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I don't really understand when you already have billions of dollars why having more billions of dollars even matters anymore. How is more billions going to chan
by rosybox 7y ago
I don't really understand when you already have billions of dollars why having more billions of dollars even matters anymore. How is more billions going to change your standard of living? You can buy two islands instead of just one? When you have so much money, how is getting more money a motivation?
- wstrange 7y agoBeing richer than Bezos or Buffet
- jjeaff 7y agoHe must realize that ain't happening. He's squeezing the last bit out of Oracle before it gets crushed by it's incumbents.
- felipemnoa 7y agoIt is about winning. The money is just a way of keeping score.
- dredmorbius 7y agoWealth at that level isn't cardinal, it's ordinal. "Wealth, as Mr Hobbes says, is power." -- Adam Smith
- andrewflnr 7y agoAt that point, as far as I can tell, it's just about getting a higher score. It might feel like something more meaningful, even meaningfully greedy or power-hungry, but I think that underneath all the rationalizations it's just the thrill of making that number get bigger.
- twblalock 7y agoPeople with that attitude would never bust their butts to get billions in the first place. Most of the people who have earned that kind of money are not the kind of people who would stop trying to earn even more.
- chasontherobot 7y agoIts true, addiction is a troubling disease
- aasasd 7y agoOne curious motivation for amassing money is that your offsprings can spend it. E.g. Megan Ellison, owner and CEO of Annapurna Pictures, a film producer and executive producer (aka a moneybag) on 35 titles since 2010, including for major directors like Coens, Linklater, Paul Thomas Anderson, Wong Kar-wai, Spike Jonze. Also Annapurna Interactive's game Gorogoa looks pretty interesting, at least visually—haven't tried it yet.
- codazoda 7y agoWut?
- jjeaff 7y agoLarry Ellison's daughter is a big spender.
- abvr 7y agoWow, didn't know that. And gotta agree, at least they've got some great films on that list.
- aasasd 7y agoI've gotten curious about the company when started seeing the same logo in films of Coens, Linklater and Jonze. The memorable name also helps.
- MadWombat 7y agoI played the game. It is very good. A bit short, but good.
- cosmodisk 7y agoThis is what a lot of people misunderstand. Very few,if any at all, people past $1B mark care about money per se. By then they would have bought the houses,the women/men, the cars,boats and whatever else they want. So all those,kind of targets, are gone.The only reason they keep doing it is because money making ( or whatever brings that money) drives them.
- qaq 7y ago"whatever else they want" well unless they want to collect art :) you could blow 1B on a few paintings
- hkmurakami 7y agoOr islands. Which he has purchased.
- masonic 7y agoOr Sports franchises. He cheaped out on buying the Warriors by, what, $10 million? The franchise has appreciated since by, what, $2 billion?
- johannes1234321 7y agoOr the competition on the Forbes list of the richest people.
- danans 7y ago> When you have so much money, how is getting more money a motivation? Power over even more other people, for better or for worse.
- PopeDotNinja 7y agoThe drive many have to acquire billions in assets doesn't go away after they acquire billions of dollars.
- hannasanarion 7y agoLarry Ellison is a particularly greedy bastard. You could make a James Bond movie with him as the villain and nobody would notice. He owns an island in Hawaii where the locals work for him as de facto serfs. He has donated to two charities in his life: one to Stanford in exchange for not admitting fault in an options backdating scandal, and one to set up a charitable foundation to research ways to extend his own life. The mission statements and internal marching orders at Oracle and his various other companies is "make lots of money for Larry". Nothing else matters, they will screw the users, screw the customers, screw the product, screw the employees, screw the open source community, screw the legal system, as long as there's revenue for Larry, the bosses are happy bacause that's all that the company exists for.
- tjpnz 7y agoFor a second I thought you were describing Gavin Belson from Silicon Valley - turns out the character is based on Ellison.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- throwaway2048 7y agoThe movie version of Tony stark/Iron Man is pretty much explicitly based on Larry Ellison because they wanted to make a super hero out of one of the least likeable people possible.
- bscphil 7y agoOr, as the classic Bryan Cantrill line goes, "Do not fall into the trap of anthropomorphizing Larry Ellison." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zRN7XLCRhc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zRN7XLCRhc
- goatinaboat 7y agoHence the saying One Rich Asshole Called Larry Ellison
- a_imho 7y agoWhat else should for profit companies exist for?
- dagw 7y agoWhen you have so much money, how is getting more money a motivation? Because the more you have the higher up the scoreboard you move. If you're the 17th richest person in the world, moving into the top 10 is probably a massive motivator, and once you're the 7th richest I bet you lie awake at night scheming how to get into the top 5.
- MadWombat 7y agoBecause being motivated to make money is what made you rich in the first place? I write code for a living. If tomorrow I wake up independently wealthy, I might quit my job, but I will not stop writing code.