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Acknowledging that material wealth isn't worth much was liberating, and I'm so glad it happened in my early 20s, people who never get out of this mindset must l

Acknowledging that material wealth isn't worth much was liberating, and I'm so glad it happened in my early 20s, people who never get out of this mindset must live miserable lives. You really don't need much to live an happy life, especially in the west and especially with IT salaries, if I could I'd work one day a week and that would suffice to maintain my lifestyle. The needs are easy to meet but the wants are limitless, you'll always feel like you're missing something as long as you don't control your emotions. You'll never satisfy a need of something that has no limit, being around rich people will show you that. Two houses, three cars, the best schools for their kids, vacations in the best places, they're still miserable and most of them still work as much if not more than employees, if anything they're even more miserable than the average person because they live in fear of losing it all. Once you unlock the next level you discover it's just as empty as the one you came from, some people are too proud to acknowledge that and keep on climbing, they'll be miserable all the way to the grave because you don't cure that by accumulating goods Take a break, breath in, and ponder on the reasons of your fears/desires. You might very well be sabotaging your well being in a futile quest for wealth, you can't lose the game if you're not playing it. On top of that I'd say if wealth is your goal the best way to never get to it is to chase it directly. You can go through 20 startups creation, if your sole goal is personal wealth you'll most likely miss the point 20 times > Life is well enough furnished, but we are too greedy with regard to its furnishings; something always seems to us lacking, and will always seem lacking. Seneca

