Following the news developer id Software has been significantly impacted by Asha Sharma's sweeping Xbox job cuts, John Carmack has shared his thoughts.
I don’t think John Carmack is sociopathic. He just thinks differently, and isn’t the most socially-adapt person. He was trying to reason out why the decision was made in the first place:
“Games are competing with every other option for spending your leisure time and money, and the competition is brutal.”
He’s definitely not wrong. I still think Microsoft’s decision was pretty fucking stupid, but disposable entertainment options are at an all-time high, and even with gaming, you can throw a stick up in the air and have it land on a game studio.
Carmack is a unique case where he’s an obvious autist and pretty smart, but is a brute force pragmatist within that.
So he isn’t a sociopath, per normal understanding, but structurally he’s extremely close, and effectively he is, especially when you realize how much thought he’s put into his direction and decisions compared to most people.
The closest metaphor I can think of is like a robot that chooses to embrace Nazism because it’s pragmatic and has the highest chance for his own survival.
If conditions were different, he would go with that, but they aren’t, and so he is.
However, I will say I won’t rule him out/write him off/say he’s a terrible person, because I still assume he’s rational and not belligerent, which are two deeply entrenching and judgemental qualities. But that also being said, people like him are sometimes the most dangerous because their logic is genuine, but half baked, and so sways many more immediately dangerous people, and effectively public opinion and popular rhetoric.
I don’t think John Carmack is sociopathic. He just thinks differently, and isn’t the most socially-adapt person. He was trying to reason out why the decision was made in the first place:
He’s definitely not wrong. I still think Microsoft’s decision was pretty fucking stupid, but disposable entertainment options are at an all-time high, and even with gaming, you can throw a stick up in the air and have it land on a game studio.
Carmack is a unique case where he’s an obvious autist and pretty smart, but is a brute force pragmatist within that.
So he isn’t a sociopath, per normal understanding, but structurally he’s extremely close, and effectively he is, especially when you realize how much thought he’s put into his direction and decisions compared to most people.
The closest metaphor I can think of is like a robot that chooses to embrace Nazism because it’s pragmatic and has the highest chance for his own survival.
If conditions were different, he would go with that, but they aren’t, and so he is.
However, I will say I won’t rule him out/write him off/say he’s a terrible person, because I still assume he’s rational and not belligerent, which are two deeply entrenching and judgemental qualities. But that also being said, people like him are sometimes the most dangerous because their logic is genuine, but half baked, and so sways many more immediately dangerous people, and effectively public opinion and popular rhetoric.