4 ms·

I met someone who was an early employee at King about a year after they were acquired for 5.9b - it’s a little different since he wasn’t involved with the sale,

by klik99 2y ago

I met someone who was an early employee at King about a year after they were acquired for 5.9b - it’s a little different since he wasn’t involved with the sale, but he was still processing the insane amount of money he had. A year on he hadn’t moved out of his small apartment, still contracted, still used the same cheap phone, and hadn’t started investing beyond just the normal mutual funds/bonds/etc. it struck me as the smartest move, take your time to come up with a plan and don’t just dive into recklessly spending it. I also know a founder couple I was close friends with who had a sizeable exit, who moved to Costa Rica where they could spend little and focus on writing, a side interest that ended up leading to their next company. I find it’s really interesting how people act when the financial pressure gets suddenly removed.

criddell 2y ago
> I find it’s really interesting how people act when the financial pressure gets suddenly removed. It seems so strange to me to hear stories about people suddenly coming into a bunch of money and not finding contentment or even ending up depressed. If I could afford to retire today, I would do it in a heartbeat and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't run out of things I want to do. When the lotto gets to be above $1 billion, I'll usually buy a ticket because it's fun to imagine the life I could have with that money. Lots of it would be spent on hiring experts to teach me things.
- mrsilencedogood 2y ago
  Imo, it's mostly because our brains are still hunter-gatherer brains. While things like language acquisition and culture-instilling do fundamentally change us, our base hardware is still pre-currency pre-agriculture (pre-pretty-much-everything) hunter-gatherer. In Sapiens, it's noted that if a homo sapiens from 100k years ago ended up on an autopsy table in the modern day, you would never know anything was amiss anatomically. You might notice the teeth are unusually straight and free of decay (pre-grain diet, with huge amounts of chewing strengthening the jaw and allowing teeth to properly align), well-trained body with low body fat, and similarly free of many of the scourges of our modern diet and lifestyles). But that's it. So, people suddenly get taken out of "the grind" which was their only approximation of the drive-reward cycle that their brain depends on. So what now? Unfortunately, they've been freed to confront man's ultimate foe: philosophy. And lots of people aren't cut out or ready for that. (One could even say most philosophers aren't, given how much many of them suffered).
- conductr 2y ago
  As somewhat of a counterpoint, my experience was we often romanticize these things that we’d like to do if only we had the time/money/etc. But sometimes you’ll find once you do have the opportunity to explore those things, it’s not as interesting as we had hoped. It might keep you busy for a year or so, but then boredom and lack of fulfillment rear their head again. I think this is why serial entrepreneurship is a pretty common thing.
- dr_kiszonka 2y ago
  > When the lotto gets to be above $1 billion, I'll usually buy a ticket because it's fun to imagine the life I could have with that money. I buy lotto tickets for the same reason! Their expected value is very low but the maximum value is thought-provoking. For me, $50k would be life-changing. One billion is hard to imagine.
  - applied_heat 2y ago
    What would you do with $50k that would make such a difference in your life?
    - Dansvidania 2y ago
      I’d buy a house, myself..
      - WJW 2y ago
        For 50k?
        tasuki 2y ago
        Yes why not. Hell, there are places in the world where you can buy whole villages for $50k!
        20after4 2y ago
        Found a place in a rural part of Missouri for $60k at the end of 2019. Everything has more than doubled in value since then. I had no idea what was about to happen when I signed that paper… but I’m sure glad I didn’t wait even a few months. Literally moved in February 2020 just in time to get really familiar with the new surroundings.
        Dansvidania 2y ago
        For just a few k more. But I should not that I don’t live in the us.
        2y ago
- duxup 2y ago
  Agreed, I think I could find things to dedicate my time to that would be fulfilling. I'm not surprised, but maybe I do wonder what is in those folks lives who can't find something. Having said that ... I'm also not in that situation, you never know.
- joshgachnang 2y ago
  I buy lotto tickets because my friends do a pool. I'm not sure I'd be happy with the money, but I am very sure I'd be very unhappy if I was a schmuck who didn't put in a very small amount (to me) of money to be in the pool. I consider it insurance more than anything!
- sky2224 2y ago
  It's almost analogous to having a video game totally completed for you in a way. Everything is "done" for you essentially since you just buy your way out of problems at that point. Before coming into that amount of money, you can be distracted by the survival aspects of living in society where you're just trying to make money and live comfortably. There isn't any necessity to have to figure out what you truly want out of life or what your passions are. Once you do have money, now you have to face that. You have to truly find who you are. Otherwise, you're depressed or you go and blow all the money on things to distract you from finding who you are.
  - criddell 2y ago