bheadmaster 4y ago
> material wealth isn't worth much It's not about cars, houses, best schools and vacations - it's more about having the freedom not to work, but spend time doing what you actually want, or doing nothing at all. This whole "money isn't worth it" story seems like a coping mechanism for people who've somehow made peace with being wageslaves for the rest of their lives. I'll never make peace with it, either I'll stop being a wageslave one day or I'll die trying.
- heymetoo 4y ago
  I'm not a wageslave. I still work. Money can't be the reason you do things. It eventually comes too easily to be worth the pain. Meaning has to come from somewhere else. Jim Carry said it well with “I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it's not the answer.”
  - bheadmaster 4y ago
    > I'm not a wageslave. How long can you go without working before being completely broke? If the answer is indefinitely, then congratulations, you're rich. Otherwise, you're a wageslave, since you have no choice but to keep working. I know, I know, you can be forced to work and still enjoy it. But you can also enjoy rape, that doesn't make it universally good. > Money can't be the reason you do things. Money is not the end, money is the means to an end. My end is to live a life ungoverned by the system in which I have to spend the third of my life doing whatever someone else tells me to. For that, I need enough money not to need a job.
    - ghufran_syed 4y ago
      Isn’t wanting “enough money to not have to work” similar to wanting your body to not need oxygen or food or sleep? Sure, it would be amazing in many ways, but perhaps a tad unrealistic? I guess the problem is that we see some people who are in that position with respect to money and it makes us jealous? But we can choose whether to feel gratitude for what we have or feel jealousy for what we don’t have, and it’s probably obvious which course is healthier IMO
      - bheadmaster 4y ago
        > Isn’t wanting “enough money to not have to work” similar to wanting your body to not need oxygen or food or sleep? It is, by proxy. However, breathing, eating and sleeping are activities that don't require much effort, and some of them are in fact pleasurable due to our biological imperative. Work, on the other hand, is rarely pleasant - you have to be lucky to have a job you actually enjoy, the real world work is full of pointless bureaucracy, goals that don't align with your beliefs, repetitive boring tasks, synthetic deadlines, and so on. > Sure, it would be amazing in many ways, but perhaps a tad unrealistic? There are people out there that have enough money not to work, so it's not that unrealistic. > But we can choose whether to feel gratitude for what we have or feel jealousy for what we don’t have, and it’s probably obvious which course is healthier IMO Feelings, by their definition, are not voluntary. I don't believe I can simply "choose" how to feel.
- codegeek 4y ago
  Money is worth it but if you are chasing only money (especially get rich quick like gambling) which OP seems like doing, you will mostly fail. Getting Rich is a great motivation but cannot be the ONLY motivation behind you to do things. It may work for some but you need more intrinsic motives and goals in life. Source: I am not a wageslaver and I am in top 10% of Income earners in America and I am telling that you cannot just chase money. Chase your dreams of doing something that you want to do and money is always the side effect. OP seems to be focussed on the wrong thing.
  - bheadmaster 4y ago
    > I am telling that you cannot just chase money. Chase your dreams of doing something that you want to do and money is always the side effect. OP seems to be focussed on the wrong thing. You also cannot just chase your dreams. Many people have tried and failed miserably. You need money in order to be able to chase your dreams. I see your point, but both sides are kind of extreme - both the "money is meaningless" and "money is everything" - neither are true. Money is a necessary means for chasing your dreams, but an insufficient end in itself.
    - Axsuul 4y ago
      You have to strategically chase your dreams. If your dream is to paint all day, first start a business that can run itself so that it can provide you the freedom to do that.
      - brokenmachine 4y ago
        Simple! Step 1: start a business that can run itself Step 2: profit So easy! I wish I thought of it before.
    - lm28469 4y ago
      > Money is a necessary means for chasing your dreams That's a very personal definition of money
  - brokenmachine 4y ago
- lm28469 4y ago
  My point is more about people not being able to draw the line somewhere, if your day to day life is miserable because you keep being eaten by remorse and fomo it's probably easier to change your mindset than your situation. One depends on you only while the other mostly depends on external factors. Feel free to grind for that sweet $1m but until then you're an equal slave to all of us, if not more. I have enough money and time to sustain my hobbies, actually too much of both. The only way I'd give up work is to go build a house somewhere rural and become self reliant, which arguably I could do very soon, but it would probably be more work than my job's work I also thought not working and doing whatever would be the dream life, I've done it for a year, it gets boring real quick, quicker than I expected.
helloworld11 4y ago
>On top of that I'd say if wealth is your goal the best way to never get to it is to chase it directly. You can go through 20 startups creation, if your sole goal is personal wealth you'll most likely miss the point 20 times How exactly does this work? Is there some divine comedic rule that prevents you from attaining money if you specifically desire it? Is it somehow a sin that you will be punished for by not having it, like some sort of modern man's version of Tantalus? Many people who just want to get rich do indeed get rich by specifically having that as a motivation, and they might even lead decently happy lives as a result. Not being guided by some "higher purpose" as a motivator in life doesn't make you a less worthy person, or one especially less likely to succeed because wealth (and the freedom to do other things it usually brings) was your main milestone.

bheadmaster 4y ago

> material wealth isn't worth much It's not about cars, houses, best schools and vacations - it's more about having the freedom not to work, but spend time doing what you actually want, or doing nothing at all. This whole "money isn't worth it" story seems like a coping mechanism for people who've somehow made peace with being wageslaves for the rest of their lives. I'll never make peace with it, either I'll stop being a wageslave one day or I'll die trying.

