This article getting to the front page is either an indication of the weaknesses of HN algorithms or the drop of quality of HN users who voted it up.
Do you really want to be rich?
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Re: Do you really want to be rich?
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not necessarily, a couple of the web's biggest properties came to be from it's founders other priorities. Google (backrub) started as a research project. Craigslist started out as a way for Craig Newmark to not feel so isolated. Wikipedia... the list goes on.
How does Wikipedia relate to this at all? It's a non-profit.
It may be a non-profit but it does still have people on the payroll, people who get paid to do what they love...
Re: Do you really want to be rich?
#43I hate this article. I hate anything that says "There are two types of people in the world, those that x, and those that y". I hate it because either: 1) The statements x and y are opposites and combine to be a truism. Truisms are not interesting. (from the 2nd and 3rd matrix) "Some things change, and others don't". 2) The generalization is demonstrably false or unknowable. In this article in partiular, I found a sor…
Although I don't disagree with any of your assertions, I think TFA is interesting because it observes that all the people who want to be rich don't actually want to be rich.
The first group considers money the solution to insecurity. Money is not what they want, they want to be confident and date models. The second group doesn't want money (they just want some money) and the third group is playing a game. They want to win, and the metric is money.
People state the desire to be rich often enough, but there are only very few people who really want to be rich. I think the blog pointed that out pretty well.
Re: Do you really want to be rich?
#44How strange: the post does not actually give a reason for only wanting to go into business with people that chase money for the purpose of chasing money. It does not explain why the reason that people want money matters. It states a preference of the author, without a single justification.
Re: Do you really want to be rich?
#45I grew up washing dishes and eating the food off the incoming plates because I was hungry. I never, ever want this for my kids. Yes, I wanted to be rich, am now rich, and I will pass these riches onto my kids.
Re: Do you really want to be rich?
#46This article getting to the front page is either an indication of the weaknesses of HN algorithms or the drop of quality of HN users who voted it up.
maxklein has admitted in the past to psychologically gaming HN.
Re: Do you really want to be rich?
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
Right. In terms of intellectual and creative advancement, the overwhelming majority of it comes from people who were both uninterested in monetarily capturing the value of it, and also bad at doing so. Most people with the talent for making money are people with few other talents (just because of the general rarity of talent; when the correlation is zero, people with talent X are very unlikely to have talent Y).
Interesting take. I see so many "business types" looking for developers to help them build their great idea. But developers aren't interested in building someone else's idea, so it may be the opposite approach which is mo' betta. Business people should be looking for existing technical products to sell, rather than trying to think of ideas themselves.
The issue is that our society worships the hell out of money and the making thereof, at the expense of all else, creating an environment where the business people become "high priests" and get orders of magnitude more compensation, influence, and power than equally qualified and responsible people in other industries.
Large companies also use the creative, interesting work as a reward for doing well at the upper-grunt (middle management) level, so it goes to the most loyal, and those best at playing the "business game", rather than the most qualified.
The current arrangement makes as much sense as for particle physicists to tell Michael Jordan how to play basketball.
Re: Do you really want to be rich?
#48Yikes. If there's anything I've learned, it's to avoid people in the third category at all costs. These are the guys who see every transaction as a zero-sum game, and the people who will stick a knife in you the moment an opportunity presents itself.
Not true. Warren Buffett fits in that category. Many people in that third category care about making money in an abstract sense -- it's a game, but it can be a long-term game. They don't care about the cars or the status symbols. They love building wealth, but not for wealth's sake. People who don't understand long-term relationships are not actually in the long-term game to make money. Usually they just lack some em…
Treating finance as a game is only an option for those who are already wealthy enough to never worry about being comfortable.
Plus, I sincerely doubt Warren Buffet is likely to give up finance in favor of Chess anytime soon, even if he came to the conclusion it was more interesting (not saying it is, just drawing a comparison.)
Re: Do you really want to be rich?
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
I know several people in the 5 to 100 million range and I don't really want to be that rich. A close friend growing up had 6-7 million in trust fund + a lot more on the way and it was a lot harder than you might think. You don't have enough to "change the world" but working is almost pointless etc. So he took a lot of stupid risks to feel alive and died at 30. I have that type of personality and while I like taking 6…
A close friend growing up had 6-7 million in trust fund + a lot more on the way and it was a lot harder than you might think. You don't have enough to "change the world" but working is almost pointless etc. I'm sorry to hear about your friend, but if you ask me, the "almost pointless" excuse is pretty pathetic. All else equal, being rich gives you strictly more options, and therefore the means to make work more meani…
I am not saying he made good choices but it's hard to picture all that many well balanced people working when they don't need to.
Let's say you are 18 and make 20k / month and that's the tip of the iceberg you are going to get another 50+ million by the time your 40 even if you do absolutely nothing. Do you really think you would aim for an office job? What's your ROI for "wasting" one of the few thing you can't buy time? Are you going to do a startup when you already have more income than your lifestyle requires?
PS: As soon as you realize you don't need to live in an expensive area and most expensive items are more about status than quality you realize money quickly has significant diminishing returns.
Re: Do you really want to be rich?
#50I'll never do business with someone who doesn't know when enough is enough. This post is saying to do business with greedy people. Kind of sad really, but I'm glad I'm the kind of person the author doesn't want to do business with. I look on people like this with pity. For them, money is an addiction. They'll do anything for their fix. They'll lie, cheat, steal. Those aren't the kinds of people to do business with, b…
You do business with the people that will bring you a profit. In theory, it doesn't matter what personal views the person across the table has if they adequately provide the services you need. Learn to identify the wants/needs of those people that operate around you and plan accordingly.
Business is about profit, not feeling good about the people you buy/sell services from/to.
Defend yourself if you see a need. Don't avoid people just because you don't get a warm feeling when you exchange services with them.