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Ask HN: What would you spend your time working on if you didn't need money?

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Re: Ask HN: What would you spend your time working on if you didn't need money?

#201

Post by thelastgallon »

gooob wrote: post #200
thelastgallon wrote: post #142

I'll work on these: (1) Convince car manufacturers to add a battery port in the trunk. They can make smaller cars with 100 mile range which covers >98%[2] of the trips and anyone who needs more can rent extra batteries from their nearest retailers. Fast chargers don't work, queueing theory explains why: What happens when you add a new teller? [0]. Fast chargers won't work because we have to solve for the peak case, w…

i'm young, and want to help work on these, how can i get started? (i'm currently 28 and have been working as a software engineer for 4 years)

Thank you! Would love any help! Email on my profile. I am currently working with a few high/middle school kids, so they can start working on building codes.

Re: Ask HN: What would you spend your time working on if you didn't need money?

#202

Post by gooob »

thiago_fm wrote: post #7

I'd focus on becoming more spiritual, spending more time in nature, reducing my waste footprint and disconnecting from the world. I don't believe that "making society more rational, healthy, and well-coordinated" is a contribution; this sounds like those who have private jets and go to global conventions to about saving the environment. It sounds to me like you are a narcissist as well, to think that you are more rat…

i didn't mean to say that making society more rational healthy and coordinated is the only way to contribute. you could certainly go to a monastery and meditate. also i meant that money would not even be something to think about, not that you are very rich. and i know what you're talking about with the rationalist thing, where a lot of "rational people" are really just overly-intellectual and selfish and don't really do anything; that's not what i mean by rational. i'm talking about evolutionary adaptation, surviving collectively, doing actual science, changing our mindset to care for everyone and make money obsolete because we have the technology and skills to do so.

>It sounds to me like you are a narcissist as well, to think that you are more rational than others or know better just because you have money.

we're just sharing ideas, not implying that we know better than anyone. anyone can share their ideas in this thought experiment. i think you imposed an incorrect assumption of what i was trying to say upon my words.

Re: Ask HN: What would you spend your time working on if you didn't need money?

#205

Post by nasmorn »

nanomonkey wrote: post #66
misiti3780 wrote: post #44

I'd open a bakery and make fresh sourdough bread, pizzas, focaccia and pasta every single day, and give it away for cost.

Would you still start at 4am in the morning? I was contemplating "retiring" to work at a local cooperative bakery that makes similar things, but their shifts were at horrible times that felt like it would ruin my health.

Which is stupid since if you give away the bread for free or cost people can just wait till lunch I guess

Re: Ask HN: What would you spend your time working on if you didn't need money?

#206

Post by aaronrobinson »

2cynykyl wrote: post #153

I am quite surprized how few people are proposing to make art or music. Is this why artists/musicians can't make money, because so few people enjoy it? I always thought it was the digitization and easy access that allowed us to enjoy these things from our homes (instead of going out to clubs), but maybe not. Anyway, for the record, I would be recording my lifetime backlog songs I've written. And probably re-recording…

I haven’t tried art yet so I might like it but I have a few musical instruments to learn on my list but they’re nowhere near the top.

Re: Ask HN: What would you spend your time working on if you didn't need money?

#207

Post by dmayilyan »

cko wrote: post #118
dmayilyan wrote: post #117

1. Science 2. Philosophy 3. Art I am currently factually volunteering to a project in CERN that needs full-time attention, but unfortunately I need to feed myself and my family so I work at daytime as a full-time Software(Data) Engineer. I spent whatever time I find (mostly nights) doing science. I do hope I will manage to deliver new NN method I experiment now. This has a lifelong meaning for me.

How do you "work on" philosophy? Asking because my web developer wife, who happened to have majored in art and philosophy, is currently unemployed and kinda bummed about it.

Reading a lot and from certain point on writing if I get something new to say.

Re: Ask HN: What would you spend your time working on if you didn't need money?

#208

Post by aaronrobinson »

ffhhj wrote: post #157
2cynykyl wrote: post #153

I am quite surprized how few people are proposing to make art or music. Is this why artists/musicians can't make money, because so few people enjoy it? I always thought it was the digitization and easy access that allowed us to enjoy these things from our homes (instead of going out to clubs), but maybe not. Anyway, for the record, I would be recording my lifetime backlog songs I've written. And probably re-recording…

Because doing it is hard to master, harder to execute, and way harder to be economically succesful at it.

So are a lot of things hard to master but execution is easy for most musical instruments. Just go and hire or buy one. I think this post is the opposite of being economically successful at things

Re: Ask HN: What would you spend your time working on if you didn't need money?

#210

Post by hiAndrewQuinn »

Honestly? I'd just keep working on whatever I already thought was profitable. I'd probably take higher-risk, higher-reward swings with that work, but I like working.

I have a pretty steadfast confidence by this point in my life that free markets usually converge over the long term to the best outcomes for all. So I have no real plans to stop reaping the fruits of my own increasingly-specialized labor, until medical reasons or something force me out of it.

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