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Is it OK to Want to Make Money?

swombat.com

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Re: Is it OK to Want to Make Money?

#91

Post by swombat »

scotty79 wrote: post #83
bhousel wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Money == Freedom Don't you want freedom?

http://dreamflesh.com/blog/2007/06/the-millionaire-and-the-f...

It sounds like you're trying to convince yourself that you don't want money, rather than the opposite.

Is the only thing you want to do with your life to sit by the seaside, squeeze out a couple of kids, and die peaceful and unknown? If so, fine, no need for money. If you have any speck of ambition in you, though, chances are you want to make some sort of positive difference to the world out there.

Money is a tool that you can use to do that.

What the fisherman parable fails to convey is that through his enterprise, the guy who did buy a bigger boat, expand, etc, ended up feeding millions of people. If no one did that, we'd all still be living in small fishing villages and dying of colds and flus. You owe all your modern conveniences to people who got off their asses and built empires (for whatever motivations it is they had).

Re: Is it OK to Want to Make Money?

#92

Post by Tyrannosaurs »

scotty79 wrote: post #88
Tyrannosaurs wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you want it? I'd suggest if having more money doesn't motivate you then the difference between your life now and this hypothetical life you might have isn't that great. Lots of people are motivated to make money for different reasons, some good, some bad but if you're not one of them you're better off focusing on the things that do make you happy.

I have no idea how my life would look if I had this hunger. Maybe it would be better? I just feel I'm missing on something. I have high iq, about 10 years of commercial experience in coding, nearly 20 years of personal experience in coding so I feel I'm fairly well prepared to make some money. What I lack is constant motivator. Money works as such for a lot of people. Hence my question: How do you get hunger for mone…

Most people I know who have it have it because at some point in their lives they were without money. If you're smart and you've been working in IT for 10 years then I'm guessing you're financially doing fine. Maybe not super rich but well above national average and you probably don't want for much. I'm sure you could live somewhere nicer and have nicer stuff but would that really make you happier.

Your problem is summarise by five words "maybe it would be better".

We're motivated to do things that we believe will improve our lives in some way. Why would you expect to be motivated by something you're unclear on.

If anything it sounds to me as if you're a little bit aimless and if there's any dissatisfaction in your life it's probably that. Better to work out what you want than just pick something and go "lots of people seem to want this, maybe that's what I want".

Re: Is it OK to Want to Make Money?

#93

Post by gonehome »

oz wrote: post #72

TL;DR: Yes. Get that money. Get lots of it. Poverty sucks. I left rural Jamaica to come to Kingston, the capital, in 2005. After my first year in college, I got a summer job with a telecom startup run by an American. My student loan was not renewed for the 2nd year, so I had to drop out, and got a permanent position as a sysadmin at the company. The pay sucked, but I didn't care: The family member I was living with w…

Money may not be 'everything', but it does seem to be the universal prerequisite.

Re: Is it OK to Want to Make Money?

#94

Post by j45 »

Building something smaller to feed the family increases your longevity in the startup game. You can play longer with new ideas, let them develop as they mature, and lots more. Pay attention to whether people who look down on lifestyle businesses already have that lifestyle of not worrying about money.. easier said when that's the case.

Initially having something that pays the bills for you can be an important step learning the first business and marketing skills of ones life. Having these makes you more valuable and capable of not only fetching funding should it be something you want, but a lot more of it because you preemptively make business considerations as you go.

Re: Is it OK to Want to Make Money?

#95

Post by bhousel »

scotty79 wrote: post #83
bhousel wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Money == Freedom Don't you want freedom?

http://dreamflesh.com/blog/2007/06/the-millionaire-and-the-f...

I like this story a lot. But which of these men has more true freedom?

Sure we may all want to "sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siestas with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos". But life isn't always this kind.

Eventually most people will get sick, or have a sick kid or family member. Or be victims of crime. Or need to make repairs or suffer a natural disaster. Or be involved in a dispute with neighbors or the local government.

