Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: How do billionaires deal with their anxiety?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 86 posts

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

#71

Post by pasbesoin »

Disclaimer: I'm no billionaire. Just a bit older, and experiencing perhaps a bit of wisdom -- and no small measure of regret -- from my own life experiences.

Take care of your physical health, and your well-being -- including especially your day-to-day environment and social relationships.

Money makes some of this easier. On the other hand, if you don't do these things, no amount of money will fix it. (And many health problems, no amount of money can fix or undo. You want to prevent them occurring, in the first place.)

P.S. I do know a few significantly rich people who seem fairly happy. And the above is what I notice.

Financial constraints -- and bad teaching and communication about same -- kept me from addressing and moving away from some very significant stressors. Anxiety became severe and chronic and fed into a downward spiral. Despite having very high intellectual marks, from multiple sources, as well as the reputation for being a nice guy (hopefully, without the quotes: "nice guy").

Actually, earlier than that, family and school compelled me to endure chronic abuse and bullying, with no effective help from the responsible adults. That seemed to initiate the core of the anxiety.

Both the family and the rather well-endowed school system plausibly had the resources to make things different, but they didn't.

Back to my point: Pay attention, and use the money to take care of yourself and your environment. This also makes essential social connection easier -- feeling better about yourself. Best proposal I have.

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

#72

Post by vorpalhex »

kbutler wrote: post #66
vorpalhex wrote: post #9

I'm taking your question to mean "how do they deal with the normal non-formal anxieties everyone has". I'm theorizing here, I'm nowhere near a billionaire, but I've known some fairly wealthy people (though wealthy with a M, not a B). + Diverse investments Instead of keeping all their eggs in one basket, they tend to be invested heavily across multiple spectrums. Oil and gas, health insurance marketplaces, real estate…

So, basically they are playing the game with full cheat codes, nothing is a personal challenge anymore, so it gets boring/tedious quickly?

They have other challenges. A large one is the amount of work that goes into managing that kind of money - usually at any given time there are several real estate transactions going on, stocks moving, social events that are borderline mandatory from a politics side of things, etc.

There's a big concern that your money might be used illicitly or illegally, or even if you try to give it to a good cause, that it may be squandered.

You also have to worry about nutjobs who find out you have money - this leads to security, both guards and changes in how you live your life. If you have kids, their lives are probably very sheltered since kidnapping is a very real and very serious threat. Likewise for close family members.

The value of money is always a diminishing return, and eventually it can become a liability.

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

#73

Post by ASipos »

theandrewbailey wrote: post #70
dkersten wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

In other words, money is a tool. People get happiness not from tools, but what can be done with them.

And unfortunately programming is a tool.

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

#74

Post by Freestyler_3 »

They probably keep trying to find new interests that can give them hapiness. They will be active in it for a while, and then they go to the next. They might do dangerous things like climb mount everest? They have more hobbies they can choose from (since no money limit). I imagine there's a lot of things that can be harder. Especially socially, always having doubts about people.

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

#75

Post by dkersten »

theandrewbailey wrote: post #70
dkersten wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

In other words, money is a tool. People get happiness not from tools, but what can be done with them.

That is a great summary, thanks!

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

#76

Post by solarkraft »

maroonblazer wrote: post #67
Cakez0r wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And I'd guess this is also why midlife crises are a thing. Once you've got your beautiful family, house, car and stable job, what's next?

Apologies if this is pedantic but, just the opposite, mid-life crises arise because of the realization that the gap between your accomplishments and your ideals is larger than you thought it would be by the time you reached middle age.

this is not pedantic if it's the definition of a mid life crisis (I don't know), but just wrong if people worry about different things :-)

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

#77

Post by olleromam91 »

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.

Some of the most advanced and effective mental health retreats are EXTREMELY expensive. Upwards of 2000 dollars a day.

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

#78

Post by vfulco2 »

Cakez0r wrote: post #30
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.

Unlimited wealth can also cause its own set of problems and anxieties that run deeper than "which bank should I use" or "which whim should I indulge next". E.G. Does someone like me or do they just like my money? What should I do with my life now that I'm unfulfilled by indulging my whims?

As a student in Japan, I was introduced to businessmen, to teach English, during their real estate boom. They just so happened to be the children of fathers who had buildings near the Imperial Palace, so became rich (on paper, 100MM+ USD) through no effort. Their lives were about as devoid of happiness that I have ever seen. After partying, hookers, golf, eating at every gourmet place in town, and foreign trips, life became uninspiring and they were a morose bunch to hang out with for dinner and drinks after our language classes. No thanks. A person needs purpose to enjoy life.

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

#79

Post by tuesdayrain »

maroonblazer wrote: post #67
Cakez0r wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And I'd guess this is also why midlife crises are a thing. Once you've got your beautiful family, house, car and stable job, what's next?

Apologies if this is pedantic but, just the opposite, mid-life crises arise because of the realization that the gap between your accomplishments and your ideals is larger than you thought it would be by the time you reached middle age.

Seems strange trying to define precisely why people might have a crisis in the middle of their life, as if there would be a single reason.

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

#80

Post by ttonkytonk »

farone wrote: post #48
undefined1 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 dem…

Another problem I see with capitalism is that since competition is the prevailing theme, there is a sort of "fog of war" about.
Post reply on HN