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

I am rich and have no idea what to do

vinay.sh

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

691–700 of 1001 posts

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

#691

Post by marsten »

When I was at Google during the IPO I saw people with similar challenges. I can empathize with what he's going through, it can be hard to find a sense of purpose when "the need to provide" is suddenly gone and you realize that many of your life choices were made based on that goal.

I can also empathize with those who consider him a whiny brat. It's hard to get someone to care about your plight when in their eyes you've achieved success. It's just different levels on Maslow's hierarchy.

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

#692

Post by anon-3988 »

The happiness state is not an absolute value, it is the derivative. It explains why even people in the most shittiest situation can be "happy". Otherwise, once you have your 5 basic needs you would become perfectly content.

We are not evolved to become happy, we evolve to strive to become happy. But this is a trick, there is not destination to this journey.

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

#693

Post by chasing »

This does add some validity to my belief that DOGE is full of wealthy mid-brains trying to convince one another they’re smart boys.

If you had tens of millions of dollars and wanted to help the world, there are a million legitimate paths. They might not be glamorous. You might not get to hang out with Elon. But you would actually make a huge difference.

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

#695

Post by phtrivier »

How about "sharing your money back" ? Or "helping" other in any kind of way ? Focusing on something else than yourself ? You have immense freedom, but also incredible power given your wealth. Lots of things that would be hard choices for most people will be about pocket changes for you.

In the end, your life expectancy is finite. Add a couple of philosophy book to the physics regimen, find a cause where you money can be put to good use. And "live hapilly in the meantime".

Good luck !

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

#696

Post by cwalv »

pech0rin wrote: post #490

This is the most childish thing I’ve read. And shows a lot about he doesn’t have any people relying on him or community to support. He takes one hike and throws away 60m. Doesn’t try to find anything interesting to do at Atlassian just calls his coworkers NPCs. This is zero-empathy Peter Pan syndrome at its worse. Sad how he just goes adventure hopping to try and find meaning. The problem is no matter where you are y…

To me it reads like the author wants you to think this way. There's more than a little self loathing in there, starting with the title.

But IMO it's not surprising. When I left my first "real job" after ~4 years, it took months before I stopped dreaming about that job. I was amazed how wrapped-up I was in it.

What is surprising is that they put this out there so plainly. Unless they're just trolling .. but I'm going to go with "not trolling", because cynicism just leads to sorrow.

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

#698

Post by iosnoob »

kalkin wrote: post #595
iddan wrote: 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…

Right. There's no rule that if you get a hold of $XX million that you need to keep it. I'd argue, in fact, that there's a pretty good case you're obligated to give most of it away; you can keep single-digit millions and have total financial security for all practical purposes while sacrificing only a few luxuries that, as the author of this essay appears to have noticed, won't actually give your life meaning. Meanwhi…

Thank you for doing that. We're all better off with people who use their good fortune to help others in need.

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

#699

Post by dxuh »

I may sound very arrogant and I am, but I am shocked how clueless one can be about themselves and what they want, while still being clearly very competent and intelligent.

When you have no job and "infinite" money (for most purposes) and you don't even know what you like doing, you should really spend some time just thinking. It's telling how the next arbitrary opportunity presents itself and the author is immediately 100% on it, possibly changing their entire life immediately after it. As someone that likely thought too much and did too little (I don't have millions), I think this is a case of someone that does too much and thinks too little.

Sitting on a beach and studying physics is probably good start, but it might be better to study nothing and just think about what you like and why you do things. And when you figured it out, keep sitting there a while more (weeks, months, I don't know).

It's a bit disappointing that we live in a system that rewards behavior like this so much and unfortunate for everyone that they often end up with power.

Post reply on HN