
At 83, I Decided to Develop an App - zbravo
https://medium.com/@DonRumsfeld/at-83-i-decided-to-develop-an-app-dadd4e53d342#.u8gu5c3v3
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colinbartlett
Yesterday's discussion:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10964902](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10964902)

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sosuke
The negativity is disappointing. Anyone who shows interest in development,
even those that don't code, should be encouraged as we wish to be encouraged.
When we see products launched here on HN they are sometimes developed by other
people than the heads of those companies. Do you attack them as well? A
familiar one would be Digg. If someone had an idea for an autism app but not
the skill and paid for its development would you be negative about it as well?

Yes I'm ranting, the older discussion linked herein was really ugly.

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AndrewUnmuted
> The negativity is disappointing.

You do know what kind of negative things Mr. Rumsfeld is guilty of, right? I
do not think one could be blamed for feeling _ashamed_ that such a horrific
man has entered the field with which those of us here are all so deeply
engaged.

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Randgalt
There's nothing horrific about Donald Rumsfeld. He was Secretary of Defense.
Was he more horrific than any other Secretary of Defense? War is horrific. So
is Leftist bias.

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noxToken
I guarded detainees in Afghanistan for a small stint. I can say with
confidence that within the scope of war, there are actions that are more
horrific than others.

Having to stare into the face of a man who killed your friend a week ago is
mentally taxing. The natural urge to take the butt of my rifle to his chin was
nearly over-whelming, but what separates me from horrific people is that in
those trying times, I still treated him like a human being.

What does breaking his jaw achieve? My friend is dead. No amount of torture
would ever bring him back. All I would get in return is a piece my humanity
ripped from my soul as I watched a defenseless man writhe in pain. Congrats,
self. Do you feel vindicated?

War damn sure is horrific, but it doesn't _have_ to be barbaric.

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sosuke
You nearly brought me to tears. /hug

I'd hope to have that strength had I been in your position.

~~~
noxToken
I sincerely hope that you are never put into a similar position, and I really
appreciate your compassion.

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Johnny_Brahms
My dad (edit: now 76) went from a computer illiterate to someone that got
completely sold on home automation through a couple of raspberry pi's. He has
done lots of python stuff, and recently a bit of F#. The python is spaghetti
code, but the F# actually looks better than what my colleagues write :D

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ThomPete
I am if anything a critic of Rumsfeld and have called him the most overrated
minister (his SID project is just one example of his unrealistic ideas) and
it's easy to point fingers at the many damaging decisions he made in the Bush
jr. administration. In other word I have nothing good to say about him.

But I have no idea what kind of problematic (and wrong) decisions I would have
to do if I was in power and so isolated from that (which I have no problem
with) this is just a fantastic and wonderful thing to read. I wish more of the
older generation would enrich us with games, apps and other perspectives to
counter what seems to be a very youth centric avalanche of location based
dating apps and other young generation issues.

So props to Rumsfeld for never feeling too old to try new stuff.

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MrZongle2
If the author of this article were "Bob Smith", the HN readership reaction
would be tepid at worst. Instead, everybody has brought political baggage to
this discussion.

History will fairly judge Rumsfeld long after he (and most of us) are dead,
and not on his app-creation career. That his new venture into a technical
field can't be objectively judged (without involving his unrelated past) on a
technical site is sad.

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bmelton
Agreed. I skipped over the author portion of the header because I was fixated
on how good the game looked visually.

Reading through the description, I had intended to come back to HN and comment
on how rich and contextual the game's introduction was. That Medium post was a
story, with actual history and soul, and I was amazed by it from start to
finish.

I was busy marveling at how great that introduction was, and wondered whether
or not it was a generational thing, that we get 140-character introductions
for most products today... Then I came here, scanned to see if there was a
comment enough like the one I intended that I didn't need to post, and found
the comments you mentioned.

So, to me, it looks like a great game, and without actually getting the app,
the execution looks solid as well. It sounds like there was quite a bit of
iteration on the project, and if he paid a team to build it, I don't know if
it will reach profitability ever, but kudos to the man who, at 84, decides
that there must be an app badly enough that he takes it upon himself to see it
being built... whomever he happens to be.

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redka
more like: paid someone to develop an app

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zavulon
While he didn't code himself, he was very involved. From the TFA:

> I’ve reviewed wire frames and branding guides. I’ve spent countless hours on
> beta releases. I’ve signed off on something they call “UX.”

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beeboop
I'm not sure you can get credit for being involved if your involvement is
looking at what others are doing and saying "Ok" \- input that only matters
because he's paying for it, not because he has any idea that it's actually
good or correct. I don't mean to be negative because it's obviously good he's
attempting it, and I encourage that, but let's be honest as to what's actually
happening.

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zavulon
It sounds like he's acting like a product owner as well - being one of the
only people that actually knows how the game works.

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GFK_of_xmaspast
I wish he'd decide to develop a conscience.

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backwardm
The single comment on that post is great: "It’s amazing what people can do
when they’re not being tortured to death!" —Evan Engel. +1 Evan.

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goodJobWalrus
There are other comments, such as (in order of most recommended):

> Eagerly anticipating your gamification of waterboarding.

and quoting Rumsfeld's' opening "I’ve done business, politics, and war."

> Yes, we get it. You’ve killed people.

and the rest in the same style.

Maybe Rumsfeld's PR peeps didn't think this Medium appearance through.

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mgiannopoulos
It amazes me that a professional PR company (obviously this was not written by
Rumsfeld himself) approved the idea of posting on Medium where there is no
full control of comments.

