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I am rich and have no idea what to do

vinay.sh

241–250 of 1001 posts

Re: I am rich and have no idea what to do

#241

> I should work for Elon and Vivek at DOGE and help America get off its current crash to defaulting on its own debt I’ve got an idea: take some good economics courses so that you learn how government spending actually works.

You don't have to have a PhD in macroeconomics to have useful policy insights.

For example, I wish someone could convince my city to stop planting a specific high maintenance tree on my street that constantly clog sewers and crushes cars.

Policy is far from perfect and there is plenty of room for improvement.

Re: I am rich and have no idea what to do

#242
post #118
post #106

I don't think you have to have Fuck You Money to get to this point. Most people eventually become disillusioned with work enough that they reevaluate what matters to them. Getting a very profitable exit is just one way to trigger that experience. In my experience, a lot of people who get into this state start self-sabotaging hard as a way of rejecting what feels, ironically, like losing control. Sudden freedom can fe…

In a way having money makes it harder because it makes it harder to blame your unhappiness on your circumstances.

Yeah. When you have to work in order to live, it is easy to make the mistake of thinking that you would be happy if only you had money to quit your job and time do the things you want to do.

Once you get there, you have to face reality: while being poor leads to unhappiness, being financially independent does not lead to happiness either. Don't believe me? Look at billionaires out there; do all of them look like happy and well-adjusted people to you? Not naming names.

And that's why wealthy celebrities repeat again and again that "Money doesn't buy happiness". It's because they know from experience that it really doesn't help all that much.

Re: I am rich and have no idea what to do

#243
If you want to see the picture of success in spending one's money, find the pictures of Lebron James surprising the kids in the school he built in his home town of Akron, Ohio. His smile is the verifiable truth of "you reap what you sow".

Find other people to make happy, by first reducing their misery, and you ensure your own luck and happiness. It's the most important magic there is, along with repeating a Holy Name of God, like Nyame in Ghanaian (I learned that today on a walk).

Lebron reaps the joy of those hundreds of kids that he makes happy every single day. It comes back into our inner peace and happiness. And power.

Succeed for others and your success will only grow. Because compassion. Always compassion.

Re: I am rich and have no idea what to do

#244
post #106

I don't think you have to have Fuck You Money to get to this point. Most people eventually become disillusioned with work enough that they reevaluate what matters to them. Getting a very profitable exit is just one way to trigger that experience. In my experience, a lot of people who get into this state start self-sabotaging hard as a way of rejecting what feels, ironically, like losing control. Sudden freedom can fe…

> No path out of this valley involves traveling alone.

Unless you have a schizoid personality.

Re: I am rich and have no idea what to do

#248
post #143
post #73

I don’t think his problem is money. I think his problem is his identity (founder of Loom) suddenly disappeared. Now he needs to develop a new identity. This is especially difficult for single founders without kids (in the sense that people with spouse/kids already derive much of their identity from those 2 things). Selling a company isn’t all that different from going through a divorce (in the sense that your identit…

William Storr writes about this. His stance is humans are hard wired for status within their social group. The problem is when all your status eggs in one basket and it disappears, it’s not good for your mental health. He advocates for having your identity spread across many different pursuits and disparate social groups, although he admits he’s not very good at doing that himself.

Hard to take such general advice seriously from someone who apparently doesn’t practice it. In fact, it seems mistaken to do so.

Re: I am rich and have no idea what to do

#250
post #106

I don't think you have to have Fuck You Money to get to this point. Most people eventually become disillusioned with work enough that they reevaluate what matters to them. Getting a very profitable exit is just one way to trigger that experience. In my experience, a lot of people who get into this state start self-sabotaging hard as a way of rejecting what feels, ironically, like losing control. Sudden freedom can fe…

I don't think you have to have Fuck You Money to get to this point. Most people eventually become disillusioned with work enough that they reevaluate what matters to them. Getting a very profitable exit is just one way to trigger that experience.

I’ve seen a lot of people have random outlier success they didn’t earn and it seems to have the same effect as what most people get out of their careers: crushing failure they didn’t earn. By 50 or so, everyone figures out:

* it was almost all random. * the things that seemed so important were not. * working for money is a waste of time for almost everyone. * you can count your real friends on two hands, whether you’re broke or a billionaire.

It’s surprising how the paths converge. There are differences, and the rich version of alienation is better than the poor one, but the mindset this society leaves people with is remarkably stable. No one feels like they won, which is why Musk and Trump are so full of rage at everyone. Either the gods shut you out or you are forced to find out that the gods never existed.

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