

The potato-salad guy should keep every penny - ropable
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2014/07/laughing-all-the-way-to-the-potato-salad.html

======
danso
I saw earlier today that the New Yorker had written about the potato salad
guy, and I skipped it because I wrongly assumed it was going to be more
whining about the state of society and cynicism of our new tech-savvy
overlords (cynicism which I kind of share, to be honest)...It's nice that they
took a non-do-gooder stance.

I chipped in $3. That's about how much I'd tip a good street performer in New
York, and this Kickstarter made me laugh. The comedic timing, as much timing
as you can convey in a plain written description, was just right...and I'll
happily admit, I'm very curious to see how the hell he's going to deliver a
"bite of potato salad" (and a photo) to me...I'm also curious if this will be
the first Kickstarter project I've backed that has actually delivered its
reward on time. Good for the potato guy for making the kind of joke lots of
people may have had in their heads, but actually executing on it.

The most annoying protests, IMO, are from the people who ostensibly represent
a good cause, like a homeless shelter or cancer research, complaining that a
potato salad is getting $45K while they can't even raise $4K. Well, what does
that say about your cause? Hopefully, it says _nothing_ about your cause, but
maybe it says something about your process. If some random guy from Ohio can
raise $45K for something that _no one should care about_ , I think the proper
attitude should be, _damn, just think about how much money I could raise for
something people DO care about_ and then, get started on figuring out how to
go about it.

The jealousy of goodhearted people towards this goodhearted potato fan is a
bit unbecoming. And sad, because if they're unhappy about a guy making a
shitload of money while being completely honest about what he was doing, how
angry will these people be when they learn about the many, _many_ people who
raise a shitload of money while being _dishonest_?

------
sukuriant
Related:
[http://www.ted.com/talks/amanda_palmer_the_art_of_asking](http://www.ted.com/talks/amanda_palmer_the_art_of_asking)

The people's responses to the comment are telling. The Kickstarter said he'd
make a potato salad. He probably has. He asked, and people gave, why do people
rage about this? It just so happened that lots of people thought it was funny
/ wanted to give money / whatever. Who cares? The proverbial _you_ could have
thought of it too.

I don't understand the stink people have over this :/

~~~
14113
> The proverbial you could have thought of it too. It's here (imho) that the
> problem lies. People get jealous around money, especially when (from their
> perspective) it's unearned, and this often leads to irrational anger, which
> is the bread and butter of internet comments.

~~~
zaccus
By what measure is it unearned? The guy said he would make potato salad, the
market decided that was worth $70k. Assuming he follows through and makes the
salad, he's earned his money.