    > There isn't any necessity to have to figure out what you truly want out of life or what your passions are. I most certainly don't have life figured out and I'm not particularly passionate about much but I do know as a 54 year old, I'm on the downward side of this mountain and there's so many things that are interesting to me. I'd love nothing more than to be a full time dilettante, living my life quarter-by-quarter, exploring a new topic every 3 months. I guess what I'm really wondering is how some people with more money than they will ever need don't wake up in the morning excited to work on some topic they find interesting. A certain portion are just depressed or dealing with some other mental illness, but isn't the typical person interested in lots of stuff that they don't pursue due to life getting in the way?
    - 9rx 2y ago
      > isn't the typical person interested in lots of stuff They might be, but is the typical person interested in doing it alone? Everyone else still has their lives getting in the way. They can't realistically skip going to work because you want to spend time with them. While some people are comfortable exploring life by themselves, I suspect the typical person is not. You could use that newfound wealth to buy friends, but then you're effectively back to managing a business again, assuming business is the source of money per the grander discussion here. If that is what drives you, you are apt to do everything you can to avoid the exit in the first place and thus not ending up in this situation. Like Zuckerberg once said, if he sold Facebook he would focus on building another tech company and therefore there is no point in selling the one he already has. Even still, if you do go down that road, and you want people of quality rather than grifters trying to scam you, to fill that role you are going to need some semblance of marketable goals for them to get behind. "Played friend for Richie Rich" doesn't advance their career or look good on a resume. They don't have the luxury of not having to worry about that kind of thing. Now you are truly back where you started, which, again, questions why walk away in the first place? It might not be impossible to find something to keep you going, but it is easy to see how it could be really hard.
- pton_xd 2y ago
  > It seems so strange to me to hear stories about people suddenly coming into a bunch of money and not finding contentment or even ending up depressed. If I could afford to retire today, I would do it in a heartbeat and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't run out of things I want to do. Different goals. If your goal is pursuing hobbies or a certain lifestyle, work is a means to achieve that. Getting money just lets you skip the work part. Their goal is creating a successful business. Having money and leaving the business means now they have no goal.
- sevensor 2y ago
  Talk to some retired people. The loss of identity can hit you right in the ego. You might think retirement sounds great, but I’ve known several people who thought that, and then un-retired. Other people seem to do just fine; I’m not sure if it’s temperament or something else. And then again, there are some people who just fade away…
- WA 2y ago
  > If I could afford to retire today, I would do it in a heartbeat and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't run out of things I want to do. You probably underestimate the little voice that will show up at some point, aksing what is the point in doing that thing?
thwarted 2y ago
> I met someone who was an early employee at King about a year after they were acquired for 5.9b - it’s a little different since he wasn’t involved with the sale, but he was still processing the insane amount of money he had Is there a word missing in this? How did they join after acquisition and have a meaningful financial windfall? And being an early employee?
- hapidjus 2y ago
  They met a year after.
- klik99 2y ago
  It's very ambiguously phrased in multiple ways because I don't edit my HN posts, but it is technically correct, just vague! He was one of the first employees at King, and I met him a year after King was acquired. The "they" in "after they were acquired" is ambiguous which I think led to your confusion.
  - fuzztester 2y ago
    Related: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_flies_like_an_arrow%3B_fruit_flies_like_a_banana https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_flies_like_an_arrow%3B_... Linked from the above: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden-path_sentence https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden-path_sentence https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntactic_ambiguity https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntactic_ambiguity https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antanaclasis https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antanaclasis
nojvek 2y ago
> hadn’t started investing beyond just the normal mutual funds/bonds/etc You'd be surprised how far you get ahead with S&P 500 + Treasury inflation adjusted securities. It's really hard to beat S&P500. Most funds after fees don't beat it. If S&P500 goes to shit, inflation adjusted securities give you guaranteed returns. The richest IMO people are those who live a modest lifestyle only from their interest, never having to touch the principle. Maximizing who and what they spend their time on.
- klik99 2y ago
  Yeah I didn't mean to talk that down, it's just the most no-brainer thing to do. As in, it's so obviously a good idea that any good portfolio will have a chunk devoted to that.
Take8435 2y ago
> I find it’s really interesting how people act when the financial pressure gets suddenly removed. Agreed. It should happen to more & more people.

