Valve has released a new documentary to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Half-Life 2, and with it comes the news that Gabe Newell, president and co-founder of Valve, was attacked by a shark while diving in South African recently. Newell, who began his career at Microsoft by helping the company build the first versions of Windows, claimed that everyone else around him was panicking, but that he wasn’t really bothered. “I just think that’s how I’m wired,” Newell said.
So I don’t think it was super stressful to me, right, I mean it didn’t really bother me. I was diving in South Africa recently and a shark tried to bite me a couple of times, and the people around me were way more freaked out than I was. I was like ‘oh, a shark’s trying to bite me, I should get away from the shark’ whereas other people were having like [high-pitched voice] ‘oh, a shark! It’s trying to bite somebody!’
I just think that’s how I’m wired. I don’t think it’s anything that speaks to my character or anything, it’s like I just seem to not get particularly agitated around risk, which probably means I take on more risk at times than most sane people would. Which can be a positive or you can wreck a bunch of other peoples’ lives being in the neighborhood of your risk indifference.