all [he] ever did was smash up things and creatures and then retreat back into their money or their vast carelessness.
—Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
I think I recently drove by a sign on the road that said this too. It was right next to another sign that read "Make Money Fast", and another sign that said "Get Rich Working from Home." However, a much wiser man than I once said: TANSTAAFL.
Now I know this is gonna get nuked, but I don't care because I can prove my point if you can understand me. Money is all you guys ever talk about here. Can we get more up votes on articles about oh say, extravagant assembly code or hardware hacks, instead of the daily echo chamber of TC driven $pablum?
IMHO everyone here, or at least the most vocal minority, is far, far too obsessed with making money. And the kind of money amount always being talked about is literally winning the lottery. Fools! You want to know why the American Empire has hollwed out and is about to fall? Everybody is a fucking true-blue believer that they deserve to be rich,at the expense of everything and everyone else! Why can't people just be happy with enough to get by? Spend time with your friends and family, stop chasing the bullshit ideology of conspicuous consumption which much richer and much more powerful individuals want you to believe in order to trap you into their completely distorted mentality, a simulacrum of un-reality! And those biggest fish only benefit themselves by getting everyone else to chase their white rabbit btw.
Here's my one "TED" wish: instead of the pursuit of money and winning the lottery, I want more of you super-smart, elite, "WEIRD", technophiles to spend the same amount of time & effort doing something intrinsically meaningful, creative, in the pursuit of knowledge for yourself or others, or sacrificing & helping those people in your communities who are disadvantaged, oppressed and less fortunate, or the noble purpose of doing something(anything!) because it is Right and nobody else seems to be doing that thing.
What kind of ignorant fuck truly wants to live the hollow lifestyle of a wealthy young aristocrat? You might think you're making sacrifices now for freedom from money later, but I, and every single philosopher going all the way back to Thales would warn the pursuit of wealth, for it's own sake, or for the sole sake of being "freed" from money, ends up becoming a tragic, inescapable anchor you will be permanently chained to in your life, and it will fully consume and ruin whatever goodness and potential you might have started with.
There is another way. Take only what you need, don't need much, give generously without regard, and redirect all your newly found free time & energy into efforts that truly matter.
Fuck you, Money!