In the latest instalment of Paranoid Billionaires, a whole bunch of Silicon Valley big wigs are getting into the doomsday prepping scene in a huge way.
How big, you ask? For starters, Reddit CEO, Steve Huffman, just got corrective eye surgery to “improve his odds of surviving a disaster, whether natural or man-made”.
“If the world ends — and not even if the world ends, but if we have trouble — getting contacts or glasses is going to be a huge pain in the ass,” he said. “Without them, I’m f*cked.”
That’s some heavy paranoia right there. But he’s not the only one convinced of hard times ahead, venture-capital firm partner, Marvin Liao, recently bought a whole bunch of weapons and started taking archery classes. Clearly, Marvin watches far too many horror movies.
LinkedIn co-founder, Reid Hoffman, on the other hand, is busy buying up property in New Zealand, believing it to be a haven for post-apocalyptic tech. He even calls it “apocalypse insurance”.
Former Facebook executive, Antonio Garvia Martinez is thinking similarly, buying five acres on an island which he’s equipped with generators and a fuck-load of ammunition.
The big question, of course, is what are they afraid of? What do they know that we don’t?
Apparently, they’re scared shitless of our growing dependence on technology, which seems pretty ironic given they all played some part in nurturing that growth.
There’s a scary legitimacy to their fear, though. If the world turned to liquid crap tomorrow, what would you do? Do you know how to hunt for your own food, grow your own crops or administer first aid? Knowing how to use a bow and arrow in such times would actually be pretty handy.
All I have to rely on is my experience in the survival game, Rust, meaning we’ll all be running around with big rocks and minimal clothing at the first hint of chaos.
Source: The Hustle.
Photo: Lord of the Flies.
