex.gif)

~~~
sixtofour
I agree that real estate suffers cycles like anything, but how is it a
consumable?

~~~
carsongross
Just in the sense that housing, and in particular new housing, had shifted to
the rapid-turnover, quickly depreciating model of a consumable: shoddy
workmanship, rapid depreciation and rapid discarding of used goods.

At a purely technical level, despite the best efforts of the housing industry,
we do not appear to have yet build a significant number of houses that are
totally worthless after three years, so I admit some hyperbole in that
characterization.

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lionhearted
> In McAfee's case, his Rodeo paradise -- on which he's spent millions -- drew
> only a few modest bids. The home, which included the airstrip and hangar,
> sold for $525,000 to a couple from the Washington, D.C., suburbs. "It's a
> little less than what I paid for the landscaping," he said. "Somebody got a
> great deal."

I wonder how much that's worth now.

~~~
Luc
I was curious - here's some pictures and a map of the place, now called the
'Painted Pony Resort': <http://wikimapia.org/13741915/Painted-Pony-Resort>

~~~
rokhayakebe
Ok, I wouldn't spend $100,000 for that.

~~~
nkp007
I see the Bluth model home has expanded.

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dmaz
For more insight into McAfee's mind (and a bit of a "before" picture), take a
look at Outside magazine's article from February 2008, "Flying John McAfee".

[http://outsidego.com/index2.php?option=com_content&task=...](http://outsidego.com/index2.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=152&pop=1&page=0)

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andyjenn
"I spent 90% of my money on women and drink. The rest I wasted” - George Best

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Arjuna
This is a link to the related interview segment with McAfee that appeared on
Nightline.

<http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=8468447>

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naner
_In McAfee's case, his Rodeo paradise -- on which he's spent millions -- drew
only a few modest bids. The home, which included the airstrip and hangar, sold
for $525,000 to a couple from the Washington, D.C., suburbs.

"It's a little less than what I paid for the landscaping," he said. "Somebody
got a great deal."_

Yeah, if they can afford the upkeep.

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johnx123-up
Sad story. I vaguely predicted that AV market would crash when I first saw
crowd power on social antivirus at <http://socialav.com/>

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zobzu
id be pretty happy with 10M and nothing to worry about.

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abbasmehdi
Inspiring story that seperates needs.from wants. Somebody found the uninstall
button on the pre loaded AntiVirus (puns intended) ;)

