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I am rich and have no idea what to do
781–790 of 1001 posts
Re: I am rich and have no idea what to do
#782> Within 2 minutes of talking to the final interviewer for DOGE, he asked me if I wanted to join. I said “yes”. Then he said “cool” and I was in multiple Signal groups. [...] So I reached out to some people and got in. After 8 calls with people who all talked fast and sounded very autistic smart, I was added to a number of Signal groups and immediately put to work. [...] The next 4 weeks of my life consisted of 100s of calls recruiting the smartest people I’ve ever talked to, working on various projects I’m definitely not able to talk about, and learning how completely dysfunctional the government was. It was a blast.
While I can attest that current day governments in general - some more, some less and I assume past governments as well - can be quite inefficient. I sometimes fantasize about making parts of it more lean and efficient because how hard could it be, right? And with the "right" kind of result evaluation it will not be that hard to score better than it does right now. But having silicon valley techbros apply their move fast and break stuff attitude to things that aren't tech startups has repeatedly resulted in awful results [1]. So I must say reading this passage is quite revealing in ways I think the author did not intend it to be.
Re: I am rich and have no idea what to do
#783This reads like a bit from Silicon Valley the TV series... is this parody?
This past decade I repeatedly found reality to be its own parody. Even the South Park authors admitted to it in 2017 (!).
> The Donald Trump administration is too difficult to satirise because it is funny enough on its own, say Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park.
> While the most recent series of their animated sitcom featured a character that clearly resembles Mr Trump, the pair made the decision to "back off" making fun of the latest US political events.
> "It's tricky now because satire has become reality," Parker told 7.30.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-02/donald-trump-too-hard...
Now this DOGE (hue hue) crap is yet again on a whole other level, but you get unnervingly used to madness. Only bona fide dadaism could still top it.
So yes, this is probably real.
Re: I am rich and have no idea what to do
#784Why not map out suffering and ways people optimally can learn to solve it, using our collective intelligence? I mean, if you're looking for ideas. Hopefully someone gets around to that one.
Yeah altruism, but more...effective. Wonder if anyone has looked into that idea and if so how it worked out.
Do you mean has anyone looked into making suffering models like people do weather models for regional / global maps to predict likely suffering and remediation? Or are you just pointing to touchy EA issues?
Re: I am rich and have no idea what to do
#785He should put his money where his mouth is. Give it all away. That'll really change the world for the better and then he'll get to prove his entrepreneurial greatness by doing it all again without that gnawing sense of security.
Re: I am rich and have no idea what to do
#786This post is ultimately a scathing indictment of capitalism.
Money represents power. Our society let you have much more power than most individuals will ever have.
But you don't know what to do with it? Why should you have it then?
Capitalism at its best would allocate power to those who know how to use it effectively.
Look around you. Isn't there anything in the world - commercially, socially, culturally - you think should be better? And aren't any of those things in a domain in which you can be effective?
The legitimate capitalist would know the answer to those questions.
Re: I am rich and have no idea what to do
#787I 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…
I did the same as OP. Quit my job then started distancing from everyone and removing responsibility in the pursuit of freedom to do what I want. But all I did was wallow and stay alone. Not sure what the answer is but your insights were very powerful to read.
But why did you need to distance yourself from others? Or was that just a consequence from your other lifestyle choices?
Re: I am rich and have no idea what to do
#788I believe one of the founders of Booking.com has had some similar experience (source: "De Machine", the book about Booking.com) and after 4 years of travelings & yoga etc. he sneaked back in into the company. Most of his coworkers do not know he's a founder. He's been fixing Perl bugs, writing scripts and coding some features at least for some years (maybe he's moved on already, don't know, the book is a couple of ye…
Sounds like a great book. Did you happen to read it in English? Ask because my brief search for it shows at least one review saying it's a bad translation. Link to more info for those interested: https://openlibrary.org/books/OL57401616M/The_Machine https://www.lebowskipublishers.nl/boek/2257/stijn-bronzwaer-...
I read it in Dutch.
Re: I am rich and have no idea what to do
#789It's not really a lot of money, but it is a non-trivial management problem you'd have to spend more time than you think responding to- and at an opportunity cost against things that provide belonging, satisfaction, hope, and joy. With these new obligations, you need to manage them so that you can focus on those other good things. Get it managed, out of cash, and get it planned for and pay yourself your old salary wit…
What things do people choose to do when they can have anything in the world ?
Re: I am rich and have no idea what to do
#790I stopped working over twenty years ago and it was the best thing to ever happen to me. I spent thousands of days with my children, paid off my house, we drove brand new cars for the first time ever. Over time, I’ve just found things to do with my time. I try project Euler problems and I’m pretty interested in meteorology. The rest of the time, I just participate in things my kids are interested in or involved in, th…
Having kids gives your life purpose in a way almost nothing else can.
You’re absolutely right.
If it weren’t for my kids and my wife, I would’ve blown the money and ended up in poverty or something.
My heart goes out to people raising young ones in today’s world. Seems like things have only gotten harder and more confusing for young parents compared when my babies were young. We didn’t even HAVE smartphones when they were small.