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Founders: #21 Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture

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What I learned from reading Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture by David Kushner. --- [0:35] For a new generation, Carmack and Romero personified an American dream: they were self-made individuals who had transformed their personal passions into a big business, a new art form, and a cultural phenomenon. [1:19] His (John Carmack) game and life aspired to the elegant discipline of computer code. [1:40] Romero wants an empire. I just want to create good programs. [3:07] No matter what Romero suffered he could always escape back into games. [4:55] Romero’s stepdad smashed Romero’s face into the machine as punishment for playing video games. [5:24] He beat Romero until the boy had a fat lip and a black eye. Romero was grounded for two weeks. The next day he snuck back to the arcade. [7:40] One afternoon his father left to pick up groceries. Romero wouldn't see him again for two years. [8:53] Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built by Duncan Clark. (Founders #32) [10:20] Arcade games were bringing in $5 billion a year. Home systems were earning $1 billion. His stepfather did not believe game development to be a proper vocation. You'll never make any

[00:00:00] Let's go ahead and jump into today's book, which is Masters of Doom, How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture by David Kushner. So it's about John Romero and John Carmack, who are the people that created some of the most iconic video games of all time, Doom. Most of the book, it's basically about not only the partnership that they created in their early 20s, but then what tears them apart later on. And then it also goes into, which I find the most interesting part, the differences of their philosophies on business. And I'll be going chronologically through the…

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