Wait, wasn't it just <i>yesterday</i> that Re/Code published its glowing profile of Hsieh's Downtown Las Vegas?<p>Yes, yes it was. <a href="http://recode.net/2014/09/29/downtown-las-vegas-is-the-great-american-techtopia/" rel="nofollow">http://recode.net/2014/09/29/downtown-las-vegas-is-the-great...</a><p>How did they miss this until today?
Can someone explain why it makes sense to build a new community/ecosystem in Las Vegas? Not only is the climate terrible, there are problems with even having enough water: <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/06/05/lake_mead_which_supplies_most_of_las_vegas_water_is_at_record_low_levels.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/06/05/lake_mead...</a><p>There must be plenty of cities across the Midwest without such problems that would be a better choice for such an initiative.
His presentation at Long Now was inspiring: <a href="http://longnow.org/seminars/02014/apr/22/helping-revitalize-city/" rel="nofollow">http://longnow.org/seminars/02014/apr/22/helping-revitalize-...</a><p>(I only listened to the podcast, didn't watch the video)<p>It sounded like everything was coming up roses and money back then. Hoping to hear an update.
I've always been interested in the Downtown Project but haven't had a chance to visit. Can someone more familiar with it comment on the state of download Las Vegas now?
If you read reviews from Zappos employees on GlassDoor starting a couple years back, you got the impression that Tony's heart wasn't in zappos anymore, it was in the Downtown Project.<p>I wonder where his heart is now? It's sad to see, Tony's Vegas ambitions were so wild and unique. It was impossible not to root for him.
I can't help but conclude that someone who is so obsessed with creating "Happiness" is actually not that happy. Otherwise why would he be chasing it with such desperation? One profile of Tony Hsieh said that he has literally read hundreds of books about how to create happiness, and of course he wrote one too.<p>A person who is happy is not reading hundreds of books about happiness. And that person will also not become happy through doing that. Happiness is not something you can create externally. (Yes, if you're starving and homeless then having some money and material possessions would definitely make you happy. But we are talking about multimillionaires and billionaires here who are not in that situation.)<p>I think the entire downtown project has much less to do with creating some sort of startup utopia than it has to do with something personal that Tony is seeking for himself. But he won't find it outside of himself.
More from the LVWeekly: <a href="http://lasvegasweekly.com/as-we-see-it/2014/sep/30/breaking-bloodletting-downtown-project-layoffs/" rel="nofollow">http://lasvegasweekly.com/as-we-see-it/2014/sep/30/breaking-...</a>
Editor, is there an editor around!? Or do we just have <i>people</i>.<p>"Hsieh’s move comes as the project has laid off about 30 percent of its staff, or 30 people, which does not include the community of entrepreneurs funded by the project. or about 30 people, these people said."