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You assume that super smart people have money as their primary goal in life. I have found this to be far from true. The truly brilliant people I know follow th

by synnik 16y ago

You assume that super smart people have money as their primary goal in life. I have found this to be far from true. The truly brilliant people I know follow their passions, and usually make just enough money to do so, spending the rest of their energy on their actual passions. Even if your ratio is right, that they get only a tenth of the opportunities as entrepreneurs... they tend to land the right ones, make the correct one, and be very satisfied with their lives.

AndrewMoffat 16y ago
> The truly brilliant people I know follow their passions, and usually make just enough money to do so, spending the rest of their energy on their actual passions. This sounds suspiciously like No True Scotsman
philwelch 16y ago
Are there any truly brilliant people for whom money (in some abstract, score-keeping sense) is their passion? You could argue this for Warren Buffet, who isn't crazy about spending a lot of money but is very serious about investing well. You could also be super smart and also passionate about something that immediately leads to making lots of money--Steve Jobs, for instance, is undeniably passionate about the kinds of products Apple makes, and how well they make them.
jdietrich 16y ago
That only works for a very narrow range of 'passions', namely those that don't require money to fulfil. Larry Ellison is the perfect example. He's passionate about sailing, so he buys the sixth largest yacht in the world and runs an America's Cup team. He's passionate about aviation, so he buys a fleet of fighter jets. He's passionate about medieval Japan, so he builds a piece of it for himself. Thinking that money is just about money is a middle-class mistake. Money is capital, capital is power. Money is the lever with which you move the world. Money is how things get done. The usual counterexample is academia, that a tenured academic has the freedom to pursue their discipline. That's not true and it hasn't been true for years. Most academics are under constant pressure to produce research and bring in funding. You're right to say that you just need to make enough money to pursue your passions, but unless your passions are hopelessly mediocre, 'enough' has a lot of zeroes.

by synnik 16y ago

AndrewMoffat 16y ago

> The truly brilliant people I know follow their passions, and usually make just enough money to do so, spending the rest of their energy on their actual passions. This sounds suspiciously like No True Scotsman

philwelch 16y ago

Are there any truly brilliant people for whom money (in some abstract, score-keeping sense) is their passion? You could argue this for Warren Buffet, who isn't crazy about spending a lot of money but is very serious about investing well. You could also be super smart and also passionate about something that immediately leads to making lots of money--Steve Jobs, for instance, is undeniably passionate about the kinds of products Apple makes, and how well they make them.

jdietrich 16y ago

That only works for a very narrow range of 'passions', namely those that don't require money to fulfil. Larry Ellison is the perfect example. He's passionate about sailing, so he buys the sixth largest yacht in the world and runs an America's Cup team. He's passionate about aviation, so he buys a fleet of fighter jets. He's passionate about medieval Japan, so he builds a piece of it for himself. Thinking that money is just about money is a middle-class mistake. Money is capital, capital is power. Money is the lever with which you move the world. Money is how things get done. The usual counterexample is academia, that a tenured academic has the freedom to pursue their discipline. That's not true and it hasn't been true for years. Most academics are under constant pressure to produce research and bring in funding. You're right to say that you just need to make enough money to pursue your passions, but unless your passions are hopelessly mediocre, 'enough' has a lot of zeroes.