This comment might not be the most popular but I happen to think it is right on point.
At twenty years of age this kid got a chance of a lifetime and blew it. This is tantamount to getting a winning lottery ticket and throwing it in the trash KNOWING that it is a winning ticket.
I get all the altruistic stuff. I do. I also get that business and innovation is and has always been about doing it different, better and faster than the other guy.
There's nothing ethical about recognizing the opportunity of a lifetime and ignoring it out of a really questionable sense of duty. This is some really faulty decision making.
Let me put it in more simple terms: A good person can do a lot more good with money than without. Period. End of story.
This can take many forms. If he felt so strongly about owing to prior projects he could have offered to share in his new-found fortune in some equitable way. If he really didn't want a pile of money he could have taken as much as he felt he needed and donated the rest to worthy causes. Perhaps support FOSS efforts, help entrepreneurs in his country, launch an incubator, etc., etc., etc.
I know people who are currently relying on the benevolence of friends to have a place to sleep. I know one person who is probably within a couple of months of seeing his last dollar go through his hands.
The idea that someone is dealt a hand like this one and he absolutely blows it out of some juvenile mental fabrication takes on a very different context when you see people who's lives could be changed in massive ways with just a few hundred to a couple of thousand dollars per month. At some level I could see a person not taking advantage of such an opportunity as incredibly naive and selfish. Don't do it for you, do it to help others. What could be better than that?
At twenty years of age this kid got a chance of a lifetime and blew it. This is tantamount to getting a winning lottery ticket and throwing it in the trash KNOWING that it is a winning ticket.
I get all the altruistic stuff. I do. I also get that business and innovation is and has always been about doing it different, better and faster than the other guy.
There's nothing ethical about recognizing the opportunity of a lifetime and ignoring it out of a really questionable sense of duty. This is some really faulty decision making.
Let me put it in more simple terms: A good person can do a lot more good with money than without. Period. End of story.
This can take many forms. If he felt so strongly about owing to prior projects he could have offered to share in his new-found fortune in some equitable way. If he really didn't want a pile of money he could have taken as much as he felt he needed and donated the rest to worthy causes. Perhaps support FOSS efforts, help entrepreneurs in his country, launch an incubator, etc., etc., etc.
I know people who are currently relying on the benevolence of friends to have a place to sleep. I know one person who is probably within a couple of months of seeing his last dollar go through his hands.
The idea that someone is dealt a hand like this one and he absolutely blows it out of some juvenile mental fabrication takes on a very different context when you see people who's lives could be changed in massive ways with just a few hundred to a couple of thousand dollars per month. At some level I could see a person not taking advantage of such an opportunity as incredibly naive and selfish. Don't do it for you, do it to help others. What could be better than that?
Here's my back. Ready for the arrows.