Ask HN: If you had $10M in the bank, would you still show up to your job?

It took me awhile, but I arrived at "no".

What I enjoy: the programming, the messing with large systems and solving challenging problems.

What I don't enjoy: the politics, the meetings, the ineptitude of colleagues (nobody hired in the last 10 years seems qualified to do their job), the infrastructure rot and misconfigurations.

No. My labor is transactional. The rest of my time is leisure.

Same reason why I have no interest in working weekends. Is the CEO going to come by my house on Saturday and mow my lawn? Wait, HR said we were family...

I do, and I don’t. Not for lack of trying, but a (non-exec) job is usually full of people who are not in that situation and it creates all sorts of awkwardness I’d rather not deal with. For example, I was out at a team dinner one time and someone asked me where I lived and when I’d bought my place, and they replied with “so you’re rich then,” and I had nothing to say to that except feel awkward.

Also when shit hits the fan layoff-wise management tries to use fear as leverage, which just causes me to quit, leaving my teammates in the lurch. (I’m reminded that Warren Buffett said they don’t try to manage most of the business mangers under them, because many of them are independently wealthy and that would take away their desire to keep showing up. That’s probably why execs are insulated from these dramas too.)

Lastly, if you work with vapid people as I did, they will low-key judge you by your possessions while flaunting theirs, and that’s just nonsense I don’t need in my life.

That being said, I don’t mind working, just not “for money alone,” if that makes sense.

$10M in the bank is very different for a family of 4 staying in VHCOL (Bay Area/ Manhattan) vs single person staying in Bangkok. The answer to this question depends on a lot on that versus job satisfaction etc.

No. For me, work pays my bills and funds my (modest) lifestyle. With $10 million in the bank (or invested wisely), I won't need to work. I could continue to live my life the way I do and not have to worry about the ridiculousness of the corporate world.