heymetoo 4y ago
I'm not a wageslave. I still work. Money can't be the reason you do things. It eventually comes too easily to be worth the pain. Meaning has to come from somewhere else. Jim Carry said it well with “I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it's not the answer.”
- bheadmaster 4y ago
  > I'm not a wageslave. How long can you go without working before being completely broke? If the answer is indefinitely, then congratulations, you're rich. Otherwise, you're a wageslave, since you have no choice but to keep working. I know, I know, you can be forced to work and still enjoy it. But you can also enjoy rape, that doesn't make it universally good. > Money can't be the reason you do things. Money is not the end, money is the means to an end. My end is to live a life ungoverned by the system in which I have to spend the third of my life doing whatever someone else tells me to. For that, I need enough money not to need a job.
  - ghufran_syed 4y ago
    Isn’t wanting “enough money to not have to work” similar to wanting your body to not need oxygen or food or sleep? Sure, it would be amazing in many ways, but perhaps a tad unrealistic? I guess the problem is that we see some people who are in that position with respect to money and it makes us jealous? But we can choose whether to feel gratitude for what we have or feel jealousy for what we don’t have, and it’s probably obvious which course is healthier IMO
    - bheadmaster 4y ago
      > Isn’t wanting “enough money to not have to work” similar to wanting your body to not need oxygen or food or sleep? It is, by proxy. However, breathing, eating and sleeping are activities that don't require much effort, and some of them are in fact pleasurable due to our biological imperative. Work, on the other hand, is rarely pleasant - you have to be lucky to have a job you actually enjoy, the real world work is full of pointless bureaucracy, goals that don't align with your beliefs, repetitive boring tasks, synthetic deadlines, and so on. > Sure, it would be amazing in many ways, but perhaps a tad unrealistic? There are people out there that have enough money not to work, so it's not that unrealistic. > But we can choose whether to feel gratitude for what we have or feel jealousy for what we don’t have, and it’s probably obvious which course is healthier IMO Feelings, by their definition, are not voluntary. I don't believe I can simply "choose" how to feel.
codegeek 4y ago
Money is worth it but if you are chasing only money (especially get rich quick like gambling) which OP seems like doing, you will mostly fail. Getting Rich is a great motivation but cannot be the ONLY motivation behind you to do things. It may work for some but you need more intrinsic motives and goals in life. Source: I am not a wageslaver and I am in top 10% of Income earners in America and I am telling that you cannot just chase money. Chase your dreams of doing something that you want to do and money is always the side effect. OP seems to be focussed on the wrong thing.
- bheadmaster 4y ago
  > I am telling that you cannot just chase money. Chase your dreams of doing something that you want to do and money is always the side effect. OP seems to be focussed on the wrong thing. You also cannot just chase your dreams. Many people have tried and failed miserably. You need money in order to be able to chase your dreams. I see your point, but both sides are kind of extreme - both the "money is meaningless" and "money is everything" - neither are true. Money is a necessary means for chasing your dreams, but an insufficient end in itself.
  - Axsuul 4y ago
    You have to strategically chase your dreams. If your dream is to paint all day, first start a business that can run itself so that it can provide you the freedom to do that.
    - brokenmachine 4y ago
      Simple! Step 1: start a business that can run itself Step 2: profit So easy! I wish I thought of it before.
  - lm28469 4y ago
    > Money is a necessary means for chasing your dreams That's a very personal definition of money
- brokenmachine 4y ago
lm28469 4y ago
My point is more about people not being able to draw the line somewhere, if your day to day life is miserable because you keep being eaten by remorse and fomo it's probably easier to change your mindset than your situation. One depends on you only while the other mostly depends on external factors. Feel free to grind for that sweet $1m but until then you're an equal slave to all of us, if not more. I have enough money and time to sustain my hobbies, actually too much of both. The only way I'd give up work is to go build a house somewhere rural and become self reliant, which arguably I could do very soon, but it would probably be more work than my job's work I also thought not working and doing whatever would be the dream life, I've done it for a year, it gets boring real quick, quicker than I expected.

helloworld11 4y ago

>On top of that I'd say if wealth is your goal the best way to never get to it is to chase it directly. You can go through 20 startups creation, if your sole goal is personal wealth you'll most likely miss the point 20 times How exactly does this work? Is there some divine comedic rule that prevents you from attaining money if you specifically desire it? Is it somehow a sin that you will be punished for by not having it, like some sort of modern man's version of Tantalus? Many people who just want to get rich do indeed get rich by specifically having that as a motivation, and they might even lead decently happy lives as a result. Not being guided by some "higher purpose" as a motivator in life doesn't make you a less worthy person, or one especially less likely to succeed because wealth (and the freedom to do other things it usually brings) was your main milestone.