Probably so. I'm in academia as a teacher and as a researcher. I like teaching and I like research. If I were "rich" I'd probably do both things with a much clearer state of mind.
Ask HN: If you had $10M in the bank, would you still show up to your job?
41–50 of 104 posts
Re: Ask HN: If you had $10M in the bank, would you still show up to your job?
#42If you live in a modern 1st world country and have a family, at least 1 child or some old relatives and at least minimal ambition to eat good food and have okay level of life - 10M is not much at all. It’ll get you okayish to allright property (depending on the region), will cover all basic expenses and (if you don’t have anyone with serious illness or financial problems) some non basic ones. For up to 10 years max.…
I mean, $10m comes out to $400k in year at the 4% rule which is top 2-3% income in the US. And top 1% in Europe. I guess being in the top 1% is barely scraping by nowadays.
Re: Ask HN: If you had $10M in the bank, would you still show up to your job?
#43This is a good question. Many of us work out of blind habit or to support a lifestyle we didn't consciously choose. Asking this question can lead to freedom, no matter how much money you have and no matter whether you work or not, because its a question that leads to living deliberately. Which I am all for. https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/
Re: Ask HN: If you had $10M in the bank, would you still show up to your job?
#44All these "NO" answers haha... makes sense why there are record layoffs and zombie/dead startups. I think Claude Code will save many small businesses.
"Nobody wants to work anymore"[0] is a trope as old as industrialization itself. 0: https://www.reddit.com/r/antiwork/comments/w3si8l/nobody_wan...
A trope is a trope because it is commonly true for long periods of time. This proves nothing.
Cycles exist, and there can be periods of time where there is true passion in an industry followed by lack thereof.
A boom and bust economic system guarantees that there will always be times where a ton of "normies" enter tech who just want a paycheck during booms.
Re: Ask HN: If you had $10M in the bank, would you still show up to your job?
#45Not to the current job. I'd still want to use same skills, but I'd probably find some PhDs to assist for free.
Re: Ask HN: If you had $10M in the bank, would you still show up to your job?
#46Investors are not investing in small startups much, perhaps due to high interest rates.
Now is a great time to invest in small startups applying ML to realworld problems, and will result in a lot of useful new tech being built.
Id make a lot of small bets on early stage startups of this kind - and perhaps top up when they get a POC and at MVP / early traction stage.
It would almost be worth buying a building in Danang Vietnam, and hosting small teams for 3m at a time to get more bang for your buck - ie. rent arbitrage / quadruple the effective runway due to low cost of living.
Re: Ask HN: If you had $10M in the bank, would you still show up to your job?
#47Short answer: No.
Long answer: maybe I would wrap up a few outstanding projects and then retire?
Re: Ask HN: If you had $10M in the bank, would you still show up to your job?
#48$10M in the bank is very different for a family of 4 staying in VHCOL (Bay Area/ Manhattan) vs single person staying in Bangkok. The answer to this question depends on a lot on that versus job satisfaction etc.
Not sure why people like the bay area so much. Move someplace else and retire. Most anywhere in the US is going to be dramatically cheaper.
Buy a summer place on a lake in the Midwest for under 200k. Get a winter place somewhere warmer, since the weather must be what people like about CA. We have tons of retirees doing this with well under $10M.
Re: Ask HN: If you had $10M in the bank, would you still show up to your job?
#49It took me awhile, but I arrived at "no". What I enjoy: the programming, the messing with large systems and solving challenging problems. What I don't enjoy: the politics, the meetings, the ineptitude of colleagues (nobody hired in the last 10 years seems qualified to do their job), the infrastructure rot and misconfigurations.
I arrived at yes, for the same reason. There are plenty of open source and community projects you could through your time at, but with none of the obligations.
Re: Ask HN: If you had $10M in the bank, would you still show up to your job?
#50If you live in a modern 1st world country and have a family, at least 1 child or some old relatives and at least minimal ambition to eat good food and have okay level of life - 10M is not much at all. It’ll get you okayish to allright property (depending on the region), will cover all basic expenses and (if you don’t have anyone with serious illness or financial problems) some non basic ones. For up to 10 years max.…
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