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I am rich and have no idea what to do

vinay.sh

401–410 of 1001 posts

Re: I am rich and have no idea what to do

#401
post #106

I don't think you have to have Fuck You Money to get to this point. Most people eventually become disillusioned with work enough that they reevaluate what matters to them. Getting a very profitable exit is just one way to trigger that experience. In my experience, a lot of people who get into this state start self-sabotaging hard as a way of rejecting what feels, ironically, like losing control. Sudden freedom can fe…

As someone who has not been successful in life but who is relatively intelligent do you have any recommendations as to how I can get my life on track? I am asking because you said you like developing people. My persistent experience in life for almost 20 years post college has been nobody wants to develop me. I am not in tech but I am generally interested in the area if it can lead me to greater independence and more…

If you figure it out, pass it on to others. I haven’t been allowed to hire Americans in quite some time, and Covid destroyed any company support of an apprenticeship type setup.

The last time I was able to hire an American with a will to learn and an adjacent degree was over a decade ago.

Re: I am rich and have no idea what to do

#402
post #237

Probably not gonna get upvoted but I’m pretty surprised none of the the top comments mentions volunteering or philanthropy. I believe people who get lucky should land a hand in making the world a better place. We are facing huge crises (climate change to name one) and as a wealthy individual you have both the time to spend helping to fix that and the fortune to donate. Being a smart wealthy individual just makes ever…

I'm amazed he didn't even seem to entertain it as an option. It's quite unusual because even a total narcissist would eventually land on philanthropy as an ego-trip

Greed

Re: I am rich and have no idea what to do

#403
having a lot of money is crazy because there is literally nothing to do. there is no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. if you sit around all day then people who work at local restaurants will start to know you and people here and there will start to recognize you from wandering around between your haunts every day. its such a weird feeling when you realize that the world isnt as big as you thought it was. before having total freedom, you image that even a single metro like sf bay area is enough to swallow you up. its not. the reason it feels so big is because your are busy all the time. and the same goes for the entire world. theres nothing to do here unless you are busy with something. traveling and gawking at stuff is not going to get you very far. that is the terrible and insane reality of life. that life is an illusion. this is part of the reason why so many people buckle under the apparently feather-weight pressure of having lots of money. the other reason is that your sense of identity and self-worth becomes tied to your money. you find yourself completely unable to ask for a lower price, balk at a price or decide to not buy something if there are other people around. because after all you have the money. except nobody has enough money to behave like that. 60M would evaporate very quickly under someone who did not recognize and correct this effect. this is why so many rich people are so comically cheap. they have to be because you lose the ability to think rationally, to thread the needle. you have to just shamelessly be cheap.

elon musk said "vacation kills." hes one hundred percent correct. when you feel totally free you stop thinking in terms of how to protect yourself and begin to explore all possibilities in an unconstrained way. i dont have to be at work on monday so why not climb a mountain? why not go on safari? why not try this designer drug? logic could save you but without the impulse to protect your fragile life, not everyone is logical enough to sail those waters. i almost killed myself twice before i learned it.

the strange and absolutely unambiguous truth about life is that there is no such thing as not working. you must always be working. it doesnt matter how much money you have. the only way to live a good and satisfying life is to work and have enough at stake that you are afraid of failing. it is better to risk losing your money or even your life rather than stop working.

Re: I am rich and have no idea what to do

#404
post #351

I studied philosophy in college and grad school, mainly because I was raised extremely religious and couldn't figure out what was real and what was bullshit. Every time I read something like this I think to myself 'just please go get a degree in academic philosophy.' It teaches you how to think. The type of folks who were incredulous about the idea that someone would study something so useless and naval-gazing, I see…

I have a similar background. I think the fact that philosophy is not required learning in all schools is part of the reason the US, at least, is currently in such a pitiful state. The OP is a perfect example of the kind of mindless, soulless drone servicing the machine you become without philosophical tutelage. I would feel sorry for these people if they weren't in a position to cause so much damage. We don't need fools like this to have so many resources at their disposal.

Re: I am rich and have no idea what to do

#405

Sorry but I’m not going to upvote this, instead I’m going to act like the rest of the normal people and say WTF? You have so many millions and don’t know what to do? You’ve attained financial and work freedom and yet you complain? What is wrong with you rich people? If I had 400k I would live a trouble free and happy life and we have rich people coming here on HN to rub in our faces their zeroth world problems… I don…

Haven’t you seen the price of homes in Los Altos or Stanford with acreage? It’s like $20-30m, have some sympathy for your common man.

Re: I am rich and have no idea what to do

#407
One option not mentioned is to find fulfillment in helping others -- not "helping people making $200K be even more efficient" or "fixing the US government by making it more efficient (mostly by firing a bunch of people, which helps who exactly?)" but people who __actually__ need help -- and there is a very very wide spectrum to work with there of all types of needs. The freedom to deeply engage with that from some angle -- without having the burden of having to also make or earn money while doing so -- is a huge privilege.

Re: I am rich and have no idea what to do

#408
I don't know anything about his situation, but I will say one of the lamest things ever when breaking up is to say it's not you, it's me heh. I mean that's probably something everyone hears face to face and I get it, nobody wants to hurt someones feelings to give their "real" reason when what's done is done, but to see it articulated on a blog post as some kind transparent confession is a little surprising.

Like unless maybe you were going thru some massive event that was very clearly damaging to your relationship (drugs, abuse, etc), the optics of finding yourself to end a seemingly great relationship after selling a company for mega millions isn't going to jive with a lot of people. But the again I guess that's the point of the post, there is no point or purpose. Alright, taking off my judgement hat now.

Re: I am rich and have no idea what to do

#410

The author co-founded Loom [0], which was acquired by Atlassian a year ago ~$1B. If the insights are correct, each cofounder netted ~$56M [1] [0] https://vinay.sh [1] https://www.cbinsights.com/research/loom-valuation-investor-...

Serious question, but how exactly does Atlassian hope to recoup that billion dollars? Loom is useful, but given that Atlassian's investors are expecting a large return, do they really hope a screen recorder to eventually add 2B+ dollars to their value? The AI features will eventually be commoditized, so that can't act as a moat.

It will integrate with their other products and add value through lock in. Same as all of their other acquisitions. Atlassian is all about building an ecosystem so valuable you don't even want to escape.
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