I want the stackers to know that @k00b is a really cool dude. On occasion I will have a 5 minute interaction with him throughout the week, and it is always something I look forward to. I thought I would recreate this for you. In my attempt to show you how cool he is, I asked him for a brief meeting and then made him answer random, intense and personal questions.

plebpoet: “you seem like the kind of boss that is excited to hear ideas and let someone try anything, hands off. why are you like that?” k00b: “laziness. and people don’t want to be controlled. I won’t even bother with it, I can’t make anyone do the things they don’t want to do.” plebpoet: “I know you have a lot of open contributors, is there ever a kind of friction due to your openness?” k00b: “Maybe there are people who aren’t used to it, they’re not used to being fully in control of themselves. And maybe they feel the pain of doing it wrong. I try to intervene early and share my thoughts so that it gives them confidence.” plebpoet: “Did you ever have a good boss?” k00b: “I don’t really listen to people when they tell me what to do.” plebpoet: “oh” k00b: “I like autonomy because of the pain it causes when you’re wrong. You need that pain to learn not to do it again, you need the visceral experience.” Something in the conversation about the red pill and feminism came up…blah blah….then k00b said, “I think men especially find one thing they are obsessed with early and then they are just stuck in it for life, living for it.” The next questions followed from this.

plebpoet: “Okay you used to be a painter, you found painting early. Why don’t you go back to painting?” k00b: “I like the sensation of people interacting with my work, and software is more” plebpoet: “alive?” k00b: “Yeah.” plebpoet: “yeah well painting is-“ and then plebpoet gave a defense of painting, but admits something about how its bad now because it’s sort of trapped inside a culture box with a cold…blah blah…then asks, “What do you think about God?” k00b: “I don’t think you can think much about God.” plebpoet: “Oh. What?” k00b: “Yeah, it’s too big. If this thing is real, that means it’s unfathomable. I think the whole point is that you can’t know. Then plebpoet tried a defense of faith. It was not worth repeating, and I can’t even remember it.

plebpoet: “Do you think about what stacker news is gonna become?” k00b: “I have ideas of what I think would be cool. I mostly have ideas of what I don’t want it to be, which is kind of easier.” plebpoet: “You seem like you don’t struggle with motivation. Is that true?” k00b: “I couldn’t tell you. I’m probably so burned out, but I’m just numb.” plebpoet: “Well when you walk in everyday, I hope that’s the time that you can become a person again.” k00b: “Not really. But it does help me see the world and stay open, and be unengulfed in my own ruminations.”

Thanks @k00b, always fun to talk with you.

Stackers, do you see what I mean yet? If not, maybe I’ll do this again. What questions would you ask?

I think the lesson to take away is this