Notch buys $70 million dollar mansion

[Gears]

Since leaving Mojang a few months ago, it looks like Notch has been busy.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/minecr ... 0-6424311/

According to this article, Notch is now the owner of the 8 bedroom, 15 bathroom mansion, previously bidded on by Beyonce and Jay-Z.

Some of the points of interest in the mansion are:
-Walls of plastic tubs filled with candy, guarded by statues of the red, yellow and blue M&M mascots. It's not known if they possess similar offensive strategies as the Weeping Angels, but I would assume so.
-Car showroom, fitted with a car turntable.
-In-home movie theater.
-Several Tequila and Vodka bars.
-An infinity pool with iPad controlled water fountains.
-3 High-def televisions in the lounge.
-A replica of James Dean's motorcycle.
-What appears to be a glass sculpture of a blue hand grenade, because why the fuck not.

So I'd say he's doing pretty well for himself. Thoughts?

[Sarudak]

Sounds to me like a guy who's trying to buy happiness...

[Taleric]

Waste of money.

Even if he wants the location for future endeavors the taxes and over the top cost will just slowly bleed him out. So many celebrities get into trouble with property.

If I had cashed in like him I would have calculated the amount I had over 70 years and if I was comfortable with the amount just stay in budget.

I really believe that 70k a year spent wisely can yield the maximum quality of life. Going well over can only lead to trouble.

[Sarudak]

With that much money I would figure out how much I needed to live comfortably for the rest of my life and then plow the rest of it into something I was passionate about such as bringing a new nuclear plant to the market or asteroid mining or something. Which I would also pursue as my work since I believe it is impossible to be happy without having a work.

[FlowerChild]

I dunno. I must admit this kinda made me smile to see a (former) indie game developer of all people be able to outdo everyone in Beverly Hills in terms of crazy house bling.

Is it a rather perverse show of wealth? Sure. But it does have a certain element of humor to it as well that I find rather endearing.

Even if he wants the location for future endeavors the taxes and over the top cost will just slowly bleed him out. So many celebrities get into trouble with property.

He's on a completely different wealth scale than "celebrities" man.

[Wafflewaffle]

Waste of money.

Even if he wants the location for future endeavors the taxes and over the top cost will just slowly bleed him out. So many celebrities get into trouble with property.

Not sure how taxes in...whatever the fuck he is work, but buying property actually has a better payout then just leaving the money in the bank here in Brazil and in most countries i know of, cuz it can counts as investment, and investment has tax cuts. This does sound a lot like an accountant indicated buy, not an ego driven money frenzy... but then again money does weird things to people *cough* John Romero *cough*.

[Gears]

In regards to the money put into the house, he "only" spent around 4% of his money in the bank on that. Dude's beyond fucking rich, even compared to some of the other buyers.

Given how much money he still has, I'd be willing to wager that a guy like him can EASILY live off of the yearly interest.

With that said, he's done more than enough in the past five years to earn this house, and I feel happy for the guy.

[Ulfengaard]

I tend to agree with Saru. Post-nervous breakdown and follow-on depression, I figure he's probably trying to do what most insanely wealthy people do: buy distraction from whatever haunts him.

'Course... we all sort of do that in one way or another... :D

[FlowerChild]

'Course... we all sort of do that in one way or another... :D

^ This ^

Big time.

It's not like many of us would freak out if someone we knew spent a few percent of their net worth on a luxury item that serves no real purpose other than them thinking it's cool.

What is different here is that Notch is now operating on a scale of wealth that is beyond the comprehension of most of us. So I think that it's not so much that his behavior is really odd, as much as we now lack the ability to relate to his circumstances.

It's all well and good to say what you think you'd do under those conditions, but IMO it's really on another planet from what we're used to, and I know personally, that while I think I have a good handle on who I am and what I actually enjoy in life, and *hope* I would behave a certain way, I really have no idea what I would actually do if I had that much money at my disposal.

With my limited experience with wealthy people (and nowhere close to that scale), the one thing I've noticed is that people tend to behave much as they did before but in an exaggerated manner and on a larger scale, and that ultimately whether they have a hot dog, steak, or side of unicorn for dinner largely just comes down to how much they have in their pocket.

[ThePowerofTower]

'Course... we all sort of do that in one way or another... :D

*snip*
With my limited experience with wealthy people (and nowhere close to that scale), the one thing I've noticed is that people tend to behave much as they did before but in an exaggerated manner and on a larger scale, and that ultimately whether they have a hot dog, steak, or side of unicorn for dinner largely just comes down to how much they have in their pocket.

Very much so. I have a friend who comes from a very wealthy family, and you should see the way he walks around a department store. Me and my other friends are looking for chips and soda, and he's running all over, grabbing absurd things, and it is so inconsequential what he buys. Everything that isn't food looks the same to him, because he has everything he needs. Atleast, it seems like.

Whenever he does something, he also has a way of having to do it right. He doesn't just buy a table, he buys a few tables and some shelves and redesigns his room. I mean, his house is so user-friendly, he should be an Apple device. When he got into MTG, he just bought absurd amounts of cards, then trial-and-error built decks until he could beat anyone in his group of friends, and then he dropped it.

That very much seems like a similar thing, where he went all-out, and didn't just get a house, he got the best house. He probably won't even spend that much time at home if he has that much money.

[Gilberreke]

Good for him I say :)

[FlowerChild]

He probably won't even spend that much time at home if he has that much money.

I could be wrong, but my understanding is that he doesn't plan to live there. It's basically a vacation home for when he's in LA.

And with a place like that, you can throw some pretty uber parties. If I had any inclination towards owning something like that, that would probably be the reason why.

[Gilberreke]

I'd party there. One hell of a pool party.

You know, from what I know from Notch, I wouldn't be surprised if part of the reason for the buy is just because he beat some celebrities getting it. That's the kind of humor he's into and 4% means he'll probably earn more just from the money in the bank this year than the house costs him.

Different planet indeed.

[MoRmEnGiL]

Having a purpose that drives you in life is imho they key to happiness. And that is why getting filthy rich in a short amount of time tends to make people ultimately very unhappy. Its somewhat like enabling cheat mode in a game.. Even if you worked hard and earned it, it suddenly makes a lot of things you were looking forward to irrelevant. It takes a specific mindset to make the most out of that kind of life, and blowing money wherever you feel like is only a stopgap. Humans are not build to make decisions out of infinite possibilities, after some point the more choices we have in life the harder it is to make them.

That said I would happily trade places with any depressed millionaire. I was built for that life. :P

Actually since notch has doubloons to spare, should we try to entice him to fund RTH? :p

[johnt]

I don't think people get how big a number a billion dollars is. A $70 million house is a rounding error for him. $70 million for him is like you blowing $40 on a steam sale.