Ask HN: How do billionaires deal with their anxiety? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How do billionaires deal with their anxiety?

#41

Post by jonas21 » Mon, Jun 11, 2018, 4:44 PM UTC

pricees wrote: post #32

asdfman123 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can quit stressful jobs, or immediately get appointments with great healthcare providers, or go travel in Europe for a year. Let's be fair: money can't solve all your problems, but it can solve some of them. The only problem is that serious mental illness is one of those things that money can't magically fix.

"They can quit stressful jobs, or immediately get appointments with great healthcare providers, or go travel in Europe for a year." I believe I know what you mean. I disagree. I have no experience being a billionaire, or a millionaire for that matter, however here are my casual observations and thoughts: A billionaire cannot just quit a job. There must be a transition period. A billionaire can't just no call no show.…

> A billionaire cannot just quit a job. There must be a transition period. A billionaire can't just no call no show.

Not only that, I imagine that quitting before retirement age could add a lot of anxiety for a billionaire due to loss of status, loss of purpose, feelings of failure, etc.

Re: Ask HN: How do billionaires deal with their anxiety?

#42

Post by loeg » Mon, Jun 11, 2018, 4:45 PM UTC

pricees wrote: post #32

asdfman123 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can quit stressful jobs, or immediately get appointments with great healthcare providers, or go travel in Europe for a year. Let's be fair: money can't solve all your problems, but it can solve some of them. The only problem is that serious mental illness is one of those things that money can't magically fix.

"They can quit stressful jobs, or immediately get appointments with great healthcare providers, or go travel in Europe for a year." I believe I know what you mean. I disagree. I have no experience being a billionaire, or a millionaire for that matter, however here are my casual observations and thoughts: A billionaire cannot just quit a job. There must be a transition period. A billionaire can't just no call no show.…

> A billionaire cannot just quit a job. There must be a transition period. A billionaire can't just no call no show. It's possible, but it never happens.

They absolutely can. A board may not want to publicize the sudden leave, which might contribute to not hearing about it. The whatsapp founders left Facebook pretty quickly, although not for mental health reasons.

It also takes a certain kind of workaholic to reach billionaire levels of wealth. If you've already made it to that kind of egg, you may just have a good handle on anxiety.

> A billionaire cannot travel to Europe like I can, going from Airbnb to airbnb, hopping in an Uber, surfing with the locals, enjoying fish tacos.

They absolutely can. Maybe not someone who has intentionally made their image part of their personal brand, but could you pick Jim Walton or Micheal Bloomberg out of a lineup? And they're two of the very richest billionaires — not the mere single-digit billionaires.

> A billionaire ends up being an ambassador with little privacy.

I don't think that's true at all. Money buys privacy.

> Immediately get appointments with great healthcare providers. Maybe. But so can I.

The silent follow-up clause to that sentence is "... and not have to think about the cost." (Assuming our billionaire is from the US.)

Re: Ask HN: How do billionaires deal with their anxiety?

#43

Post by doingmyting » Mon, Jun 11, 2018, 4:46 PM UTC

rhizome wrote: post #23

asdfman123 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can quit stressful jobs, or immediately get appointments with great healthcare providers, or go travel in Europe for a year. Let's be fair: money can't solve all your problems, but it can solve some of them. The only problem is that serious mental illness is one of those things that money can't magically fix.

I'm guessing you aren't aware that Kate Spade had sold her company years ago.

She actually started another right after that. Listen to the interview she did on "How I built this"

Re: Ask HN: How do billionaires deal with their anxiety?

#44

Post by loeg » Mon, Jun 11, 2018, 4:46 PM UTC

giarc wrote: post #39

pricees wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"They can quit stressful jobs, or immediately get appointments with great healthcare providers, or go travel in Europe for a year." I believe I know what you mean. I disagree. I have no experience being a billionaire, or a millionaire for that matter, however here are my casual observations and thoughts: A billionaire cannot just quit a job. There must be a transition period. A billionaire can't just no call no show.…

I think you are lumping all billionaires into the "celebratory billionaire" category. Sure Mark Zuckerberg can no longer zoom around Europe without being recognized, but how many would recognize Len Blavatnik, #46 on Forbes billionare list worth $21B (for example).

> how many would recognize Len Blavatnik, #46 on Forbes billionare list worth $21B (for example)?

Exactly. Or even the Waltons, two of the Forbes top-15. If their image isn't part of their public brand, you probably wouldn't recognize them.

Re: Ask HN: How do billionaires deal with their anxiety?

#45

Post by waisbrot » Mon, Jun 11, 2018, 4:50 PM UTC

pricees wrote: post #32

asdfman123 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can quit stressful jobs, or immediately get appointments with great healthcare providers, or go travel in Europe for a year. Let's be fair: money can't solve all your problems, but it can solve some of them. The only problem is that serious mental illness is one of those things that money can't magically fix.

"They can quit stressful jobs, or immediately get appointments with great healthcare providers, or go travel in Europe for a year." I believe I know what you mean. I disagree. I have no experience being a billionaire, or a millionaire for that matter, however here are my casual observations and thoughts: A billionaire cannot just quit a job. There must be a transition period. A billionaire can't just no call no show.…

> A billionaire cannot just quit a job. There must be a transition period. A billionaire can't just no call no show. It's possible, but it never happens.

It's not called "quitting". It's usually "taking a sabbatical" or "a leave of absence". It's only "quitting" if you don't make very much.

> A billionaire ends up being an ambassador with little privacy.

Would you recognize any billionaire (besides maybe Bill Gates) on sight? Ask the hotel to be discreet and don't pay for things by saying "hi I'm pricees, the world-renowned billionaire."

