3 ms·

It's real talk partly fueled by the anonymity HN offers. Some people, like me, may find themselves wanting to maximize their pay. Period. I don't believe people

by zump 10y ago

It's real talk partly fueled by the anonymity HN offers. Some people, like me, may find themselves wanting to maximize their pay. Period. I don't believe people making this money are one-in-a-kind super geniuses, our system doesn't optimize for that. They are people who made a series of decisions, I want to know what they could be.

bshimmin 10y ago
Why? Do you think it will make you happy? I used to think money would at least make life easier, but past a certain point (and that point is vastly less than $1m/year), it really doesn't - you just end up spending it on stupid and pointlessly expensive things that mean you have to make more of it in order to be where you were before. And when you look at the really rich people, like Zuckerberg, Buffett, or Gates, what do they do with their money? Why, they give it away.
- thinkloop 10y ago
  They give it away while still keeping millions/billions for themselves. Money is the worst if you give your life for it, but otherwise it's pretty good.
- zump 10y ago
  This perspective is common amongst people who are making "enough". But most people in the world don't. Enough with the moralizing.
  - austinjp 10y ago
    Your perspective is odd and not based on evidence. Happiness does not scale linearly in relation to earnings. It tops out around £40k in the UK, if I remember the stat correctly. Of course, there are outliers, people whose happiness does scale linearly with their earnings. More importantly, I feel, is the vertigo associated with income, the fear and worry of taking a cut in earnings. Lifestyle expands to fit income. It does not seem that you have considered the why, only the what. Why do you want $1m? Several others have raised this question here. You will be far, far more satisfied if you spend a time considering this in detail.
- clackanon 10y ago
  Seems to me like you're attributing motives to zump that you have no place doing. Maybe zump is motivated by generosity. Maybe zump does have plans to share the riches. You're just guessing. Don't judge. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
warent 10y ago
You can easily see what decisions highly successful individuals have made. Executing them doesn't guarantee success. The decisions are a byproduct of a more important abstraction, which is just a mindset. Be persistent, work exceptionally hard, and think very big.
karyon 10y ago
Well, "real talk" doesn't contradict "full of arrogance". In my opinion, maximizing pay just for the sake of accumulating/spending a lot of money is quite unsympathetic, and indeed to some extend arrogant. Unless of course you plan to make a positive impact on others or our planet with that money, but to me your posts don't make that impression.
- zump 10y ago
  > Unless of course you plan to make a positive impact on others or our planet with that money, but to me your posts don't make that impression. I consider this a non-sequitur. Making a lot of money is considered the primary goal in our capitalist society and the sheer mechanics of our economy would guarantee it to be a net positive in all but 99% of cases (i.e burning the pile of money).
  - karyon 10y ago
    > Making a lot of money is considered the primary goal in our capitalist society It might be the goal of people lacking empathy and people who think happiness comes with money, which is true only up to an amount far below 1M. Unless, again, the money is meant to be given to others. I am not sure what you mean by considering my argument a non-sequitur, could you elaborate? > the sheer mechanics of our economy would guarantee it to be a net positive By "Making a positive impact on others" I didn't mean making a positive impact on the economy. I meant helping actual problems like hunger, diseases and pollution.
    - zump 10y ago
      > I am not sure what you mean by considering my argument a non-sequitur, could you elaborate? It shouldn't matter what I do with the money. I don't even have it. The larger point I disagree with is that it's a losing battle to somehow tune their career to fix all the ills of the world, it's better to make as much money as possible to hope that our economy will efficiently distribute the resources for the greater good.
      - 10y ago

by zump 10y ago

bshimmin 10y ago

Why? Do you think it will make you happy? I used to think money would at least make life easier, but past a certain point (and that point is vastly less than $1m/year), it really doesn't - you just end up spending it on stupid and pointlessly expensive things that mean you have to make more of it in order to be where you were before. And when you look at the really rich people, like Zuckerberg, Buffett, or Gates, what do they do with their money? Why, they give it away.

thinkloop 10y ago
They give it away while still keeping millions/billions for themselves. Money is the worst if you give your life for it, but otherwise it's pretty good.
zump 10y ago
This perspective is common amongst people who are making "enough". But most people in the world don't. Enough with the moralizing.
- austinjp 10y ago
  Your perspective is odd and not based on evidence. Happiness does not scale linearly in relation to earnings. It tops out around £40k in the UK, if I remember the stat correctly. Of course, there are outliers, people whose happiness does scale linearly with their earnings. More importantly, I feel, is the vertigo associated with income, the fear and worry of taking a cut in earnings. Lifestyle expands to fit income. It does not seem that you have considered the why, only the what. Why do you want $1m? Several others have raised this question here. You will be far, far more satisfied if you spend a time considering this in detail.
clackanon 10y ago
Seems to me like you're attributing motives to zump that you have no place doing. Maybe zump is motivated by generosity. Maybe zump does have plans to share the riches. You're just guessing. Don't judge. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

warent 10y ago

You can easily see what decisions highly successful individuals have made. Executing them doesn't guarantee success. The decisions are a byproduct of a more important abstraction, which is just a mindset. Be persistent, work exceptionally hard, and think very big.

karyon 10y ago

Well, "real talk" doesn't contradict "full of arrogance". In my opinion, maximizing pay just for the sake of accumulating/spending a lot of money is quite unsympathetic, and indeed to some extend arrogant. Unless of course you plan to make a positive impact on others or our planet with that money, but to me your posts don't make that impression.

zump 10y ago
> Unless of course you plan to make a positive impact on others or our planet with that money, but to me your posts don't make that impression. I consider this a non-sequitur. Making a lot of money is considered the primary goal in our capitalist society and the sheer mechanics of our economy would guarantee it to be a net positive in all but 99% of cases (i.e burning the pile of money).
- karyon 10y ago
  > Making a lot of money is considered the primary goal in our capitalist society It might be the goal of people lacking empathy and people who think happiness comes with money, which is true only up to an amount far below 1M. Unless, again, the money is meant to be given to others. I am not sure what you mean by considering my argument a non-sequitur, could you elaborate? > the sheer mechanics of our economy would guarantee it to be a net positive By "Making a positive impact on others" I didn't mean making a positive impact on the economy. I meant helping actual problems like hunger, diseases and pollution.
  - zump 10y ago
    > I am not sure what you mean by considering my argument a non-sequitur, could you elaborate? It shouldn't matter what I do with the money. I don't even have it. The larger point I disagree with is that it's a losing battle to somehow tune their career to fix all the ills of the world, it's better to make as much money as possible to hope that our economy will efficiently distribute the resources for the greater good.
    - 10y ago