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Your human-size life

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Re: Your human-size life

#11

Post by greggman »

Sorry but I don't agree with this at all.

Okay, strike that. I agree with the idea that money isn't everything but ... money is a huge enabler. I rented a 2 bedroom apartment even though I can only sleep in one room. That other room? Friends from around the world visited and stayed there all the time and I got to spend far more time with them than if they had had to stay at a hotel. Heck, they probably wouldn't have even visited the area if they had to pay for a hotel.

If you're rich and doing nothing yea maybe you're bored and unhappy but there's all kinds of things I would do with money that instead I can't because someone else with money is "the decider".

It really depends on the amount of money. Most of the games I'd like to make (I'm a game dev) would probably cost in the $7-$14 million price range.

I'd love to open a gamedev co-working space. No idea how much money that would cost to run long enough to make it profitable but it's probably more than I have. And heck, if I had the money I'd consider doing it even if it didn't make a profit. If we're talking money to burn then I'd be happy to burn it. I'd also love to pay someone to run it. To make sure it had lots of events and activities.

Similarly I'd love to do giant digital art exhibitions. The kind that require several hundred thousands in equipment (projection mapping projectors good enough for large buildings are not cheap) on top of having to hire all the people to organize those types of events. Yea, I could beg others to let me but if I had the money I wouldn't have to ask I'd just do it.

And yes there would still be struggles. Even with money lots of things are still real work. Still it would be nice not to have my options limited because I know I still need to save for retirement.

Re: Your human-size life

#12

Post by _9vpl »

johansch wrote: post #8

The problem with those of us who make money in the tech field is that it's often pretty much binary.. all work pretty much all the time (and decent to great money) or no work (living on savings). Add to this employer's resistance to hire if you have you haven't been working lately... :/

Try contracting.

Re: Your human-size life

#13

Post by johansch »

_9vpl wrote: post #12
johansch wrote: post #8

The problem with those of us who make money in the tech field is that it's often pretty much binary.. all work pretty much all the time (and decent to great money) or no work (living on savings). Add to this employer's resistance to hire if you have you haven't been working lately... :/

Try contracting.

That is easy as an individual contributor but harder when what you do is running engineering teams.

Re: Your human-size life

#14

Post by firasd »

greggman wrote: post #11

Sorry but I don't agree with this at all. Okay, strike that. I agree with the idea that money isn't everything but ... money is a huge enabler. I rented a 2 bedroom apartment even though I can only sleep in one room. That other room? Friends from around the world visited and stayed there all the time and I got to spend far more time with them than if they had had to stay at a hotel. Heck, they probably wouldn't have…

Keep in mind that while the post is poetic, he mentions getting rich in an IPO, and references Peter Thiel. So when he says wealth doesn't make you happy, he's saying something like "the difference between 10 million and 50 million isn't that great". My understanding is that there's some evidence of diminishing returns beyond $60k/yr in the US. (And a related psychological concept: hedonic treadmill.)

For regular working people like me, while I do have to wrestle with work/life balance--even if one is comfortable not having a lot of personal time to chill or pursue non-work stuff, there are social expectations (and I'm single, with a spouse and kids it's even tougher)--but still, I feel like anyone who wants to lecture me about money not being that important should maybe commit to paying my utility bills first. (In fact I feel money even helps with the aforementioned social expectations, i.e. if I have some resources of my own and feel somewhat secure then I can better support other people and participate in other activities.)

To sum up, I liked this tweet: "Life goal: write one of those 'now I’m rich but it didn’t really make me happy' blog posts." https://twitter.com/kevindente/status/738126854180077568

Re: Your human-size life

#17

Post by ljw1001 »

johansch wrote: post #13
_9vpl wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try contracting.

That is easy as an individual contributor but harder when what you do is running engineering teams.

Then don't run engineering teams :) - assuming you can code. When I realized most software companies treat engineers better than they do managers, I switched. I actually can't recall a single employer who didn't treat the engineers at least as well as the (non-executive) management. It's not a panacea, but there is a more regular sense of achievement and less BS.

Re: Your human-size life

#18

Post by chipsy »

Human-size applies to many activities, too. You only get so much time in the day, so "someday" can be put off no matter how long you wait. You never become so exceptional that all problems are within your comfort zone as if you were an overpowered game character. Long term, you can only sustain about 4 hours of max effort on a difficult, out-of-flow mental task like a hard coding problem. You can never entirely brush aside your ordinary failings just because of your accomplishments elsewhere.

Re: Your human-size life

#19

Post by forloop »

pjmorris wrote: post #5
reasonattlm wrote: post #4

The core thesis is really only true if money can't be exchanged for some expectation value of additional years of healthy life. Up until fairly recently (say 20 years) that was the case. You couldn't really do a lot with a lot of money to swing odds, any more than you could with just a little money and some forethought. The free stuff like planning, exercise, and calorie restriction outweigh everything else, and by t…

I think the lifespan issue misses the point. The core thesis is that 'more' - money, houses, lifespan - doesn't buy you happiness. You've still got to figure out what to do with each day you get, and that's where happiness either happens or doesn't.

If you have 10 units of happiness per day, and live twice as long, then you'll have twice as many units of happiness at the end of your life.

Arguments for not expanding lifespan are often easy to debunk.

Re: Your human-size life

#20

Post by _9vpl »

johansch wrote: post #13
_9vpl wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try contracting.

That is easy as an individual contributor but harder when what you do is running engineering teams.

I think you're right, but there are plenty of companies (especially startups with new founders/inexperienced engineers/no engineers) that could use some help with running a software team. It's definitely doable.
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