I would appreciate it if people posting here would also tell us if they were low/middle/upper class before they got wealthy/wealthier.
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Ask PG & other successful folks: how did your life change after FU money?
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Re: Ask PG & other successful folks: how did your life change after FU money?
#22Was the term "FU money" coined by Neal Stephenson, or was it in use before he wrote Cryptonomicon?
I'm pretty sure Nassim Nicholas Taleb wasn't the source, but I first heard the term from him.
Re: Ask PG & other successful folks: how did your life change after FU money?
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
One thing I've found though - girls don't care about the money in the bank. Wherever you are meeting girls, I want to go there. My experience in an NJ bar a week or two ago: I was talking with a coder friend of mine about my job. This was a geeky conversation with words like "latency", "queues" and "atomic operations", as well as "lost $BIGNUM in half a second", rather than a manly conversation about "parachuting int…
I have been in NYC for the last two and a half months. Granted, that is not a long time, but I have met a lot of girls - even around the financial district - and I have not had similar experiences. No doubt these girls exist but I everywhere I have been there has always been plenty of sweet and genuine girls.
There's this sort of black-and-white distinction between "good girls" and "gold diggers" and it's entirely imaginary. I'll spare you the evolutionary psychology behind it (which is easy to find if you're interested) but all women care about a man's success (of which money is merely the most frequent, but not only, indicator) to a large degree. Saying a girl doesn't care about money is like saying a guy doesn't care about looks.
Society has come to view both genders' preferences as shallow, but for whatever reason makes a much bigger deal about it when it comes to women, which is really not fair. They can't help being attracted to a successful guy anymore than we can to a hot girl.
My guess is that in NYC, due to the financial industry guys are more sensitive to it, and as such women respond by being a bit more circumspect.
Re: Ask PG & other successful folks: how did your life change after FU money?
#24I would appreciate it if people posting here would also tell us if they were low/middle/upper class before they got wealthy/wealthier.
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A person's life after getting FU money could very well depend on their financial state (and relatedly, their experiences and outlook in life) before getting rich. Seems like a valid question to me.
Re: Ask PG & other successful folks: how did your life change after FU money?
#25Was the term "FU money" coined by Neal Stephenson, or was it in use before he wrote Cryptonomicon?
I don't believe so. That term has been used for years prior to 2000 in competitive offshore fishing.
Re: Ask PG & other successful folks: how did your life change after FU money?
#26The more I think about this -- really think about it -- the more I become convinced that anonymity and a small amount of recurring income, along with a reasonably-frugal life, is probably the best outcome in life.
EDIT: Just to clarify, I'm not saying to be poor. I'm saying that the more your income becomes visible -- past just having a low-key life -- the more it gets in the way of things, both for you and your family.
That can either mean living in a room where they shove a couple pizzas under the door every day or living in a modest 4BR house in a mediocre neighborhood. It's the visibility and the host of hidden entrapments that come with that visibility. What I didn't realize when I was younger that this problem of visibility isn't just limited to how others view your wealth -- it's really more a problem of of you view it.
Re: Ask PG & other successful folks: how did your life change after FU money?
#27Was the term "FU money" coined by Neal Stephenson, or was it in use before he wrote Cryptonomicon?
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Re: Ask PG & other successful folks: how did your life change after FU money?
#28Was the term "FU money" coined by Neal Stephenson, or was it in use before he wrote Cryptonomicon?
I remember reading the term in James Clavell's novel Noble House, published in 1981.
Re: Ask PG & other successful folks: how did your life change after FU money?
#29I won't say I am in the big league but I have enough to last me a couple of years if I stay comfortably. It is invested well so I am hoping that it will last longer. I also don't have any major outgoings like mortgages or rent. > * Has your life changed in unexpected ways? One change has been that I haven't worked for the last 2 years and don't plan to in the near future. I love programming so just spent my day worki…
Have you considered taking you hobby projects further? Hiring a team, renting an office and putting a product out there? I am not suggesting you do, I am just curious.
I do want to start focusing on one project and get it to the point where its useful. Following this I hope to do what you mention and put some more resources behind it and make it grow faster.
I initially had a small startup but that didn't quite work out for various reasons, so for about a year I have been prototyping various projects alone. One thing about the no-deadline situation is that for the last year I have basically been experimenting with different ideas and technologies. I suspect if I have some sort of a deadline I wouldn't have spent so much time on it. But then again maybe the time was well spent as the architecture and ideas are more precise now.
One fear I have is my project becoming a Duke Nukem Forever :)
Re: Ask PG & other successful folks: how did your life change after FU money?
#30Be prepared for it mentally and emotionally before getting FU money. It's not dissimilar to winning the lottery. Most of you reading this site is either working extremely hard to get FU money or has it already. If you're not prepared for it, it will just amplify your worst nightmares and habits, and there's a good chance the meaning of many things in life, including life itself, will disappear. Plan for a use/purpose…
Tim O’Reilly:
"Money is like gasoline during a road trip. You don't want to run out of gas on your trip, but you're not doing a tour of gas stations. You have to pay attention to money, but it shouldn't be about the money.”