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> 5) On money: Whether or not money can buy happiness, it can buy freedom I strongly disagree, but only on a technicality or matter of perception of what freed

> 5) On money: Whether or not money can buy happiness, it can buy freedom I strongly disagree, but only on a technicality or matter of perception of what freedom means. To me, money has nothing to do with true freedom. Money in and of itself is a prison, like any external currency, and something I have influence over but virtually no control. Today I have money. Tomorrow, my currency could become worthless or my home could burn down by no fault of my own. I could lose my job, and what money seems available for me to enjoy myself with will become essential for supporting myself in an uncertain future. There are other interesting facets of this, like - how many people do you know who have much more money than you, but still want more? How hard do they work for it, or how often do they think about it? Are we ever free from wanting more of this kind of freedom? Certainly if we find a good balance and we have the fortune of earning enough money to have disposable income, it can be freeing in a sense. But it's dangerous to conflate wealth with freedom in general. It requires a lot of good sense and responsibility to use wealth wisely, I think. I don't mean to be nit-picky or overly critical when the intent of communication was fairly clear. I'm sure Sam knows better than to equate money and freedom directly. I only think it's dangerous to use language like this in a culture like the one I live in, where people want more money so badly in order to be free, but it never affords them anything you'd recognize as freedom. > 19) Go out of your way to help people. Few things in life are as satisfying. Be nice to strangers. Be nice even when it doesn’t matter. 27) Forgive people. 28) Don’t chase status. Status without substance doesn’t work for long and is unfulfilling. 31) Be grateful and keep problems in perspective. Don’t complain too much. Don’t hate other people’s success 35) Don’t judge other people too quickly. You never know their whole story and why they did or didn’t do something. Be empathetic. I love this advice!

Bakary 6y ago
To come up with a definition of freedom, I'd say we have to start from the premise of a certain degree of reliability. If we take into account all the ways you can lose everything or die early, it will always seem like a meaningless concept. But in practice, these things don't always happen and many are able to live long lives as evidenced by actuarial tables. It's true that wealth can become a trap but it all depends on your inherent personality. Many would have no problem forgetting about the grind and be content using their newfound wealth to do what they want in their own zone. It just so happens that a propensity to be content is probably negatively correlated with amassing large sums so you hear about those people less often despite their great numbers. So I'd say that yes, a significant but not absurd amount of money can already go a really long way towards letting a person be free in a sense we'd all recognize.
- steve_adams_86 6y ago
  I'm probably only remarking on this above because of my own personal struggle with a desire for "freedom" and a false equivalence of money and freedom at some point in my 20s. I really believed I needed to earn more and I was a slave to that notion without realizing it. I grew up quite poor, and it took me a lot of years earning more money than I needed to realize the dysfunction that was occurring. I'm weary of it now, but having written that, I'm realizing that most people here and reading this article are likely well aware of this and the dissection of Sam's words is unnecessary.
avrionov 6y ago
You are missing his point on money. He is talking for way more money than the regular person could get. In that case a person doesn't need a job and can rebuild his house easily.
- steve_adams_86 6y ago
  Of course. I suppose what I meant to say too though is that having no job and rebuilding your house has nothing to do with freedom. At least, not the kind I want to exercise in my own life. These things have value, but they don't define me and they are almost entirely external. I don't want to define my happiness or value by my ability to retire and rebuild a house. I don't mean to say everyone should feel this way, but I think it's important to recognize the limitations of wealth within the extents of what freedom can mean. As I mentioned in another comment though, I'm realizing my comment was totally unnecessary here. I'll leave it, but in retrospect, it mostly served as a reminder to myself and probably belongs in a journal, not on Hacker News.

Bakary 6y ago

To come up with a definition of freedom, I'd say we have to start from the premise of a certain degree of reliability. If we take into account all the ways you can lose everything or die early, it will always seem like a meaningless concept. But in practice, these things don't always happen and many are able to live long lives as evidenced by actuarial tables. It's true that wealth can become a trap but it all depends on your inherent personality. Many would have no problem forgetting about the grind and be content using their newfound wealth to do what they want in their own zone. It just so happens that a propensity to be content is probably negatively correlated with amassing large sums so you hear about those people less often despite their great numbers. So I'd say that yes, a significant but not absurd amount of money can already go a really long way towards letting a person be free in a sense we'd all recognize.

steve_adams_86 6y ago
I'm probably only remarking on this above because of my own personal struggle with a desire for "freedom" and a false equivalence of money and freedom at some point in my 20s. I really believed I needed to earn more and I was a slave to that notion without realizing it. I grew up quite poor, and it took me a lot of years earning more money than I needed to realize the dysfunction that was occurring. I'm weary of it now, but having written that, I'm realizing that most people here and reading this article are likely well aware of this and the dissection of Sam's words is unnecessary.

avrionov 6y ago

You are missing his point on money. He is talking for way more money than the regular person could get. In that case a person doesn't need a job and can rebuild his house easily.

steve_adams_86 6y ago
Of course. I suppose what I meant to say too though is that having no job and rebuilding your house has nothing to do with freedom. At least, not the kind I want to exercise in my own life. These things have value, but they don't define me and they are almost entirely external. I don't want to define my happiness or value by my ability to retire and rebuild a house. I don't mean to say everyone should feel this way, but I think it's important to recognize the limitations of wealth within the extents of what freedom can mean. As I mentioned in another comment though, I'm realizing my comment was totally unnecessary here. I'll leave it, but in retrospect, it mostly served as a reminder to myself and probably belongs in a journal, not on Hacker News.