3 ms·

What if you didn't need money or attention?

17 points by enigmatic02 5y ago

PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
Title should include "(2014)"
- tagami 5y ago
  The year is irrelevant
  - PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
    It is conventional on HN when posting things that are (roughly) more than a year old to include the year of first publication in the title.
cko 5y ago
As a guy just walking down the street, my imagination runs wild with all these fantasies of me being some sort of superhero. Usually it involves me thwarting a terrorist gunman or something. When I'm exercising, I imagine how I want to look like in a T shirt or on the beach. For much of the day, I think about ways to increase my net worth. It would be a relief to be old and give up on most of these thoughts. I just bookmarked this to reflect on.
- fuzzfactor 5y ago
  >It would be a relief to be old and give up on most of these thoughts. IME with enough maturity it's a lot more interesting just walking down the street. You can only imagine how much of your day has more concrete things to offer.
more_corn 5y ago
Simply asking the question is uninteresting. Anyone can ask things like this. What’s interesting is if you can answer it and provide me some insights I haven’t thought of. It’s not like this question is new. How and why do we do what we do? Money is the most common shorthand for stored energy to do things that need help from other people (there are others but they’re slippery). Attention is the feedback we get from others that helps us measure if the things we do resonate positively or negatively with others. We only need money if we want to do things, bigger things more money. Want to free yourself from the need for money? Go limp. Want to free yourself for the need for attention? Stop caring what anyone thinks. But if you excise caring entirely you become a sociopath. If you eliminate money entirely you can’t reliably get anyone to do anything for you including feeding, clothing, and housing you.

3 ms·

What if you didn't need money or attention?

17 points by enigmatic02 5y ago

PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
Title should include "(2014)"
- tagami 5y ago
  The year is irrelevant
  - PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
    It is conventional on HN when posting things that are (roughly) more than a year old to include the year of first publication in the title.
cko 5y ago
As a guy just walking down the street, my imagination runs wild with all these fantasies of me being some sort of superhero. Usually it involves me thwarting a terrorist gunman or something. When I'm exercising, I imagine how I want to look like in a T shirt or on the beach. For much of the day, I think about ways to increase my net worth. It would be a relief to be old and give up on most of these thoughts. I just bookmarked this to reflect on.
- fuzzfactor 5y ago
  >It would be a relief to be old and give up on most of these thoughts. IME with enough maturity it's a lot more interesting just walking down the street. You can only imagine how much of your day has more concrete things to offer.
more_corn 5y ago
Simply asking the question is uninteresting. Anyone can ask things like this. What’s interesting is if you can answer it and provide me some insights I haven’t thought of. It’s not like this question is new. How and why do we do what we do? Money is the most common shorthand for stored energy to do things that need help from other people (there are others but they’re slippery). Attention is the feedback we get from others that helps us measure if the things we do resonate positively or negatively with others. We only need money if we want to do things, bigger things more money. Want to free yourself from the need for money? Go limp. Want to free yourself for the need for attention? Stop caring what anyone thinks. But if you excise caring entirely you become a sociopath. If you eliminate money entirely you can’t reliably get anyone to do anything for you including feeding, clothing, and housing you.