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Comment by karaterobot | Hacker News Reader

In the long run, the person who got a job at Amazon, stole a copy of Zelda, and spent all his time playing it will have about the same experience as someone who waited until release day, or even much later. Years from now, the extra few days he got to play won't matter at all. In fact, that's probably already the case now that you can just buy the game and finish it whenever you want.

I've never gotten hyped for a product launch, followed the news religiously, waited in line to buy it, and later in cold blood concluded all of that was attention well spent. I can think of plenty of times when it wasn't: why did I wait in line for a Wii not once, but three times? Why did I take off work to play Cyberpunk 2077?

I wonder how much of fan hype is genuine excitement for something you love, and how much of it is just falling for the marketing. I'm not saying not to love the things you love.

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> Years from now, the extra few days he got to play won't matter at all.

While I agree in general with the sentiment that time is fungible, I think the story about getting a job to steal a video game might make the whole experience more memorable. "I found a video game on the street and got to play it early" is one thing, but "I got a job so I could steal a pre-release copy of the game" reflects a lot about the character of the person.

The early days playing the game won't matter, but the days spent PRIOR to playing the game will be a treasured memory.

>reflects a lot about the character of the person

That his values are really messed up and they're probably not trustworthy, right?

If your goal is to acquire an unreleased video game, they may be a very trustworthy person. But probably not the type of trustworthy you want to manage a store.

The "steal from your employer" angle isn't so great, but "working around the system to accomplish your goals" is an ethos widely lauded here on HN. If the person had placed a pre-order through Amazon and found a way to mark their order as "delivered" when walking out the door with it, I'd have no problem with it.

While what you are saying makes sense the reverse is also true: In the long run would I be happy that I stayed at work that one extra day instead of playing Cyberpunk 2077? Years from now would I conclude that extra day at work instead of having fun was worth it?

There's enough room in life for short term immediate reward. The most obvious example is having a nice meal. You don't need to spend time cooking or pay a lot for a fancy restaurant, and in hindsight none of it is really worth it since you could have subsisted on nutrient paste and water, yet the food industry continues to thrive regardless.

You sound like...a drug addict in heaven talking about drugs.

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