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

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

#21

Post by nicoburns »

the-dude wrote: post #17
nicoburns wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So 99.99% of the world can't be happy? Don't you think it's quite selfish of you to prioritise achieving this for yourself over allowing a greater number of people to have a more reasonable level of wealth?

> though I know opinions vary here Why are you reacting so heavily on a quite balanced comment?

Do you really think "my only interest is money" is a balanced comment? I don't see how this even makes sense. If you didn't have other things that you wanted to spend the money on then it wouldn't be much use.

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

#22

Post by crotho »

pyrrhotech wrote: post #10
nicoburns wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So 99.99% of the world can't be happy? Don't you think it's quite selfish of you to prioritise achieving this for yourself over allowing a greater number of people to have a more reasonable level of wealth?

I shouldn't speak for everyone. For me personally, I was happyish during my career but I'm definitely much, much happier now that I'm wealthy and retired. And it's not a short term buzz, I've been retired for 2 years and the feeling hasn't worn off. I know it sucks we don't have unlimited resources for everyone in society to be free and 100% happy. Maybe someday we will with full automation. In the meantime, most peo…

> most people tend to agree with me that at least to a degree more money = more happiness, it's the reason that capitalism works

What do you think capitalism is exactly? What's your definition that fits the context of that statement?

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

#23

Post by pyrrhotech »

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

salaries in the Bay Area are very high, and if you avoid the common pitfalls, you can save a lot. Personally I made about $200-220k average during my 10-year career and lived on 30-40k while saving the rest and investing mostly in equities (of course taxes take a big chunk). Now I spend $50k-ish but I pay for everything for me and my fiance. I plan on spending $75kish once we have a family of four eventually which is the maximum level I'd feel comfortable spending with my current wealth. It wouldn't cover all our wants but definitely most of them and all our needs, hence there is still some additional utility from growing wealth but not enough to justify the stress and anxiety of a career IMO

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

#24

Post by boltzmann_ »

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

> germany

That's why, just check how tech is pay in USA http://levels.fyi

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

#25

Post by minikites »

louwrentius wrote: post #5
f_allwein wrote: post #3

If you feel like that yourself, maybe check out "Find your Why" [1] by Simon Sinek of TED fame [2]. I find it useful. [1] https://simonsinek.com/find-your-why/ [2] https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_insp...

I think Simon Sinek is mostly selling himself. I'm not aware of any scientific research supporting his views.

Is science always necessary during the search for meaning?

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

#26

Post by _dh54 »

This is the logical conclusion of a worldview founded in materialism, the dominant philosophy now underlying all human civilization. The reason this article is so provocative is that we’re all in various stages towards this outcome. This is why we model and conceive of our politics in terms of economic systems like capitalism or communism, and not in other potentially more useful terms.

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

#27

Post by pyrrhotech »

torben-friis wrote: post #20
pyrrhotech wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I shouldn't speak for everyone. For me personally, I was happyish during my career but I'm definitely much, much happier now that I'm wealthy and retired. And it's not a short term buzz, I've been retired for 2 years and the feeling hasn't worn off. I know it sucks we don't have unlimited resources for everyone in society to be free and 100% happy. Maybe someday we will with full automation. In the meantime, most peo…

I’m curious, in which ways do you feel that money made you happier? As in, what were the important things it has enabled for you that weren't available under, say, an average engineer's salary?

Not the material aspect of what it can buy - but the freedom to not have to work is where the big boost of happiness came from for me, though I cannot guarantee it would for you if you truly love your career. For me, programming was always just a tool, a job, a means to an end. Sure it's kind of interesting, but there's far more interesting ways to spend my time.

Also, I hate bosses, performance reviews, bullshit non-producing jobs who make up the majority of your tech peers, commutes, forced social small talk with people you don't like, etc. So even if I 100% loved what I did everyday, I wouldn't like all that BS that comes with it.

Now, being able to spend my time as I please with full autonomy - that is where the incredible boost in my happiness has come from

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

#28

Post by pietrovismara »

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

You just can't. And that's how it's supposed to work. Only a very small minority of the population can reach that kind of worth. It's the foundation of this system, no matter if the baselines grows, there will always be rich and poor.

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

#29

Post by dx87 »

nicoburns wrote: post #21
the-dude wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> though I know opinions vary here Why are you reacting so heavily on a quite balanced comment?

Do you really think "my only interest is money" is a balanced comment? I don't see how this even makes sense. If you didn't have other things that you wanted to spend the money on then it wouldn't be much use.

They said that they aren't only focused on money now, and that they care more about doing things they enjoy, pretty much the opposite of "my only interest is money". You should read the comment again, since it looks like you rushed to call them selfish without even understanding what they said.
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