Personally, I would probably try to teach in some capacity. I have this pipe dream of retiring from FT SWE and teaching high school CS sometime in the future.
Ask HN: What would you do if you didn't have to work?
51–60 of 144 posts
Re: Ask HN: What would you do if you didn't have to work?
#52Build things that will make the world better but wouldn't get built because the financial incentive is too small or too far in the future.
Re: Ask HN: What would you do if you didn't have to work?
#531. Woodworking. I'd like to timber frame a cabin or workshop and fill it out with my own furniture.
2. open source programming. I wish i had more time to give back to some of the ecosystems i enjoy using and there are many problems i'd love to work on in them.
Re: Ask HN: What would you do if you didn't have to work?
#54I’d find your community nonprofit/mutual aid/… group of choice, and spend 6 months there. whatever i’d leave behind in terms of infra i would design to be self-sufficient: you’re going to find the usual unholy mess of google docs and stuff that you’ll want to clean up, but do it humanely.
otherwise, wire yourself into your neighbors. be up front about your time allotment.
IBM used to do this all the time in the 80s; as a child i don’t think i appreciated what that gave my town but i do now.
Re: Ask HN: What would you do if you didn't have to work?
#55Me personally: I hiked the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mexico-California border to the Washington-Canada border in 2022. While I missed work on trail, it definitely made me realize that once I'm financially independent, I'm mostly going to be living a life outdoors, with occasional indoor time to play music. Your situation is a bit different from my goals, but honestly if I had that opportunity, I'd be doing my best…
Hiking the PCT is absolutely a bucket list item. Sadly, the on-call part means I have to remain local. I'm definitely planing to explore though.
Re: Ask HN: What would you do if you didn't have to work?
#56If it was a temporary situtation like that, I'd probably spend more time practicing my banjo and guitar, and also scanning and archiving the 50 years-worth backlog of film on my shelf.
Re: Ask HN: What would you do if you didn't have to work?
#57Continue to pursue a career in sculpture
Re: Ask HN: What would you do if you didn't have to work?
#58For me (mid 40s):
Focus on getting in excellent physical shape.
Spend time with my kids.
Fix up my Garden.
If I was younger and in the military? Learn Chinese. Learn Cyber Security.
Re: Ask HN: What would you do if you didn't have to work?
#59I’d be in the garage working on my car (big project)
Re: Ask HN: What would you do if you didn't have to work?
#60You will always have to work - you need to feed yourself, clothe yourself, shelter yourself, etc. How you go about doing all of that is what matters. With that in mind, I think you;re asking "What would I do if I didn't have to have a job," which is a more interesting question.
I would find people in my community to band together to help us build and maintain our community - helping maintain each other's home, build new homes for expanding families and new comers, produce as much of our own food as possible, and adopt various technologies to make it all easier on us so we could also enjoy abundant free time for art, play, relationship, and joy.
This could be us now, but too many people sell their lives at a discount to rich narcissists. If we, instead, turn away from those useless assholes and turn, instead, to each other and form cooperative work environments where the work is equally shared - as are the proceeds - we can start building a better, more freer world where you can answer this question in real time for yourself.