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

Sergey Brin's Unretirement

inc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

381–390 of 499 posts

Re: Sergey Brin's Unretirement

#381

Post by WJW »

heyjamesknight wrote: post #346
unsupp0rted wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mental illness. They tied their entire sense of self to some job at some company. Their body belongs in some parking lot on somebody's schedule.

A mentally healthy person wants to be helpful. They want to be seen as helpful and they expect others around them to be helpful as well. This is the foundation of "pro-social" behavior: I benefit the group as much or more than the group benefits me. Tying your identity to the place where you're helpful and where that help is appreciated and acknowledged isn't mental illness.

But this person was laid off. His help was (apparently) not appreciated, and he's not helping anyone by sitting alone in his car on the parking lot.

Do you think it is healthy behavior to go to a parking lot at 0900 every day and do nothing because you mentally cannot face the idea of not going to an office?

Re: Sergey Brin's Unretirement

#382

Post by [deleted] »

pzo wrote: post #344

> Adherents of the popular financial independence, retire early (FIRE) movement scrimp and sacrifice to retire early. Only for many of them to discover their dream of post-work life does not match reality. I think the more important goal in FIRE is the 'FI' part - financial independence. Something that allows you to retire early - not necessary that you have to use this privilage. Something that allows you to next da…

[deleted]

Re: Sergey Brin's Unretirement

#383

Post by thefaux »

tezza wrote: post #375

this is truly bizarre. It’s as if they’ve never heard of Maslow‘s Hierarchy of Needs before and further did they don’t know Self Actualizing is right at the very top. Without that key stone on the top the human being is still a wanting animal. And if you somehow “mission complete” one Self Actualizing, then you immediately start to want something fresh “purpose” etc. And obviously Self Actualizing doesn’t have to com…

At the end of life, Maslow became convinced that self-transcendence was the pinnacle of the hierarchy. Strong identification with work will not get one to that final step. I am not sure if ai is a path to self transcendence or self annihilation, but it's interesting to ponder in the case of some like Brin.

Re: Sergey Brin's Unretirement

#384

Post by jayd16 »

VikingCoder wrote: post #373
pkos98 wrote: post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is just an extension of "Fuck you money"

I think you're very close to being right... But I think "Fuck you money" implies, "I honestly don't have to worry about money, ever again." Now, we all have different definitions for that, but the kind of thing I was talking about is definitely not "Fuck you money," to me. I think if I had "Fuck you money," my best friends and close family would all have their medical debts paid off. I think my parents and in-laws wo…

That is what they call "fuck me money". As in, fuck me I'll just pay it.

FUM is the freedom to walk away. FMM is the power make your own terms.

Re: Sergey Brin's Unretirement

#385

Post by bflesch »

paganel wrote: post #239

PR-piece for the Epstein thing, isn't it? Just in time. Brin also likes them young, the nounce that he is, and no legal entity in the US is going to do shit about it.

It is definitely a well-timed story. It's notable that even though they are billionaires they care what people think about them so much that they have to do this PR nonsense.

As no governmental authority is actively investigating the allegations, Sergey Brin might never have the opportunity to clear his name from the Epstein child abuse allegations in the court of public opinion. If there would be an investigation and/or court case, Sergey Brin's lawyers would at least be able to legally clear his name. As long as evidence is being withheld, any association between Microsoft and Google leadership and Jeffrey Epstein will bring up rumors about their involvement in the child abuse, even though they might have been "only" clients of the JP Morgan private banking services for high net worth individual which was managed by Jeffrey Epstein.

Re: Sergey Brin's Unretirement

#386

Post by cindyllm »

diamondfist25 wrote: post #365

I was semi in retirement. Actually just jobless, but I was doing side projects here and there Retirement gets boring fast —- and you lose connections to the rhythm of society fast. For the vast majority of humans, an idle mind is depressing and destructive

[dead]

Re: Sergey Brin's Unretirement

#387

Post by mpweiher »

taneq wrote: post #165
bryanrasmussen wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this seems an idealistic view, my cynical view is that if King Lear gives up all his legal paper power he will find out nobody cares who the hell he is and take advantage of him without remorse.

In my experience (at a much smaller scale than these guys, of course) the legal papers power is more of a formality. It’s the soft power tied up in knowledge, relationships, trust and goodwill that really count.

Right up until the point that the person with the legal power yanks the rug from under you.

Re: Sergey Brin's Unretirement

#388

Post by anthonypasq »

cornonthecobra wrote: post #254

I really don't buy his explanation. Here's one of the world's smartest guys, with more money than Smaug, and he really couldn't come up with anything better than going back to Google to work on Gemini? What's the point of all that money if you won't even hire someone to help you find hobbies. So many STEM universities have online courses. The art world froths itself mad over smart people with stupid money. Local proj…

he has a phd in CS, hes probably always been interested in AI, you dont think getting to play with AI with essentially infinite resources is more fun than collecting stamps or skiing or something?

Re: Sergey Brin's Unretirement

#389

Post by piva00 »

jandrewrogers wrote: post #377
piva00 wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The few cases I know of people who retired in their early 30s they really didn't want to even be "recreationally employed", they diverted their efforts to causes they believe are bigger than usual work. They help communities, they started projects in their free time that enhances others' lives in direct and meaningful ways which had nothing to do with their past day job. I believe I'd do the same, forget about coding…

This is entirely within the scope of "recreationally employed". There is no implication that what you spend your time on has anything to do with your former career. In most cases I know of recreational employment has little to do with their former employment. They often put in a lot of hours and it is still "work" in the ordinary sense but it is entirely self-directed.

I believe it's a misuse of "employment" then, I do not understand employment as something you do without payment, to me it is necessarily related to paid labour.

Re: Sergey Brin's Unretirement

#390

Post by thefaux »

LatencyKills wrote: post #311
mettamage wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a person that wants to learn anything and everything. So guess what I'd do if I'd retire? Work feels pretty stifling to me.

> I'm a person that wants to learn anything and everything. That is exactly what I do now. Every question I've ever had I now have the time to devote to answering it. I take classes, I volunteer, I mentor Comp. Sci. students. But, more than anything, I still write code. I spent the last few months creating an LLM from scratch which was incredibly fun. That said, I have a friend who will probably work until he dies. H…

I do see this as a bad thing and an abdication of taking responsibility for one's own life. As was recently put to me after the sudden death of a friend's father (who lived an unusually rich life): everyone dies, but not everyone truly lives.
Post reply on HN