Hacker News Reader

I'm not sure I like that the article opens by giving most of the credit to Jeff Bezos, "Billionaire Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos has a long-term plan...". Yes, he is footing the bill for the Clock, but its hardly his.

Danny Hillis's concept and planning and the Long Now Foundation all preceed Bezos's involvement.

It would be much more genuine to attribute Jeff Bezos as the sponsor of the clock, but not as if it was entirely his idea.

View on HN

It sounds like Jeff and Danny have known each other for a couple decades, and have been working actively together on the clock for at least 5 years. It also sounds like Jeff may have had significant involvement in helping to put the team together and actually make it happen, and he's philosophically invested in its purpose.

Yeah, this article seriously rubs me the wrong way. The tone throughout is "Rich Nerd Buys Cool Toy." And in that context a lot of the talk about the clock's "greater purpose" comes off as bootlicking.

If I were Bezos, I'd be particularly upset about what the writer puts into his mouth about the Gates Foundation and other charities - "Well, Bill Gates has already cured AIDS and malaria, so all that's left for me is to build a fuck-off huge clock!"

Reply on news.ycombinator.com