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pg has an interesting essay exploring this question called Billionaires Build[0], the TLDR is that he finds that these people are intrinsically motivated to kee

pg has an interesting essay exploring this question called Billionaires Build[0], the TLDR is that he finds that these people are intrinsically motivated to keep going for reasons other than monetary gain. Otherwise they would’ve quit long before a billion dollars anyway. [0] http://www.paulgraham.com/ace.html http://www.paulgraham.com/ace.html

somenameforme 3y ago
This is what he says: "One thing few people realize about billionaires is that all of them could have stopped sooner. They could have gotten acquired, or found someone else to run the company. Many founders do. The ones who become really rich are the ones who keep working. And what makes them keep working is not just money. What keeps them working is the same thing that keeps anyone else working when they could stop if they wanted to: that there's nothing else they'd rather do." That there's nothing you'd rather do in the present context, doesn't mean that'd also be true if you make it literally financially pointless. In any case, I think this is all a non-starter. If loop-holes were not readily available, people would simply move to different countries. The exact thing is happening in Norway to a somewhat comical degree. They recently chose to increase their wealth tax on billionaires. Dozens of billionaires thus chose to leave the country directly because of this, resulting an overall decline in tax revenue than if the country had retained the previous tax levels. [1] [1] - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/10/super-rich-abandoning-norway-at-record-rate-as-wealth-tax-rises-slightly https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/10/super-rich-aba...
- ricardo81 3y ago
  I wonder how much that motivation is about 'well, if I sold out- these other people are purely about the monetary gain from it and me cashing out' vs the original mission. Or in other words, the altruism of the motivation.

somenameforme 3y ago

This is what he says: "One thing few people realize about billionaires is that all of them could have stopped sooner. They could have gotten acquired, or found someone else to run the company. Many founders do. The ones who become really rich are the ones who keep working. And what makes them keep working is not just money. What keeps them working is the same thing that keeps anyone else working when they could stop if they wanted to: that there's nothing else they'd rather do." That there's nothing you'd rather do in the present context, doesn't mean that'd also be true if you make it literally financially pointless. In any case, I think this is all a non-starter. If loop-holes were not readily available, people would simply move to different countries. The exact thing is happening in Norway to a somewhat comical degree. They recently chose to increase their wealth tax on billionaires. Dozens of billionaires thus chose to leave the country directly because of this, resulting an overall decline in tax revenue than if the country had retained the previous tax levels. [1] [1] - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/10/super-rich-abandoning-norway-at-record-rate-as-wealth-tax-rises-slightly https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/10/super-rich-aba...

ricardo81 3y ago
I wonder how much that motivation is about 'well, if I sold out- these other people are purely about the monetary gain from it and me cashing out' vs the original mission. Or in other words, the altruism of the motivation.