Ask HN: Did you get "never have to work again rich" through software?

Maybe you are interested in some contrast from academia?

I managed to become the academic equivalent of "never have to work again rich", namely, I got a tenured-for-life can't-fire-me professorship at a major university. This is the equivalent of winning the lottery for academics: we get to work on what we want and we get paid for it!

I literally do not have to go to work if I do not want to. I only have to teach a couple of hours a week, and I can get a graduate student to do that for me if it annoyed me (which it doesn't; I derive a great sense of satisfaction and fulfilment from teaching).

> How did you do it?

Working hard, naturally, but not sooo hard. Say 40 hours a week. But probably I am thinking about science all the time, so it's kind of hard to evaluate. But I also did it through politics: knowing the right people, talking to the right people, learning the system, identifying trends, jumping on the right scientific bandwagons, publishing incremental results in trendy journals, and winning large public grants (so far over US$2 million).

> What did it feel like when you first realised it was going > to be true that you would never have to work again if you > didn't want to?

I reinterpret this as "What did it feel like when you first realised that the need to ever look for a job again was gone?"

The answer is it took me a long time to realise: being a professor is much like being a postdoc, with some extra admin thrown in. So it took me a long time to really accept the amazing luck I have. I'm still coming to terms with it (5 years later). It gets better every day.

> How old were you?

Tenured at 28, full professor at 31.

> Do you feel happy in your life?

Now yes. But not because of the job. Another commenter (diego) noted that "We all age, get sick, have family / relationship problems, need to stay motivated." I completely agree.

Happiness has come to me not because of the job, but because I finally understood the value of family and relationships -- personally I derive much more happiness from my children, my wife, and the people around me than I do from science (although I do dearly love science).

For various reasons I know lots of very wealthy people who need never work again. They are, without exception, all miserable fucked up debased individuals who are so idle and unfulfilled they end up spreading their emotional contagion to all who are unfortunate to be in their way.

He'll date 28 year old... but never older. Of course not. He knows all the bouncers of the hottest clubs. It's how he impressed his 20 year old girlfriend! But he has more girls 'on the side'.

Gee I wonder why he never has good conversations with any women given the types that must gravitate towards him.

I believe, if we want to reach peace, we must drop this word "brogrammer" and the idea of tagging people with a bad attitude, altogether.

I'm not jealous. I'm a multimillionaire and have no real need for additional money. Nothing crazy but more than enough to not need to do anything for money. I could do what you do, if I wanted, although it holds no interest to me.

But I build companies and in doing so I hire a wide variety of people, including women who are every bit as intellectually capable as men. Why are you not meeting them in your personal life? I don't know. Maybe because you care more about how they look and not how they think. The smart ones are written off as "warpigs".

Maybe in 10-20 years you'll find that you were never able to find an actual connection with a woman and begin wondering why, instead of purely blaming it on them. Or you'll tire of the debauchery. Or maybe you'll just be happy with debauchery and inability to connect with nearly everyone you know (except one guy) for the rest of your life, and be happy with the "nod" from the bouncer and swarms of penniless locals infatuated with your status.