Money isn't important for the easy times in your life - it's important for the difficult times.

Re: Is it OK to Want to Make Money?

#96

Post by runako »

_delirium wrote: post #35
tomelders wrote: post #27

It always grates me when people with lot's of money tell people who don't have lot's of money, that it's not about the money. Money my not equal happiness, but a lack of money certainly equals stress and misery. And while people are being stressed and miserable, they're not at their best. I think people would find it hard to be so nonchalant about the importance of money and the benefits it can bring if they were wor…

In Silicon Valley with a tech background it's rarely a very stark choice, though. If you have good tech skills, a the default/fallback option is a pretty nice one, materially speaking: a low 6-figure programming job at a big company. There is very little chance of ending up unemployed-and-homeless, given how much companies are scrambling to hire technical people. In that context, it makes more sense to me to encourag…

Until you're 40 and are forced out of the field: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3878522

Falling back on the corporate job in software becomes less likely as you get older.

Re: Is it OK to Want to Make Money?

#98

Post by Shivetya »

pclark wrote: post #6
nirvana wrote: post #4

There's a false dichotomy in a lot of these discussions. There isn't a contradiction between helping society and making money. Virtually every legal way I know of making money helps society. The money you make comes from somewhere- generally customers who are parting with it. Why are they parting with it? Because they prefer what you're buying to the alternative. People spend, in the aggregate, because it makes their…

Academia, Teaching, Charities & Not for profit organisations all improve society and you wouldn't do any of those if you wanted to be rich.

There is a lot of money to made in non profit and charitable organizations. At least for those at the top. Go look up how much your higher ups make in groups like United Way and you will begin to wonder how many people could be helped if so many people didn't make near a half million a year at a charity.

Re: Is it OK to Want to Make Money?

#99

Post by sopooneo »

swombat wrote: post #63
michaelochurch wrote: post #60

Answer: yes, sure. It's far more honorable to want to be wealthy than, for example, to vie for social status or power over other people. I want to be wealthy; I wish everyone were. I feel like I'm an old (28) knight, having learned the hard way that people are not honorable. For the record, I've seen more disgusting behavior in supposedly "world-changing" startups than many people see in their lives, and far more tha…

> You should want to have money if you're smart. Why? Because money is a vote and the World's First Problem is that most decisions aren't being made my smart or competent people. So get out there, do great work, and see if you can make a mark. Well put!

Buy a better world. Frankly I agree. The "golden rule" is that you should treat others as you would like to be treated. But then there is a very old joke that "You know what the golden rule is? He who has the gold makes the rules! HAAA!!"

But I think the neo-post-contemporary response to that is: so get some gold and make some better rules.

Re: Is it OK to Want to Make Money?

#100

Post by scotty79 »

bhousel wrote: post #95
scotty79 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://dreamflesh.com/blog/2007/06/the-millionaire-and-the-f...

I like this story a lot. But which of these men has more true freedom? Sure we may all want to "sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siestas with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos". But life isn't always this kind. Eventually most people will get sick, or have a sick kid or family member. Or be victims of crime. Or need to m…

> Eventually most people will get sick, or have a sick kid or family member.

Thanks to cheap state health insurance I don't have to pay most of such expenses out of my pocket.

> Or be victims of crime.

This is actually much worse when you are rich. At least in my country. Rich seal themselves in closed enclaves out of fear for their property.

> Or need to make repairs

If you own thing that you can't afford to repair or replace and can't manage without, you are doing it wrong.

> suffer a natural disaster

I'm not sure about this one. It's easier to get away from some natural disasters when you can buy your place on any mode of transportation but you have to leave so much more behind you. It could make you more hesitant to leave.

> Or be involved in a dispute with neighbors or the local government.

It might be easier to buy your way out but having money makes you a target for your neighbours and for the government.

But we went from "money == freedom" to "future will bite you so better stack up a pile"

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