> Immediately get appointments with great healthcare providers. Maybe. But so can I.

Good for you? In America, that's not the norm. Excellent healthcare is available for high cost here, but getting a expert doctor to make a house-call requires some degree of cachet.

Re: Ask HN: How do billionaires deal with their anxiety?

#46

Post by dkersten » Mon, Jun 11, 2018, 4:50 PM UTC

asdfman123 wrote: post #20

thomasedwards wrote: post #15

The same way non-billionaires do: there isn’t anything that money can do about it. While ‘only’ worth $150m, Katherine Brosnahan (you may know as Kate Spade) tragically hanged herself last week after suffering for a few years. If $150m can’t buy you out of it, I’m not sure another $850m would. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Spade#Death

They can quit stressful jobs, or immediately get appointments with great healthcare providers, or go travel in Europe for a year. Let's be fair: money can't solve all your problems, but it can solve some of them. The only problem is that serious mental illness is one of those things that money can't magically fix.

Even the problems money can’t solve, it can often help (eg, money can’t vuy happiness but a year long trip might be the change you needed to find happiness) or at least remove other worries.

But of course as others have said, it brings another set of worries.

Still, money is an enabler that creates options.

Re: Ask HN: How do billionaires deal with their anxiety?

#47

Post by pascalxus » Mon, Jun 11, 2018, 4:52 PM UTC

This will come as a shocker, and It's not commonly known, but there's quite a bit of research accumulating, showing that extreme electrolyte imbalances such as magnesium deficiencies can exacerbate or even cause anxiety and depression. It's closely linked to our Calcium intake (which is often waaayyy too high for people who really like dairy - it's higher than you think because the US recommendation is twice what it should be: 1000mg vs the WHOs recommendation of 500mg - this means if the label says you got 30% of DRI of calcium, you actually got 60% or more!). Too much Calcium inhibits the absorbtion of magnesium, thus compounding the issue even more. Some studies even show, that with calcium intake increased, their depression levels. And with increased magnesium intake, depression levels decrease: "Case histories are presented showing rapid recovery (less than 7 days) from major depression using 125-300 mg of magnesium (as glycinate and taurinate) with each meal and at bedtime"

Here's one of the studies: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16542786

But, there's several more.

Back to the question: With all their money, they could probably afford to eat the very best foods and could higher a nutritionist to help them plan high magnesium foods. For everyone else without all that money, there's always my nutrient based food/recipe finder: https://kale.world/c

Use it to find the most Magnesium dense foods or any other nutrient for that matter.

Re: Ask HN: How do billionaires deal with their anxiety?

#48

Post by farone » Mon, Jun 11, 2018, 4:53 PM UTC

undefined1 wrote: post #28

asdfman123 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can quit stressful jobs, or immediately get appointments with great healthcare providers, or go travel in Europe for a year. Let's be fair: money can't solve all your problems, but it can solve some of them. The only problem is that serious mental illness is one of those things that money can't magically fix.

Yeah, though one can imagine that being a billionaire also introduces some problems. For one thing it changes family and friend dynamics and that's really a key source of happiness.

Not disagreeing at all, but "being a billionaire" is a poor articulation of the culprit.

The havoc capitalism plays on social relationships has been documented, researched for centuries. This is the very core of Marxist thought, and to my knowledge has never been contested.

Since you're probably an American and I just referenced Karl Marx, let's please remember Karl Marx was in fact insistent on the importance of democracy (far more than most Americans) and that anyone familiar with his work would have no question of the vast differences between and his well-known disapproval of the Soviet Union defending their project with his work.

Re: Ask HN: How do billionaires deal with their anxiety?

#49

Post by dkersten » Mon, Jun 11, 2018, 4:55 PM UTC

jonas21 wrote: post #41

pricees wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"They can quit stressful jobs, or immediately get appointments with great healthcare providers, or go travel in Europe for a year." I believe I know what you mean. I disagree. I have no experience being a billionaire, or a millionaire for that matter, however here are my casual observations and thoughts: A billionaire cannot just quit a job. There must be a transition period. A billionaire can't just no call no show.…

> A billionaire cannot just quit a job. There must be a transition period. A billionaire can't just no call no show. Not only that, I imagine that quitting before retirement age could add a lot of anxiety for a billionaire due to loss of status, loss of purpose, feelings of failure, etc.

A billionaire has options though. They can often come back, or they can start a new company on a whim, but, as others have said, they often don’t “quit” but rather take extended time out that leaves them with the option of returning, when they choose to do so.

Re: Ask HN: How do billionaires deal with their anxiety?

#50

Post by bcantrill » Mon, Jun 11, 2018, 4:55 PM UTC

There was an excellent article on this in the Atlantic on the "Secret Fears of the Super Rich"[1]. The Atlantic article matches my (secondary) experience: while I am (emphatically!) not in this camp (I definitely need to work to pay my mortgage!), I have several close friends who are outrageously wealthy, and I have observed that their lives are not made less stressful by their wealth -- but the specifics change. For example, there is great anxiety about how to raise their kids, especially for those who were not themselves raised in wealth: they are torn between providing their kids those things that they did not themselves have while still having their kids seek those things that they themselves sought. This is much harder to square than it might sound, and I don't think that there's a pat answer -- though I would observe that the ones I know with the fewest problems are those that are the least ostentatious with their wealth.

None of this serves to answer the question of how they deal with it, but rather to confirm what we probably all know: while money makes certain things in life easier, it is not a cure for all ills.

[1] https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/04/secret-...