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Comment by helterskelter | Hacker News Reader

I don't know much about this guy, but I remember reading an interview with him maybe 15 years ago where he was asked if his lifestyle had changed since he came into money and if he bought a new house or anything, and his answer was basically something like: "Not really, and I've already got good water pressure where I'm at, what else do I need?" I can't help but like his attitude.

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He apparently bought this place in 2016:

https://streeteasy.com/blog/craigslist-property/

What an absolute dream

It is both absolutely gorgeous and luxurious, yet still at less than $6 million, pretty modest for someone capable of giving away half a billion.

I respect someone with a good, proper library. So many luxury properties seem to miss that one.

do we think he found it on craigslist

Looks cozy and nice. Pretty humble/modest for a guy like that.

6 million house is not "modest", cmon.

Have you checked real estate prices in Manhattan? Today for these prices you can likely buy an appartment.

Its just area itself is expensive. Not like owns mansion with a zoo and 100 servants.

I mean he owns craigslist I am sure he can summon many people to do his bidding.

True—-but half of them forget to actually show up and many of the ones that do try to renegotiate the deal.

If you meme it well enough, you could get people to show up for free and still do it.

The 6 million was a decade ago so can’t be compared with today’s prices

That just means that there does not exist any "modest" property in Manhattan. It doesn't make a $6m purchase modest. There is no frame of reference whatsoever which can justify calling $6m "modest".

He bought a house with < 1% of his net worth, which he made himself. Then proceeds to give away 100x that. Aristotle would call that modest and of a balancend demeanor. An absence of excess indeed. I would be living in a cardboard box with these figures. I can get some irritation with the worlds billionaire class. But I do think modesty is somewhat based on circumstance.

That's because half of the apartments aren't being rented to force up prices

What percentage of his earnings does represent?

It's still not modest. There's no way in which a $6 million dollar house is "modest".

Don't try to launder it through lying with percentages. It's not modest.

A small 1 bedroom apartment in Manhattan, today, costs a bit under $1 million, on average.

I would argue that a $1mil manhattan 1br isn't modest. You know, you can start to split hairs what modest means. Is that a modest living space? Sure. Is the privilege of living in manhattan immodest? I also think so.

But at least that's within the realm of "modesty". At least there's at least one element of modesty to it. It's not a multi story 6 million dollar home with a floor to ceiling double floor library.

Ironically you’re the one splitting hairs here. It seems clear that your definition of “modest” differs from a few others’. That’s about it, there’s no deeper meaning here. It seems like you’re trying to find disagreement where there is none, and trying to convince others to use the word the way you are familiar with.

You need to prove to us that modesty is an absolute quality. Reasonable people would agree that that is a bit extreme ("immodest") and that modesty is relative. (Try cheap instead of modest to see how this works.)

> There's no way in which a $6 million dollar house is "modest".

Relative to his wealth bracket he is being modest but not cheap.

> Relative to his wealth bracket he is being modest but not cheap.

That's moving the goalposts. No one said anything about "relative to his wealth bracket".

And I don't think I have ever heard anyone using a term like "modest house" in proportion to someone's wealth. House-modesty is something people generally use to mean "when compared with other houses in the region".

> No one said anything about "relative to his wealth bracket".

Original post was "modest for a guy like that"

No reasonable person would call a $6m purchase "modest".

I'm reasonable and I say it is. You are looking at a number, I'm looking at possessions. For example, he could have bought the entire building but he is sharing it with two other owners. A modest man.

Modesty has to be relative, otherwise anything beyond the lowest cost to feed a starving person on the planet is beyond modesty.

Bezos' wedding in Venice was modest* too then.

I mean is your place modest compared to the average place in a third world country?

modest is a relative term. its modest compared to most people of his wealth level.

> Pretty humble/modest for a guy like that.

Modest was qualified. The statement is accurate. Your objection doesn’t make sense.

He is not being modest. Sorry.

> Modest describes someone who is unassuming about their abilities, or something that is limited in size, amount, or reach

Buying a 6 million dollar house is not unassuming.

It is when you have a billion dollars.

It’s all relative.

That style of library is my dream

Makes me wonder what a property like that would go for today, 10 years later.

That or Tribeca have to be my favorite areas of the city to live in if I had silly money which I don't so I don't and likely ever won't unless my venture petfood.ai strikes it big in which case I'll buy the entire building but won't put my name on it with large gold san serif letters. I may be poor but I have class.

That library is sick.

Looks like Blue Prince interiors. :D

This reminds me an interview of the author Patrick Modiano, just after he won the literature Nobel price. The presenter asked him if the money would help. His answer was something like: "well, I don't see how the money will help the next time I will be in front of a white page".

I had the privilege of working and sleeping in the original Craigslist office/house in San Francisco. It was just another typical, ageing house they had rearranged a little to have a ton of deskspace in the main area. A lot of start ups (including Zappos IIRC) had also been there over the years. They had a mattress in the loft/attic you could crash on if you were up late too.

I can't help but like his altitude.

No that's height, you're thinking of audacity

I’m sorry - it was an attempt at a joke based around water pressure.

So, wooosh?

FTW

Well, he is flying high.

He has a point. Good water pressure us underrated.

At heart he seems like one of the good guys in the history of tech.

Although he may have inadvertently destroyed local news by squeezing it of revenue from classified ads (but has since done a lot to fund journalism)

Like a Warren Buffet. Same house, same car, or Ray Kroc: Look after the customer, and the business will take care of itself.

Good interview with him here. Interesting dude.

https://conversationswithtyler.com/episodes/craig-newmark/

Probably lives like craigslist looks in terms of simplicity. Love it.

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