Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I Feel Like I Have No Real Interests; My Only Interest Is Making Money

bennettnotes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 214 posts

Re: I Feel Like I Have No Real Interests; My Only Interest Is Making Money

#171

Post by Viliam1234 »

mewpmewp2 wrote: post #150
floor2 wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you had millions of dollars, you'd still need to brush your teeth. And sleep and eat and shower and use the toilet. Would those things mean you're not truly free? You'll always be 'forced to work' even if that work is just keeping your body alive and well. Perhaps it would be worth trying to find happiness now, rather than hoping it's hidden behind the next achievement.

There's a big difference for me between 8 hours of mandatory work vs 1 hour of self care/other misc activities. I would still consider myself free in this case. I just don't see how I can find happiness when I have to give away 8 hours of my prime mental resources 5 days out of 7 while having stress of needing to meet expectations and impressing others. I just don't see how. I just need to be able to do things when I…

And even during that 1 hour you are allowed to make your own decisions about... the color of your toothbrush, just to give a stupid example. At work, you can usually only dream about this degree of freedom.

Re: I Feel Like I Have No Real Interests; My Only Interest Is Making Money

#172

Post by fallingfrog »

I don’t really care about money at all above and beyond what I need to live. But, I do have hobbies and side projects and it does matter to me that my output is useful to someone. If I make a unity asset, or an effects pedal, I want someone to use and enjoy it, otherwise it feels like wasted time. Maybe the author is using money as a proxy for usefulness? I think that above a certain point material goods stop being that interesting to most people. You can explore the world on a motorcycle on a budget of 1000 dollars and have just as much fun as doing it in a private jet. Probably more. But to do interesting things and feel like ones work is appreciated is a fundamental human urge.

Re: I Feel Like I Have No Real Interests; My Only Interest Is Making Money

#173

Post by zd123 »

sershe wrote: post #169
recursivedoubts wrote: post #12

All the money in the world ain't gonna by you meaning. But pursuing it might distract you from that fact. For a while.

Every time I see a platitude like this it reminds me of those self-compensating put-downs people use like "well she's so pretty, she must be dumb" etc. that have no reason to be true. I feel like meaning is vastly oversold. People didn't have any meaning beyond "survive and make children" for millennia and they did fine. The whole search for meaning I feel has sprung up only among the people who have too much free ti…

I would respectfully disagree. When you say people survived and just had children, what then would explain the popularity of religions throughout human history (ignoring whether they are true or not)?

It appears to me people have repeatedly searched for a higher purpose that goes beyond their material situation. Hell its even true with those disconnected native tribes in south America drinking ayahuasca and achieving a higher spiritual purpose. It seems to be built into us to want to transcend our material desires once a certain level of sustenance is reached.

Personally, having been a money driven individual earlier in my life (with a high paying job in finance), I quickly realized beyond sustenance for basic needs, money meant little. The reason for this “enlightenment” for me was a serious health problem that made me reevaluate my finite life.

So I would wholeheartedly agree with the original post that money cannot buy your life meaning.

Re: I Feel Like I Have No Real Interests; My Only Interest Is Making Money

#174

Post by throwaway_goog »

cweagans wrote: post #161
piva00 wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think while you don't have "FU money" it's important for money to be the main focus of your life. You don't have freedom if you don't have a lot of money and you can't be 100% happy without freedom, at least in my experience, though I know opinions vary here. The thing is that not everyone can or will achieve that. If we know that, what's the main drive for others to do that? We don't live in a system where this…

I think that the amount of money is more of a secondary point here. You're shackled to somebody else's schedule, whims, priorities, etc. until you have the money to not do that anymore. That doesn't necessarily mean 2.5m liquid though. How much would you need to work if you bought a small-ish house, lived on a very strict budget, and generally kept expenditure to a minimum? There are places in the US where you can bu…

So I "retired" at 33 in the sense of having investment income > monthly expenses. Didn't own a house, but could've bought the Mississippi one you link to for cash easily.

