Gabe Newell’s daily routine is ‘get up, work, go scuba diving,’ says he’s been ‘retired for a long time’ but works 7 days a week: ‘The things I get to do every day are super-awesome’

31 Comments

  1. n0b0dycar3s07

    **Excerpts from the article :** 

    >Gabe Newell, the co-founder of Valve Corporation and the driving force behind much of the company’s unique philosophy, has had a much less public-facing role in recent years. Newell still turns up for things like the Steam Deck launch and official documentaries, but *much of his time now is spent on one of his (several) superyachts, and on his other companies’ projects*: **He co-founded Starfish Neuroscience, a company focused on neural interfaces** (popularly known as “brain chips”), and **Inkfish, a marine research operation**.

    >Gabe Newell also remains magnificently quixotic, popping up every so often to talk about things and now he’s re-surfaced to do an *interview with a YouTube channel that has 19 subscribers (Valve confirmed to PCGamer that the interview is legit)*. The ocean-loving billionaire is asked, **”What is the daily routine for Mr Gabe?”**. 

    >***”My daily routine”***, begins Newell, ***”I get up, I work, I go scuba-diving, work some more, [then] either go on a second scuba dive or I go to the gym and work out. I live on a boat so I just hang out with everybody on the boat. Then I work. I work seven days a week: I’m working from my bedroom as you can tell. I like working, it’s fun, to me it doesn’t feel like work. The kinds of things  that I get to do every day are super-awesome.”***

    >**Newell goes on to say that he’s effectively retired, inasmuch as he only does stuff that interests him now**, but the man’s work ethic is clearly second-to-none. ***”I’ve said it before but, when you retire, you want to like stop doing your horrible job and go do what is sort of most fun and entertaining,” says Newell. “In that sense I’ve been retired for a long time”***.

    >Newell goes on to give some examples of what’s currently taking up his time. ***”In one of the companies we’re working on an aerosol pathogen detection device so you can see all the pathogens that are in the air. Brain-computer interfaces are incredibly cool and all of the associated neuroscience is incredibly cool”***.

    >The upshot? Talk about life goals: ***”I just work all the time”***, ends Newell. ***”But it’s not like ‘oh my god I’m up late at night slaving away on stuff.’ It’s more like ‘I can’t go to sleep because I’m having fun’, you know?”***

    >Newell’s spectacular success and unusual perspectives have created an intense cult of personality around the man’s pronouncements, but as the above shows some of it is really quite simple. As a Valve exec once observed, **Newell’s real superpower is in how he** ***”delighted in people on the team just being really good at what they did.”***

    **Edit** : *[This is the video clip of the interview on YouTube for anyone interested.](https://youtube.com/shorts/qbvWCKMpSHQ?si=mFBLJ9dGcbk7d3A9).*

    Edit 2 : added detail.

  2. FewAdvertising9647

    I had a feeling when he says he was going to do work, it was going to be part of that neurotech company hes on.

  3. Gabe knows how to live the life of a rich man.
    Low profile. Primary dedication: Hobbies, staying out of the spotlight as much as possible.

  4. fromwhichofthisoak

    Gaben going to the gym everyday seems sus

  5. mipsisdifficult

    What a shocker! The president of the gold standard for gaming companies is happy and fulfilled in life? Who could have guessed!

  6. TampaTrey

    I-I don’t think Half Life 3 is actually happening, dudes…

  7. w1n5t0nM1k3y

    Work is fun when you’re a billionaire and can define work however you want.

  8. I bet he feels very passionately about the subnautica situation if that’s the case.

  9. what do you mean gabe’s not single-handedly working every single second on half-life 3??

  10. I guess he’s got more free time now that he’s not the (best ever) VGCW General Manager to do all that neural pathway research. Good for him.

  11. Beezelbub_is_me

    A God amongst men. Thank you for all the fun and memories, Gabe.

  12. 1988Trainman

    That pillow has one stripe.  Then two stripe and then three stripes! It’s a message guys.  Hl3 confirmed!

  13. orbitaldragon

    Can you please fix the weekly guild quest bug in Dota 2.

  14. Bamzooki1

    Ah, the Satoru Iwata approach: work because you actually want to!

  15. ThisCouldBeDumber

    If he could just give me 5mil to start a games company, that’d be just great

  16. Good for him. If i was in the same position i would be having such an awesome life as well.

  17. Sit down at my desk, count that pile of dolla billz

  18. WillametteSalamandOR

    I had no idea Gabe was a diver. I know Linus is as well (it’s actually how I met him).

  19. valkon_gr

    “”If I can’t scuba, then what’s this all been about? What have I been working toward?” – Creed Bratton ” – Gabe Newell

  20. GABE CAN YOU COUNT TO THREE?

    IT IS AFTER NUMBER TWO.

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