Ask HN: How to stop my greed for money?

So I started college 4 years ago when I was 18 and at the same time I started my own startup. This was fine, but I focused more on my startup than on my social life. I grew tired of it and I stopped with both of my startups last year because I was just plain sick of it. I didn't enjoy being woken up at 5AM by a client that I want to strangle in the first place because he woke me up so early and that I have to be very nice to. That being the superficial reason why I quit. But I never really made any time to go out, meet new people, stay in contact with friends, etc.

Once I quit, I joined student clubs (not really like frats and the American stuff, but imagine those kinds of casual friends), invited people over, went out with people, organised parties at my place... I've honestly never been happier in my entire life. I went from solely focusing on my future career to putting my social life before that. This past week has also just been plain amazing and I wouldn't have experienced this week and the many good ones before it if I didn't prioritised what made me happy.

Prioritise what makes you happy, put old ideas out of your head (e.g. being afraid of what people think of you), and just don't overthink anything (still something I need to teach myself).

Whether it's money or flowers or anything, a passion will do that to you. Programming does that to programmers. What I'm saying is that you might just be passionate about money and frankly, I don't think there is anything wrong with that despite what the average person think. Are you good at your passion? Just become better and you'll be more happy. Don't press the break pedal, press the gas one.

What makes me feel better is actually thinking about my goal. Day to day I'll get obsessed with the minutiae, but stepping back I realize I'm pretty easy going. I want to pay off my existing house, have the ability to cover by relatively simple costs until I pop my clogs, and have freedom.

You mention "your goal" - what is it, and why have you chosen it?

The situation I've found myself in exactly the opposite of yours, in the sense that money, wealth, and the things that come with it, haven't been motivating aspects of work for years, almost to a problematic extent. I still negotiate numbers for new prospective jobs, but only on principle. I won't let a regular company or startup underpay me.

I'm 26 now, but between 19-22 I was exclusively focused on career progression and money. I'd put work before my relationships—romantic and social—and everything I did was framed by how much I was spending or making. The short version of what happened since then, is that I was laid off, then fired, fired, and fired again. After the final time, which was a corporate job I wasn't culturally suited for but offered me the most I've ever made as a developer (~$75000) I was in a position where I now had an apartment and bills to pay for. I was also burnt out and uninspired. Up until that point I had a network that helped me find other positions, but not this time. I had to go through the hellish interviewing process. After many unsuccessful attempts and well over a year of being unemployed, I stopped trying. This was because I realized that I had to make some changes and that I was abusing my time and sanity for companies I didn't care about, but that paid well. I was also in no position to be picky about anything, being out of money and with no prospects. So I focused on my social life, started traveling, living in my car, attending conferences to see what I'd find stronger interests in, etc. Now I only get this weird feeling when I think about money. I look at the amounts new grads can pull in at notable companies and I think something's broken. Why can't I care about this enough to compete for it? These people—and maybe you're one of them—are making literally more money than I will ever make, but it doesn't drive me at all. To get to those positions, I'd have to find a progression of deep interests that I can navigate instead.

Anyway, I'm now being paid roughly $30/hour CAD to work on an open data portal based on python for a uni. I'm doing it remotely, so I can travel around the U.S and explore while doing the work. It's interesting and pays me barely enough to get by, but I don't resent what I spend my time on. I'm somewhat actively interviewing with select companies as well. Expectations are low but it's good to stay sharp. It would be nice to have savings, and hopefully one day I'll find myself in a better position in that regard. But right now I've managed to drag myself out of the other end of the unhappy hole.

Incidentally it also forced me to take up some miscellaneous low end jobs like Starbucks barista and manual labor which was a nice change.

Maybe quitting and exploring other avenues of life while not thinking mainly about work or money is what could spark a change for you.