
Why this CEO is worth almost $1 billion but lives in a trailer park - FuNe
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2015/07/21/why-a-ceo-worth-840-million-lives-in-a-trailer-park-with-his-pet-alpaca/
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heartsucker
Clickbait title. It should read:

Why this CEO is worth almost $1 billion but lives in a trailer park he owns
that is specifically for techy coder types

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randlet
Exactly. Calling this "a trailer park" is technically correct (the best kind
of correct!) but, christ, this place is so far from a real trailer park that
it's ridiculous to group them together. The Trailer Park Boys mockumentary is
deeply rooted in reality...

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heartsucker
I was actually hoping it was an article about a CEO who lived in a bona fide
trailer park because he really didn't give a shit about luxury. How
disappointed I was.

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justinph
The NYT article this WAPO piece is largely based on is much more in-depth:

[http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/19/business/at-zappos-
selling...](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/19/business/at-zappos-selling-
shoes-and-a-vision.html)

~~~
degenerate
Much better article. WAPO trying to cash in on the clicks.

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Cenk
He owns a luxury trailer park. Saved you a click.

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antisthenes
A few clicks actually. WaPo requires me to paste the link into Google to get
around the paywall.

Thanks.

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ff10
Oh geez, not another multi-millionaire claiming he doesn't need money, he
would give it all away in a heartbeat when it comes to his "endgame". For a
lot of people with actual money problems the endgame is paying the hospital
bill from an unprecedented emergency pop-in.

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PDoyle
Not in Canada.

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gambiting
Or EU. Or Russia. Or Japan. Come to think of it, it's pretty much only US that
has people going bankrupt due to medical emergencies. It's just so bizzare to
me that people can be paying anything for medical care at the hospital, I
don't think ours even have facilities to bill you for anything.

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chrishacken
I think this is awesome. We need more communities built around people.
Suburban development has lost its human connection. We sit secluded in our big
homes and barely converse with nor know who our neighbors are.

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criddell
"I see my neighbors a lot more now than I did when living in a house in the
suburbs or living in an apartment building"

Hsieh seems to be obsessed with the idea of being forced to bump into the
people around you all the time. I'm the opposite - I get a lot of pleasure
from peace and solitude.

I think I would be miserable living in a situation like that for more than a
very short time.

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crispyambulance
Mr Hsieh's living choices are not an "obsession" any more than your need for
"peace and solitude".

Everyone has a different idea what constitutes an ideal living arrangement.
Some are more interesting than others. Kudos for Hsieh for trying something
non-conventional.

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criddell
Maybe it's just a case of Baader-Meinhof, but 80% of the things I've read
about Hsieh over the past year have been about designing your surroundings to
generate more interactions with those around you. So obsession is probably too
strong of a word, but it's certainly something he has put a lot of thought
into.

I agree with you though - experiments are a good thing.

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FuNe
Living in Ireland amidst the housing crisis (rents shooting in the sky) I can
only testify that we desperately need some kind of democratization and lower
barrier to home owning. Not sure if that is a matter of outlook and politics
as much as innovation but surely this seem to be looking in the right
direction.

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mikekchar
I live in rural Japan where at least half my neighbours are over 60 and
retired. I work from home and often go for walks. It's amazing how nice it is
to simply stroll around and chat with people. Often my neighbours will show up
at my door with vegetables that they grew in their garden. We'll invite them
over for dinner or drinks.

The thing that I have to remind myself is that on top of beautiful weather,
gorgeous scenery and pleasant people around me, I pay next to nothing for
rent. There are a lot of places in the world like this.

I think the main thing we need to work on is making telecommuting a reality
for as many people as possible. Living where you work and choosing where you
live is incredibly powerful. The problem is that this mode of working is
difficult and there are many things to do to make it possible for most people.
One day I think it will be the norm, but it might still be a way off.

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bane
After learning about a few aspects of Japanese real estate (depreciating
houses, near abandoned properties in the countryside), I wonder what it would
take for a foreign hacker commune to basically buy up an empty village in a
remote part of Japan (cheap!) and get going there?

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mikekchar
There apparently _is_ one: [http://www.hackerfarm.jp/about-
us/](http://www.hackerfarm.jp/about-us/) I don't know anything about it.
Someone mentioned it to me a while ago. I'm hoping to wander down there and
chat to them sometime. They seem interesting.

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nathan_f77
I think I would enjoy living like this, but probably not in Nevada. Maybe
somewhere by a lake or a beach in New Zealand. And instead of a trailer, maybe
a 1 or 2 bedroom cabin.

But the community bonfires and movies sounds really nice. I really like the
idea of living in a community like this. Not a campsite or a holiday park, but
an intentional community.

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criddell
You would probably really enjoy life in southern Ontario then. There's a
pretty big culture of cottage living during the summers. When I was growing
up, we used to spend a pretty big chunk of our summer living in a pretty crude
cottage near a lake in Ontario (cottage country). Swim, boat, hike, and play
all day, wind down by grilling dinner and a campfire, sleep, wake, repeat.

The worst part was the traffic heading north out of Toronto every Friday
afternoon.

Now I live in Austin and wonder why the same idea isn't bigger here?

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raverbashing
At this point it seems it's a new season of a bad tech-oriented series.

Moving to a trailer park? Took his pet alpaca with him? Really?

Tony Hsieh jumped the shark right there

