Valve boss Gabe Newell reveals daily routine in bizarre new interview: "I get up, I work, I go scuba-diving, then work some more"

Casual reminder that Gabe Newell owns 6 yachts worth an estimated US$1 billion and that he is not your friend.
- Class consciousness leaving my body when the money hoarder owns the store I buy treats from
  
  So true
- Man that has poured shitloads of money into turning linux into a more mainstream desktop platform is rich
  Wow.
  
  A huge chunk of that Linux development was paid for by exploiting child gambling.
  Just because one does a few good things with their money, doesn't justify how they got it.
  
  Not sure exactly what you're trying to say here but I guarantee 0% of that wealth came from his investments in Linux support. Their investment in Linux is mostly a way of keeping MS in check, as in "if you try to fuck us the way Apple does with iOS, your customers will leave Windows because they'd rather have something where they can play their giant library of existing games".
  
  I don't take issue with rich people. Owning boats worth US$1 billion is past the point of rich.
  
  Man who didn't want his business to be completely reliant on Microsoft, made a decision to ensure his money in the future
- Gabe Newell is better than many others, but this is true, the best man on Earth will become an absolute pissbag given power for continuous enough period of time to realize that.
  And the best man on Earth is probably some volunteer medic in some African warzone, not a computer programmer and a tech businessman.
  
  Maybe it's you!
  
  Power always corrupts.
  
  Jacinda Adern as New Zealand PM seemed to be sort of that type
- I just dont understand miney obsessed people. Why the hell do you need multiple yachts? Why even work at this point when you could just .. not? You would still afford everything you ever want without ever checking your bank account. I just dont get it.
  
  He probably enjoys working. Lots of people like to feel like they're making things happen
  
  I would 100% still work if I were rich. The only thing that would change is when and what I work on.
  
  He said he's having fun 🤪
- not my friend, but not as clearly my enemy as many other wealthy people
- He's last on the list to be eaten though.
- So what?
  
  That's for every individual reading this to decide. It will either mean something or nothing to you.
  Personally, I don't think billionaires should exist. Even the ones that I think have done cool things. And I definitely don't think anyone needs 6 yachts in a world that is burning.
  
  Greedily taking up an obscene excess of resources and producing crazy amount of emissions and pollution makes the planet less livable for the rest of us. Yachts do those things.
  
  Indeed so what. I just need to come up with steam 2.0. And I will call it.. ELECTRICITY
- G*mers: "that's not going to stop me. I can't read"
- Gabe Newell owns 6 yachts worth an estimated US$1 billion
  Unfathomably based, let the man scuba dive in peace.
- Some billionaires are ok.
  
  Name 2.

"Bizzare"? That's pretty much what I expected of Gabe. I don't imagine he has to work particularly hard. Most CEOs try to hide how much they don't do.
- The thing isn't that they have constant work to do, but that they must be available for work at any time, for any reason. Some random and unpredictable crisis waking you up at 3am for the 5th night in a row? Sucks to be you.
  
  Having known a number of CEOs over the years, they arent the ones waking up for those 3am calls unless it's a business shattering literally apocalyptic event.
  They honestly shouldn't be the ones taking emergency calls either since most of the time they'll be in the way.
  
  There are plenty of non CEO jobs with similar requirements
  
  I've known and work with extremely powerful CEOs.
  This couldn't be further from the truth.
  They hire people to wake up at 3am for them.
  
  Sounds like your average IT infrastructure job.

This man never does interviews. Then the one interview he does in the last 30 years is trash-tier editing of a vertical video of a laptop screen in a Zoom meeting from 20 feet away, that's only uploaded as Shorts, by some guy who only has 4 total videos uploaded ever. WTF is up with that?
- From what little I know about Gabe, it’s seems he doesn’t want to be the center of attention at valve. He wants Steam to the center of attention. It’s a smart play as we are seeing more and more people turning on techbros and their cult leader status’.
  