by klik99 2y ago

criddell 2y ago

> I find it’s really interesting how people act when the financial pressure gets suddenly removed. It seems so strange to me to hear stories about people suddenly coming into a bunch of money and not finding contentment or even ending up depressed. If I could afford to retire today, I would do it in a heartbeat and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't run out of things I want to do. When the lotto gets to be above $1 billion, I'll usually buy a ticket because it's fun to imagine the life I could have with that money. Lots of it would be spent on hiring experts to teach me things.

mrsilencedogood 2y ago
Imo, it's mostly because our brains are still hunter-gatherer brains. While things like language acquisition and culture-instilling do fundamentally change us, our base hardware is still pre-currency pre-agriculture (pre-pretty-much-everything) hunter-gatherer. In Sapiens, it's noted that if a homo sapiens from 100k years ago ended up on an autopsy table in the modern day, you would never know anything was amiss anatomically. You might notice the teeth are unusually straight and free of decay (pre-grain diet, with huge amounts of chewing strengthening the jaw and allowing teeth to properly align), well-trained body with low body fat, and similarly free of many of the scourges of our modern diet and lifestyles). But that's it. So, people suddenly get taken out of "the grind" which was their only approximation of the drive-reward cycle that their brain depends on. So what now? Unfortunately, they've been freed to confront man's ultimate foe: philosophy. And lots of people aren't cut out or ready for that. (One could even say most philosophers aren't, given how much many of them suffered).
conductr 2y ago
As somewhat of a counterpoint, my experience was we often romanticize these things that we’d like to do if only we had the time/money/etc. But sometimes you’ll find once you do have the opportunity to explore those things, it’s not as interesting as we had hoped. It might keep you busy for a year or so, but then boredom and lack of fulfillment rear their head again. I think this is why serial entrepreneurship is a pretty common thing.
dr_kiszonka 2y ago
> When the lotto gets to be above $1 billion, I'll usually buy a ticket because it's fun to imagine the life I could have with that money. I buy lotto tickets for the same reason! Their expected value is very low but the maximum value is thought-provoking. For me, $50k would be life-changing. One billion is hard to imagine.
- applied_heat 2y ago
  What would you do with $50k that would make such a difference in your life?
  - Dansvidania 2y ago
    I’d buy a house, myself..
    - WJW 2y ago
      For 50k?
      - tasuki 2y ago
        Yes why not. Hell, there are places in the world where you can buy whole villages for $50k!
      - 20after4 2y ago
        Found a place in a rural part of Missouri for $60k at the end of 2019. Everything has more than doubled in value since then. I had no idea what was about to happen when I signed that paper… but I’m sure glad I didn’t wait even a few months. Literally moved in February 2020 just in time to get really familiar with the new surroundings.
      - Dansvidania 2y ago
        For just a few k more. But I should not that I don’t live in the us.
      - 2y ago
duxup 2y ago
Agreed, I think I could find things to dedicate my time to that would be fulfilling. I'm not surprised, but maybe I do wonder what is in those folks lives who can't find something. Having said that ... I'm also not in that situation, you never know.
joshgachnang 2y ago
I buy lotto tickets because my friends do a pool. I'm not sure I'd be happy with the money, but I am very sure I'd be very unhappy if I was a schmuck who didn't put in a very small amount (to me) of money to be in the pool. I consider it insurance more than anything!
sky2224 2y ago
It's almost analogous to having a video game totally completed for you in a way. Everything is "done" for you essentially since you just buy your way out of problems at that point. Before coming into that amount of money, you can be distracted by the survival aspects of living in society where you're just trying to make money and live comfortably. There isn't any necessity to have to figure out what you truly want out of life or what your passions are. Once you do have money, now you have to face that. You have to truly find who you are. Otherwise, you're depressed or you go and blow all the money on things to distract you from finding who you are.
- criddell 2y ago
  > There isn't any necessity to have to figure out what you truly want out of life or what your passions are. I most certainly don't have life figured out and I'm not particularly passionate about much but I do know as a 54 year old, I'm on the downward side of this mountain and there's so many things that are interesting to me. I'd love nothing more than to be a full time dilettante, living my life quarter-by-quarter, exploring a new topic every 3 months. I guess what I'm really wondering is how some people with more money than they will ever need don't wake up in the morning excited to work on some topic they find interesting. A certain portion are just depressed or dealing with some other mental illness, but isn't the typical person interested in lots of stuff that they don't pursue due to life getting in the way?
  - 9rx 2y ago
    > isn't the typical person interested in lots of stuff They might be, but is the typical person interested in doing it alone? Everyone else still has their lives getting in the way. They can't realistically skip going to work because you want to spend time with them. While some people are comfortable exploring life by themselves, I suspect the typical person is not. You could use that newfound wealth to buy friends, but then you're effectively back to managing a business again, assuming business is the source of money per the grander discussion here. If that is what drives you, you are apt to do everything you can to avoid the exit in the first place and thus not ending up in this situation. Like Zuckerberg once said, if he sold Facebook he would focus on building another tech company and therefore there is no point in selling the one he already has. Even still, if you do go down that road, and you want people of quality rather than grifters trying to scam you, to fill that role you are going to need some semblance of marketable goals for them to get behind. "Played friend for Richie Rich" doesn't advance their career or look good on a resume. They don't have the luxury of not having to worry about that kind of thing. Now you are truly back where you started, which, again, questions why walk away in the first place? It might not be impossible to find something to keep you going, but it is easy to see how it could be really hard.
pton_xd 2y ago
> It seems so strange to me to hear stories about people suddenly coming into a bunch of money and not finding contentment or even ending up depressed. If I could afford to retire today, I would do it in a heartbeat and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't run out of things I want to do. Different goals. If your goal is pursuing hobbies or a certain lifestyle, work is a means to achieve that. Getting money just lets you skip the work part. Their goal is creating a successful business. Having money and leaving the business means now they have no goal.
sevensor 2y ago
Talk to some retired people. The loss of identity can hit you right in the ego. You might think retirement sounds great, but I’ve known several people who thought that, and then un-retired. Other people seem to do just fine; I’m not sure if it’s temperament or something else. And then again, there are some people who just fade away…
WA 2y ago
> If I could afford to retire today, I would do it in a heartbeat and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't run out of things I want to do. You probably underestimate the little voice that will show up at some point, aksing what is the point in doing that thing?

