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I am rich and have no idea what to do

vinay.sh

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

#981

Post by kashyapc »

How about studying some philosophy? If you dedicate yourself to it for a couple of years, it'll hammer in a sense of what truly matters. (While at it, it'll wean you off the Silicon Valley's empty humblespeak.)

Particulary, ancient Greek and Roman philosophy. Grapple with the originals, and not some weak "modern" versions. Don't try to "hack" philosophy, give the time it deserves.

As a more concrete pointer, in the past I wrote a list of high-quality English translations by scholars who have immersed themselves in these works here[1].

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22990579

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

#982

Post by krosaen »

j4coh wrote: post #3

Same situation, I truly empathise because it really does seem to take a lot of purpose out of everything. What I’ve found is that you need to replace money/salary/financial success optimisation (assuming you spent a lot of your life and energy to this point focused on these, much like I did) with something else totally unconnected with being measured in that way. For me, I am focused on proving myself as a guitarist…

> I am focused on proving myself as a guitarist in the local jazz and blues scene

That sounds awesome - tell us more.

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

#983

Post by dang »

brap wrote: post #687
godelmachine wrote: post #641

Just an essay in ego-bashing and showing off. While I don’t deny the author is self-made, highly successful for his age and ultra-rich, this essay is just an attempt to stroke his ego. It’s evident in the paragraph below where he said he’s leaving DOGE to “save our government”. The writer lacks clarity and coherence of thought. How exactly is he saving the government after his DOGE stint? >> So, after 4 intense and i…

[flagged]

Please don't post personal attacks to HN. That's not allowed here.

Also, please note that this is in the site guidelines:

"Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something."

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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

#987

Post by ikrenji »

kortilla wrote: post #252
akamaka wrote: post #145

> I should work for Elon and Vivek at DOGE and help America get off its current crash to defaulting on its own debt I’ve got an idea: take some good economics courses so that you learn how government spending actually works.

This is a facile dunk. Economics literature is filled with examples of debt destroying countries’ economies either through hyper inflation or default. Since the US controls its currency, it is very likely to take the inflation route, but if you get enough hawks they might choose to default.

a country debt is not like household or business debt. the only way US can default on its debt is if a bunch of idiots in washington DC decide to do so.

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

#988

Post by Lionga »

nurple wrote: post #679
Lerc wrote: post #371

In 1997 Kurt Vonnegut did not write Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don’t. I'm not sure if Mary Schmich (who did write it) takes pride in her words being frequently credited to an esteemed writer, or if it rankles. Later Baz Luhrma…

Thanks for writing this. It reminds me of Steve Job's commencement speech at Stanford. > Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

You can connect the dots easy when winning the lottery or being Steve Jobs. But for the majority will not magically connect.

In short this is called survivorship bias.

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

#989

Post by Lionga »

neilv wrote: post #306

Regarding the part of breaking up with girlfriend shortly after a winning startup exit, I'm reminded of a friend. (Different situation, but something to think about.) She saw her bf through the difficult process of a developing a creative work, and eventually he completed it, won a prestigious reward... and he broke up with her. He got invited to the White House because of the award, and I think missing out on that r…

I assume she was just an NPC so it does not matter

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

#990

Post by Lionga »

brap wrote: post #964
marhee wrote: post #667

I 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…

Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, has recently rejoined the company as IC. 1:1s with his manager must be awkward.

Did he pass the leetcode interview?
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