  Ironic because Gabe appreciation is still kind of cult like.
- I can understand preferring scuba diving to doing interviews.
  
  I can't imagine how you read my comment and determined that the thing that confused me was why he doesn't do many interviews.

Gabe the Diver.

I hope that he decides to work on a neutral payment processing system. Cooperating with the EU's Linux initiatives, he can probably put quite a bit of weight onto the scale, making a digital Euro into a thing.
- The EU now has a digital wallet payment system in a trail run
  https://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/digital_euro/html/index.en.html
  Would be neat if they integrate it
  
  So much for cash anonymity. Unless a payment system is completely anonymous whilst supporting secure transactions, it's a non-starter. Unfortunately the EU does not appear to be able to tolerate privacy for its citizens, hence constant attempts to undermine and curtail any privacy/anonymity-first technologies or concepts.
- What a coup if they solve the problem by building their own payment processor company
- he can probably put quite a bit of weight onto the scale
  Was that a cheap shot? If so, I approve.

Clickbaity title. Daily routine stuff is kinda memeish thing to ask successful stuff, and he's trying to be honest about it. He gets to do the light touch management on a lot of fascinating stuff, so it's natural that he wants to do it daily, and he seems to be mixing it up with stuff he does for fun, so it seems like he does it throughout the week, and he seems to have a good attitude about it and looks at it realistically compared to regular work/"horrible job"s.
Note he doesn't specify times or meals; it's just a rough sketch.

Nothing bizarre about that. Scuba diving is nice for some people who are shall we say neuro spicy. Nothing I enjoy more than going to the bottom and just chilling in water.
- Linus Torwalds seems to agree as per TIL post earlier this week.

What handheld is he playing in the top image? Looks too small to be a steam deck
- It's a Steam Deck, he has big hands.

Isn't diving good for arthritis? Gabe's no spring chicken.

I read part of this interview elsewhere and it quoted him as saying he enjoys hanging out with people on his boat. My first thought was that those people are paid to be on the boat.
- All friends are transactional friends when you're that wealthy, which should be depressing to them, but they carry on and fuck the hollow models and that's that.

I wonder, is there good equipment available to go scuba diving with a full beard?
- Lots. You just need a little vaseline in that mustache and boom.
  
  Ugh, that sounds incredibly unpleasant. I felt that comment on a psychic level and it was….mushy.
- The regulator has a bite mouthpiece, so no fit issue there. Mask fit covering nose might require some shopping around or upper cheek shaving depending on growth pattern.

so no different then normal people go to the gym on their lunch break. scuba is just a different kind of workout
- Except he lives in a yatch and has his own gym, probably people that cook for him too.
  
  yep i didn't say he was normal just that would he his equivalent to a normal person going to the gym
  
  I know right. I will also invent Steam 2.0. I will call it.. ELECTRICITY!

New? I thought this was true for a while now.

Gaben during the interview:!

Sounds like a pretty good life.

No offense to him, but he doesn't look like he scuba dives. Or works out...
- Scuba diving is not an athletic sport. Air consumption is all about moving as little as possible once you're down there.
  
  The most athletic part is if you're beach diving and have to swim out/back in from the shallows.
  
  He also works out he said.
- I am a scuba instructor and professional underwater photographer. I'm also obese.
  Scuba is not a sport that makes one fit - especially as you get better at it and improve buoyancy skills to the point you aren't even having to swim most of the time. When I dive, I'm essentially just existing underwater, not even supporting my own body weight.
- Based on 3rd hand accounts, he’s been steadily losing weight for years and while it was hard to find recent photos at a cursory glance, there are a few where he is noticably skinnier (also the article does mention he looks fitter in a conference call)
  
  Watch the video, he looks like a completely different person
- ahem... Dave th diver?
- Watch the video, it looks like he's lost a ton of weight
- No offense to you, but you sound stupid and not very smart either.
- Better watch out for Japanese whaling vessels lol