What'd I actually do? Found a series of startups, none of which went anywhere. Fiddle around with technology, and learn some new technologies. Fret about how I wasn't being productive enough. I didn't read all that much - I read much more when I was in college. I got out of shape.

I have a friend who retired at a similar age who said "One of the worst parts about having money is realizing that most of your problems were not because of money in the first place, and then having to face them." Retirement removes a lot of constraints, but that also means that if you're still unhappy with your life, it's because of you and not your boss or employer.

Re: I Feel Like I Have No Real Interests; My Only Interest Is Making Money

#175

Post by trianglem »

artemonster wrote: post #14
pyrrhotech wrote: post #6

I felt like that until I got to around $2.5 million liquid net worth. Now I still like money, but each additional dollar is starting to show diminishing marginal utility. Though of course I'm still trying to grow my net worth, it's no longer the main focus of my life, especially now that I'm "retired" from my main career at least. I split my time between gaming, running, reading, socializing and working on my trading…

how is it possible to save 2.5 mil from salary? I am from upper 5% in germany in terms of salary, and I can only manage to save ~10kEur/year, while maintaining decent lifestyle. An order of magnitude lower than you'd need to retire with such a sum after 20 years or so. How do you do that? Genuine question

I make around 200K a year and live in a relatively rural part of the country and own my home so I don’t have a mortgage. I save between 60-100K per year. I don’t have kids yet though so that might change once that happens.

Re: I Feel Like I Have No Real Interests; My Only Interest Is Making Money

#176

Post by nostrademons »

mewpmewp2 wrote: post #133
piva00 wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think while you don't have "FU money" it's important for money to be the main focus of your life. You don't have freedom if you don't have a lot of money and you can't be 100% happy without freedom, at least in my experience, though I know opinions vary here. The thing is that not everyone can or will achieve that. If we know that, what's the main drive for others to do that? We don't live in a system where this…

That would be an extremely sad thing for me at least. Knowing that I would have no way to become truly free. Free as in I don't owe anyone my time. Maybe others can accept it or are forced to accept it. I just can't. But people of course are different. Currently I just can't wait to reach that state. Sometimes I'm counting days even. I could never be happy/relaxed as long as I am forced to work, or forced to work und…

You already don't owe anyone your time. You contract with an organization to trade your time for money, which you can then trade for other stuff. Most such employment contracts can be ended easily by either party if they don't like it.

I've spent a significant amount of my career working on problems of my own choice, both in someone else's employment, with a co-founder, or on my own. The limiting factor turned out not to be time or money: it was that the set of problems that are worth solving in today's economy and can be solved by one person (or even a small team) is vanishingly small, and I just had a bigger impact when working with larger organizations.

Re: I Feel Like I Have No Real Interests; My Only Interest Is Making Money

#178

Post by mellosouls »

tiborsaas wrote: post #158
mellosouls wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They should probably phrase it better then - as it stands it's terrible advice.

It's not a terrible advice. I'm still trying to but my first apartment at 38. It's essential to have a some financial ability (or willingness to plan ahead at least) to succeed in life.

"some financial ability" is not remotely the same as money being your main focus in life.

Re: I Feel Like I Have No Real Interests; My Only Interest Is Making Money

#180

Post by BMSmnqXAE4yfe1 »

piva00 wrote: post #159
mewpmewp2 wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess maybe I find the situation more unbearable than others, I couldn't live with myself if I used up my escape plan resources.

Very likely, from my perspective I can't live my life saving all my monetary resources to only enjoy my life when I'm on my 50s or 60s. I'm not born in wealth or in a wealthy country, I had to work a lot to get out of the initial hand life dealt me, including getting out of my home country. I won't sacrifice another 10-15 years of my life while I'm young to have a possibility to have all the time in the world when I'…

True. I'm old and I just have no desires anymore to spend money on. Low appetite, low libido and low energy, tired of traveling ... wish I had 1/100 of that money when I was young.
Post reply on HN