Dear ChatGPT: please help me construct a HN posting that's purportedly about a rich guy at loose ends trying to figure out what to do since that's guaranteed to tickle most peoples' fancy, but ensure that the payload paints a favorable picture of the DOGE since that's actually the motivation for the posting.
I am rich and have no idea what to do
771–780 of 1001 posts
Re: I am rich and have no idea what to do
#772I retired four years ago just before hitting 50 years of age. There is no real purpose and never was. I got my degree, worked in a field I loved. I was good at it, learned and was successful. But there never was any real purpose except personal growth and being challenged in my field of expertise. I've seen CEOs come and go, engineers much smarter than me leave and poor replacements being hired. Nothing ever really c…
Sounds like you have had purpose for your entire adult life? What am I missing when you say "there is no real purpose"? Does the word "purpose" have some great significance that you feel a life lived well does not deliver?
Re: I am rich and have no idea what to do
#773To all those people speaking about this guy in the third person, I would just point out he is also the OP.
Hello Vinay.
I'm sorry you don't know what to do with your life, but I promise you it's nothing to do with being rich and successful. Lots of people who are not rich also reach a point in their life where they just don't know what to do next. I suspect a lot of the people we meet or read about who find their "life's purpose" have actually just latched onto one thing and decided it's super important or meaningful, deluding themselves into happiness. This is also why people find religion.
I don't have any great advice to dish out. I'm older than you but not by much. I'm not a rich founder of some company. I haven't travelled as much as you have. I would say, from reading your post, that it sounds like you're trapped in a few echo-chambers that influence your learning patterns.
If learning physics in Hawaii doesn't fill the void for you, maybe try some things that don't have an end goal of starting a company. Do some simpler, less extreme things. Read some fiction. Buy an old VW camper and drive it across Europe. Build a log cabin. Learn a new (spoken) language. Knit. Get out and meet some real people who do not know you are rich and don't expect great things from you.
> What is wrong with being insignificant?
We are all insignificant. Nothing we do matters. We're specks of dust that exist for a microsecond on a warm rock that will eventually be eaten by our star. And there is nothing wrong with that.
You don't need to find a purpose. Life doesn't have to "matter".
Re: I am rich and have no idea what to do
#774Therapy. Wealth and success is one of the most massive crutches there is. It can make it almost impossible to be truly in touch with your insecurities and pain because its simply too easy to hide in your victory. Your toughest challenge now is to, despite your wealth, find a way to contact the pain that drove you to your hunger for success. As the bible said, it's easier for a camel to get through the head of a needl…
"eye of the needle" refers to a small gate or passage in ancient city walls, used after the main gates were closed at night. A camel could only pass through this narrow opening if it was unloaded of its baggage and possibly crawled through on its knees. Not as hard or impossible as it first appears but still harder.
There is a hypothesis the Greek word means rope instead of camel, that the parable means we cant thread a rope through a needle.
Arabic word for camel and rope are same in a similar verse.
Re: I am rich and have no idea what to do
#775> NPC coworkers I suppose "the author can go fuck himself" is a frowned-upon response on Hacker News Like what an incredibly egocentric, condescending, deplorable way to talk about other human beings with their own rich inner lives, desires, needs, relationships, etc. "No, they're just pre-programmed, unthinking bots following basic algorithms."
It reminds me of the Sheeple comic from xkcd. It's common for people to fall into the mental pattern of thinking everyone else is a mindless drone.
Our brains are not evolved for the scale of human civilisation. The mind rebels trying to accept that 8 billion people have as much going on (or more) than you do.
"NPC coworkers" is a provocative way of phrasing it, but yesterday I saw another HN commenter say "We all know that society is propped up by people going to work and doing nothing much of value". This is mostly the same mindset.
Re: I am rich and have no idea what to do
#776This 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…
The post title should read, "I am poor and have no idea what to do". :D
Re: I am rich and have no idea what to do
#777I had the same thoughts, as some other people in the comments - there are so many problems to solve, so many people to help. It is hard to match the fulfillment that comes from helping someone less fortunate that you.
This essay has not-so-subtle shades of individualism and meritocracy which can warp ones views about self-worth. I do applaud his self-awareness regarding his own vanity.
As a side note, this is the first I am hearing of interviews for DOGE. Curious what that process looks like.
Re: I am rich and have no idea what to do
#778Been there, done that. General comments: - Most people who make a lot of money all at once blow it within seven years. Check out what happens to lottery winners, jocks, and rappers. As a rule of thumb, you can safely spend 4% of your net worth per year. Pay yourself some fixed amount each quarter. - You don't have to get into complex investments. Half in some bond funds, half in some diversified stock funds will work…
They say a sailboat is a hole in the water you throw money into, so having too much of it and not knowing what to do with it does indeed sound like a match made in heaven.
Re: I am rich and have no idea what to do
#779Perhaps I missed something, but from what I saw none of his attempts to do something new seemed to involve any kind of genuine efforts to improve the lives of others... Bit amazing that wasn't even something he would consider.
Not "amazing", this guy clearly doesn't see normal people as humans - he even called them NPCs and dumped his long term girlfriend to "fund himself."
Guy's a sociopath.
Re: I am rich and have no idea what to do
#780'I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream' (1967)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Have_No_Mouth,_and_I_Must_Sc...
https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/?get_group_doc=22694/15401...