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I would expect this exactly. Why work at all when I can drive my Ferrari collection, all damn day.

meddlepal 7y ago
I'm not a millionaire but I play golf and belong to a prestigious country club (US Open and Ryder Cup host) with plenty of millionaires in the membership list. Sitting at the bar over the years and chatting with these folks that don't need to work a lot of them do work for a handful of reasons: 1. They're bored and want some challenge. 2. They can't stand being near their wife, husband or kids. 3. They like making money. 4. They're genuinely passionate about whatever niche topic they picked to focus on. You can only use your toys so much before they get boring.
- Railsify 7y ago
  I'm golfing Saturday, at a local public course.
  - meddlepal 7y ago
    You anywhere near Boston?
    - Railsify 7y ago
      No, further West. I'd like to visit Boston one day.
- winrid 7y ago
  Responsibility gives meaning to your life too
  - meddlepal 7y ago
    That depends on the individual.
    - winrid 7y ago
      I'm not so sure. I have yet to meet someone that was really happy and didn't have any responsibility. In fact all my friends who had depression or committed suicide didn't have any responsibility really. I didn't see this pattern for a while though.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y ago
  The mind of a person who can't seem to find something to do outside of work just doesn't make sense to me. Work is the thing in my life that most gets in the way of me doing things.
  - ThrowawayR2 7y ago
    > The mind of a person who can't seem to find something to do outside of work just doesn't make sense to me. Why not? There are all sorts of extremely popular business and government simulation games, dating all the way back to Lemonade Stand on the Apple II to SimCity, to Railroad Tycoon, to Sid Meier's Civilization series. These guys are just doing it in real life. The same applies for engineering and research jobs: why play Kerbal Space Simulator when you're capable of building something amazing in the real world?
    - AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y ago
      I guess I'm of the mindset that if you'd still be doing it even if no one paid you then it isn't work.
- modsiw 7y ago
  “You can only use your toys so much before they get boring.” This has yet to be proven. We need an experiment.
Swizec 7y ago
> Why work at all when I can drive my Ferrari collection, all damn day. That's fun for a week, maybe even a month, then you'd get bored. Humans need purpose and we like structure. Complete freedom terrifies and unsettles us. Source: All my life I wanted nothing but to have enough cash in bank to take a year off and do whatever. When I got it ... at first I panicked, then I considered the boundless possibilities, then realized I have no idea what to do with that much money, put it in index funds, and went back to work. Now it sits there as a source of comfort and potential. A modest fuck you fund that makes me feel better and gives me that sense of Oh yeah, if I stop liking my situation, I can afford to do whatever I want for a year or two without compromising my lifestyle
- dev_dull 7y ago
  You should take that year off and travel.
  - Swizec 7y ago
    Yeah but then I’d be at zero and it really does provide me much peace of mind that I’m not. Even more than I expected. Knowing you can always walk away from a job, project, or client is quite intoxicating.
    - cloverich 7y ago
      Do what makes you happy, but: > Yeah but then I’d be at zero You'd not be at zero. Everyone's different but when I look back on my life, I treasure the travel I did and its been a regular influence on my perspective of the world ever since. I would love to have a year of FU money but... I don't think I would part with my travel history for it.
- onion2k 7y ago
  Purpose and structure doesn't have to come from a job. I took 2 years off, and then spent another 2 years working on a startup without getting paid for most of it, and it was one of the most fulfilling things I've done.
xarope 7y ago
That gets old, really fast (source: my experience hobnobbing w/the wealthy). If you've not noticed the trend, the rich now want to climb mountains, run ultras etc. I think it's hard to turn off the type A personalities that enabled them to get where they got to in the first place Caveat: that's the rich who are self-made. The rich who are 2nd/3rd generation on the other hand, can spend money like there's no tomorrow (source: my experience hobnobbing w/the wealthy haha), and an entire industry has grown to "suport" their needs (swiss watch not enough? here's a swiss watch with diamonds... cartier diamonds, thank you very much. $20 organic, grass fed burger not good enough? here's a truffle infused, foie gras embedded burger for $100, TYVM... ad nauseum).
seanmcdirmid 7y ago
I don’t want to be into my job for the money. It is just a necessary byproduct of doing work I otherwise enjoy.
skrebbel 7y ago
There's plenty of examples. Stewart Butterfield, the entire PayPal mafia, etc. If you were right, Slack, LinkedIn, SpaceX, YouTube and Yelp wouldn't exist.
chillydawg 7y ago
Gets boring real fast. Source: done it.
kolbe 7y ago
Spoken like someone who has never owned a Ferrari.
ChuckMcM 7y ago
In my experience in Silicon Valley it’s more like drive the Ferrari on weekends. One weekend a coworker at Sun invited me to come up to sears point raceway and drive my rx7 on the track. I showed up and there were a handful of people, turns out the coworker had rented the whole track (and skid pad) for the weekend for “trying out” different driving moves. I expect it cost them less than $100,000 for the weekend. But the engineer in question here probably had a net worth of more than $50M and yet they came into work every day and built cool stuff. Now the Sun case was more “typical” of the valley at the time where a company goes public and now there are lots of millionaires in the ranks. Same thing at Google when they went public, and Facebook. In my experience it is the unusual case that the newly wealthy person quits work and pursues a life of idle hedonism. Not saying that it doesn’t happen, just saying that there is an alternative response to being wealthy.

