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There is something awe inspiring about people who spend long times doing something they love without expecting much in return, for public good. These are the projects that need to be supported so they are able to do it as long as they physically can.

Huge respect for not selling.

Anyone know of more examples?




I share this sentiment wholeheartedly. The power of single minded dedication is humbling. This type of act adds wealth to the human experience far beyond what the "corporate" model can deliver.

I hate to pull politics into stuff like this but I always thought one of the massive unforeseen benefits of a basic minimum income would be an explosion of these types of "labors of love".


That's would be horrible for innovation. People want to feel that they could make millions of dollars creating something but instead turn the money away. That choice is very important.


I don't understand how that is incompatible with basic income? Basic income isn't going to give you millions of dollars...


Basic income discourages levels those at the top with more taxation in order to ensure a level base for everyone else. And it also encourages the citizens in the middle to get a little less aggressive in the workplace market. Based on primal human instincts alone, those that strive to outwork everybody are less likely to do so if it means that they are not getting compensated equally for their effort.


Are there any studies done that show these effects? I'm interested in basic income.


Its happening right now. This guy is even part of the study!

A certain demographic was singled out and provided with a guaranteed income for the rest of their lives. As expected many of them just sat alone in their apartments taking drugs and watching the tube. Many, though, went out socialized, volunteered, and generally made their community better. Some even did as Tom here, finding a passion that benefited others and dedicating themselves to it.

All in all, the study is succeeding. Its called "social security".


Iirc, the creator of VLC maintains much of it on his own, and going by his comments on Reddit, has turned down several eight figure offers.


I like VLC but one of the developers is a major dick. You sometimes see him ripping someone a new he for asking an innocent question on forums.


If you want to help out with a similar project, Ted Nelson (of Xanadu etc) used to sign up for "junk mail" about the present and future of computing, archiving ephemera that might not exist anywhere else anymore. Recently they've been scanned and uploaded to the Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/tednelsonjunkmail The project is finished and the scanner has been paid, but the project overall is still in the red. Financials and paypal link at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rqfc2R_Ti6-WnuneaMfH...

Selections: https://twitter.com/hashtag/TedNelsonMail?src=hash


> There is something awe inspiring about people who spend long times doing something they love without expecting much in return, for public good.

If only we could have such people elected for president.


> Anyone know of more examples?

Jason Scott!

Also: https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Digitizing-35-Yea...


Aren't these kind of work where Patreon could be used at its fullest?


Casey Neistat is someone who comes to mind. He has chronicled so many moments of his life on video and shared them with the world.


He's expecting something in return though, money from ad revenue.


Casey started monetizing his channel much, much later. In my view, the footage he has amassed and shared on Youtube over the years shares parallels with what Tryniski is doing, namely, he has provided people with a visual account of what it is like to live in New York City at a particular time in history. While obviously different than what Tryniski does in that it is more autobiographical, I definitely think it'll be significant if not now then in the future, especially as the city develops more and changes over time. There's been a lot of footage he has captured that only he has captured, e.g., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKOdMA97FGM


Do you have a source for him monetizing his channel much later? The way he describes it in this video[1], he says he made a series for HBO (around 2010), then a couple films, then shifted his focus to youtube. It sounds like he considered it at that time his main income source. The youtube partner program launched in 2007. Even if he wasn't monetized right away, the idea of monetization in the future was likely a motivation. In this video[2] he describes his dream as making money making videos.

The video you linked was uploaded in 2016, certainly long after he started monetizing his videos. The title doesn't seem to be aimed at sharing information with future generations. The title is vague and non-descriptive. It's in all caps and clickbaity. The title is nearly the same as this over video of his[3] which is about a completely different event. Many of his other videos have vague clickbaity titles and thumbnails, sometimes the titles are misleading.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6Y-ahQFQDA

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ_z48aJD5o

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJoDRUybisw


IIRC Casey Neistat didn't start vlogging daily until 2014

I've watched a vast majority of his videos. Some of his videos date back in early 2000s as well, during times he did work for local political campaigns

His motivation is making a living doing what he enjoys doing, which is telling stories. He's said that many times over already. Youtube was his way of bridging his experiences from cinematic private production in hollywood and bringing it to the masses so everyone can enjoy it. 368 is just his next brainchild after the downfall of beme


Are you talking about vlogging?


Yeah, definitely. The vlogs are cool. Check out the amount of hard drives he ends up using https://youtu.be/Zlu5tkeTg9Y?t=4m54s




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