1. Nowhere does the article mention his current wealth (or lack of)

2. He didn’t “forget” — he misunderstood his contract, and only caught the error much later.

3. He’s not looking for pity. He writes: “I offer this in the spirit of a cautionary tale. I remain sanguine, and amused.”

Maybe something about his story bothered you?

We don't know enough to justify the jeering. We don't know he was rich in 1996. We don't know he's rich now. We can read between the lines and infer that he possibly still retains Nvidia stock that is worth a lot, but we don't know that for sure. We only know that a tranche of stock that he was entitled to remains with Nvidia and is worth a lot of money now. Maybe he would have done really admirable, benevolent things with that money. Who knows? It doesn't matter. It's never ok to jeer or sneer on HN.