thwarted 2y ago

> I met someone who was an early employee at King about a year after they were acquired for 5.9b - it’s a little different since he wasn’t involved with the sale, but he was still processing the insane amount of money he had Is there a word missing in this? How did they join after acquisition and have a meaningful financial windfall? And being an early employee?

hapidjus 2y ago
They met a year after.
klik99 2y ago
It's very ambiguously phrased in multiple ways because I don't edit my HN posts, but it is technically correct, just vague! He was one of the first employees at King, and I met him a year after King was acquired. The "they" in "after they were acquired" is ambiguous which I think led to your confusion.
- fuzztester 2y ago
  Related: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_flies_like_an_arrow%3B_fruit_flies_like_a_banana https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_flies_like_an_arrow%3B_... Linked from the above: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden-path_sentence https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden-path_sentence https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntactic_ambiguity https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntactic_ambiguity https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antanaclasis https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antanaclasis

nojvek 2y ago

> hadn’t started investing beyond just the normal mutual funds/bonds/etc You'd be surprised how far you get ahead with S&P 500 + Treasury inflation adjusted securities. It's really hard to beat S&P500. Most funds after fees don't beat it. If S&P500 goes to shit, inflation adjusted securities give you guaranteed returns. The richest IMO people are those who live a modest lifestyle only from their interest, never having to touch the principle. Maximizing who and what they spend their time on.

klik99 2y ago
Yeah I didn't mean to talk that down, it's just the most no-brainer thing to do. As in, it's so obviously a good idea that any good portfolio will have a chunk devoted to that.

Take8435 2y ago

> I find it’s really interesting how people act when the financial pressure gets suddenly removed. Agreed. It should happen to more & more people.