I'm not a millionaire but I play golf and belong to a prestigious country club (US Open and Ryder Cup host) with plenty of millionaires in the membership list. Sitting at the bar over the years and chatting with these folks that don't need to work a lot of them do work for a handful of reasons: 1. They're bored and want some challenge. 2. They can't stand being near their wife, husband or kids. 3. They like making money. 4. They're genuinely passionate about whatever niche topic they picked to focus on. You can only use your toys so much before they get boring.

Railsify 7y ago
I'm golfing Saturday, at a local public course.
- meddlepal 7y ago
  You anywhere near Boston?
  - Railsify 7y ago
    No, further West. I'd like to visit Boston one day.
winrid 7y ago
Responsibility gives meaning to your life too
- meddlepal 7y ago
  That depends on the individual.
  - winrid 7y ago
    I'm not so sure. I have yet to meet someone that was really happy and didn't have any responsibility. In fact all my friends who had depression or committed suicide didn't have any responsibility really. I didn't see this pattern for a while though.
AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y ago
The mind of a person who can't seem to find something to do outside of work just doesn't make sense to me. Work is the thing in my life that most gets in the way of me doing things.
- ThrowawayR2 7y ago
  > The mind of a person who can't seem to find something to do outside of work just doesn't make sense to me. Why not? There are all sorts of extremely popular business and government simulation games, dating all the way back to Lemonade Stand on the Apple II to SimCity, to Railroad Tycoon, to Sid Meier's Civilization series. These guys are just doing it in real life. The same applies for engineering and research jobs: why play Kerbal Space Simulator when you're capable of building something amazing in the real world?
  - AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y ago
    I guess I'm of the mindset that if you'd still be doing it even if no one paid you then it isn't work.
modsiw 7y ago
“You can only use your toys so much before they get boring.” This has yet to be proven. We need an experiment.

Swizec 7y ago

> Why work at all when I can drive my Ferrari collection, all damn day. That's fun for a week, maybe even a month, then you'd get bored. Humans need purpose and we like structure. Complete freedom terrifies and unsettles us. Source: All my life I wanted nothing but to have enough cash in bank to take a year off and do whatever. When I got it ... at first I panicked, then I considered the boundless possibilities, then realized I have no idea what to do with that much money, put it in index funds, and went back to work. Now it sits there as a source of comfort and potential. A modest fuck you fund that makes me feel better and gives me that sense of Oh yeah, if I stop liking my situation, I can afford to do whatever I want for a year or two without compromising my lifestyle

dev_dull 7y ago
You should take that year off and travel.
- Swizec 7y ago
  Yeah but then I’d be at zero and it really does provide me much peace of mind that I’m not. Even more than I expected. Knowing you can always walk away from a job, project, or client is quite intoxicating.
  - cloverich 7y ago
    Do what makes you happy, but: > Yeah but then I’d be at zero You'd not be at zero. Everyone's different but when I look back on my life, I treasure the travel I did and its been a regular influence on my perspective of the world ever since. I would love to have a year of FU money but... I don't think I would part with my travel history for it.
onion2k 7y ago
Purpose and structure doesn't have to come from a job. I took 2 years off, and then spent another 2 years working on a startup without getting paid for most of it, and it was one of the most fulfilling things I've done.

xarope 7y ago

That gets old, really fast (source: my experience hobnobbing w/the wealthy). If you've not noticed the trend, the rich now want to climb mountains, run ultras etc. I think it's hard to turn off the type A personalities that enabled them to get where they got to in the first place Caveat: that's the rich who are self-made. The rich who are 2nd/3rd generation on the other hand, can spend money like there's no tomorrow (source: my experience hobnobbing w/the wealthy haha), and an entire industry has grown to "suport" their needs (swiss watch not enough? here's a swiss watch with diamonds... cartier diamonds, thank you very much. $20 organic, grass fed burger not good enough? here's a truffle infused, foie gras embedded burger for $100, TYVM... ad nauseum).

seanmcdirmid 7y ago

I don’t want to be into my job for the money. It is just a necessary byproduct of doing work I otherwise enjoy.

skrebbel 7y ago

There's plenty of examples. Stewart Butterfield, the entire PayPal mafia, etc. If you were right, Slack, LinkedIn, SpaceX, YouTube and Yelp wouldn't exist.

chillydawg 7y ago

Gets boring real fast. Source: done it.

kolbe 7y ago

Spoken like someone who has never owned a Ferrari.

ChuckMcM 7y ago

In my experience in Silicon Valley it’s more like drive the Ferrari on weekends. One weekend a coworker at Sun invited me to come up to sears point raceway and drive my rx7 on the track. I showed up and there were a handful of people, turns out the coworker had rented the whole track (and skid pad) for the weekend for “trying out” different driving moves. I expect it cost them less than $100,000 for the weekend. But the engineer in question here probably had a net worth of more than $50M and yet they came into work every day and built cool stuff. Now the Sun case was more “typical” of the valley at the time where a company goes public and now there are lots of millionaires in the ranks. Same thing at Google when they went public, and Facebook. In my experience it is the unusual case that the newly wealthy person quits work and pursues a life of idle hedonism. Not saying that it doesn’t happen, just saying that there is an alternative response to being wealthy.