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Steve Wozniak: When I die these are the moments I want to remember

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21–30 of 139 posts

Re: Steve Wozniak: When I die these are the moments I want to remember

#21

> At the end of his life, Steve Wozniak won't measure his happiness by the size of Apple's market cap or his personal net worth. This is a very popular stance to take for every millionare out there. Also, the absence of daily worries, the lack of problems induced by money, and the presence of an everlasting feeling of security can lead to a detachment from the concept of wealth. What I mean is, if you don’t experienc…

> This is a very popular stance to take for every millionare out there.

Also, many non-millionaires who are older and have the perspective common to the old like Wozniak too probably. Their kids are grown if they had any, they’re probably retired and no one expects them to change the world and they’re unlikely to have any ambition to do so. They know more people in the cemetery now than those who are alive. Because of that they know that life and its struggles are a passing thing and you have to enjoy it while you can with others while they’re with you. That is a legitimate kind of moral enlightenment that even the young with their whole life and its struggles before them can benefit from contemplating.

Re: Steve Wozniak: When I die these are the moments I want to remember

#22

> At the end of his life, Steve Wozniak won't measure his happiness by the size of Apple's market cap or his personal net worth. This is a very popular stance to take for every millionare out there. Also, the absence of daily worries, the lack of problems induced by money, and the presence of an everlasting feeling of security can lead to a detachment from the concept of wealth. What I mean is, if you don’t experienc…

Not to detract from your main point, but there are various shades of “happiness” and quite a few of these are available and are indeed enjoyed by the poorest of the poor.

It can be vacuous rich people speak, but there is definitely something in untangling happiness from material circumstances (any kind).

Note: I’m definitely not a millionaire.

Re: Steve Wozniak: When I die these are the moments I want to remember

#23
post #9

"Stay honest, keep smiling and pay your own successes forward" Love this mentality. I've not seen such a concise phrase to describe such a positive perspective that truly embraces the "gift" of life. Like, be real/legit, find the good in everything/everyone, and help people out or life people up. Woz seems like a pretty cool guy.

He does indeed seem like a laid back normal person. But I must admit that I find it pretty easy to have such sentiments if one has or had a net worth that's basically infinite money to 99% of people out there. Would this post have the same upvotes and discussion if it was from an unknown gas station attendant or school teacher?

It's good to take note of his positive attitude, but I do also think it's healthy to take anything multimillionaires say with a grain of salt.

Re: Steve Wozniak: When I die these are the moments I want to remember

#24

> I decided that that life, for me, was not about accomplishment. It was about happiness. He is in the unusual position to have achieved a great level of accomplishment.

If you suffer from the "arrival fallacy" (discussed in the article), then you will find out only after reaching the top that there's not much hapiness in there. Woz kinda saves you the trouble of many years working towards an illusory goal ("when I acommplish this, everything will be great").

Re: Steve Wozniak: When I die these are the moments I want to remember

#25
post #18

I resonate with this a lot. There is a time horizon beyond which the work we do doesn't really matter. No code I wrote five years ago is in production today. A vanishingly small number of products I built are still around. The act of building is a pleasure, but once it's built, its success and impact are pretty much out of my hands. Once I accepted that, I enjoyed the process a lot more, and ironically my output got…

> No code I wrote five years ago is in production today.

This is wild! How can you be so sure?

Re: Steve Wozniak: When I die these are the moments I want to remember

#26

> At the end of his life, Steve Wozniak won't measure his happiness by the size of Apple's market cap or his personal net worth. This is a very popular stance to take for every millionare out there. Also, the absence of daily worries, the lack of problems induced by money, and the presence of an everlasting feeling of security can lead to a detachment from the concept of wealth. What I mean is, if you don’t experienc…

It's a good point, Maslow's hierarchy of needs is an important concept to keep in mind. However, most software engineers live well enough that their basic needs are well covered by their above-average income.

Re: Steve Wozniak: When I die these are the moments I want to remember

#27
post #20

> At the end of his life, Steve Wozniak won't measure his happiness by the size of Apple's market cap or his personal net worth. This is a very popular stance to take for every millionare out there. Also, the absence of daily worries, the lack of problems induced by money, and the presence of an everlasting feeling of security can lead to a detachment from the concept of wealth. What I mean is, if you don’t experienc…

There used to be a happiness cap of 75k earnings that everyone considered, but there seems to be a happiness inflation with a cap today 500k [0]. But the correlation also seems to be that it depends on the mindset of the people. In the end it might be easier to change your mind than your salary. [0] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/money-happiness-study-daniel-ka...

The problem with any study like that is it's a) hard to actually measure happiness b) your wealth depends on everyone else's. If everyone else is making 10k/year, you're 75k feels comparatively like a lot more & goes a lot further because costs are scaled down similarly. More importantly, humans derive a lot of satisfaction generally from comparative analysis - if I'm doing better than my neighbor, I'm happy and if I think he's doing better I'm upset.

Re: Steve Wozniak: When I die these are the moments I want to remember

#28
He had a driven business partner who helped turn his passion for computers into a multi-billion corporation. He always struck me as immature. Not a great businessman, not a great engineer, more of a hobbyist who got lucky and quickly reached the limits of his knowledge and ability with the original Apple.

His myth has greatly outgrown his accomplishments and I have a feeling even he is not comfortable with it, he'd rather be showing off his Nixie watch to friends.

Re: Steve Wozniak: When I die these are the moments I want to remember

#29
post #12
post #2

Speech - https://vimeo.com/935633920#t=1h48m0s (~15 mins) Without 2 min intro - https://vimeo.com/935633920#t=1h50m0s

thanks but 'Video is not rated. Log in to watch.'

As a Hacker you need to learn to solve these problems yourself.

While in the EU/UK you need to learn to get around censorship, you have to work past your cyber-agoraphobia, leave your region. Use a VPN or Tor or Proxy

Or it tells you what to do, get a login.

yt-dlp or https://cobalt.tools might even work.

On Topic: Why they wanted to have accessibility for the blind is they were good people, also the famous blind phreakers at the time - https://www.eetimes.com/the-blind-hacker-who-inspired-apple/

It surprised me surveying 10,000's of students for accessibility how many used Apple over products you pay for. The failure is government, they should be creating these tools, not Apple, and the specialized private industry in this space is also incompetent.

Re: Steve Wozniak: When I die these are the moments I want to remember

#30

> At the end of his life, Steve Wozniak won't measure his happiness by the size of Apple's market cap or his personal net worth. This is a very popular stance to take for every millionare out there. Also, the absence of daily worries, the lack of problems induced by money, and the presence of an everlasting feeling of security can lead to a detachment from the concept of wealth. What I mean is, if you don’t experienc…

Relevant quote from the comic genius of Spike Milligan.

“Money can't buy you happiness but it does bring you a more pleasant form of misery.”

If you've never heard of him, it's well worth reading some of his books (see Memoirs), especially of his time serving during the Second World War.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spike_Milligan

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