4 ms·

> There's something a bit... I don't know quite how to put it. Let's just say that I bet she'd willingly trade places with him, cash out, and go enjoy herself i

> There's something a bit... I don't know quite how to put it. Let's just say that I bet she'd willingly trade places with him, cash out, and go enjoy herself instead of cleaning up other people's crap day in and day out. My mother isn't a cleaner (she's a nurse) but I talked with her before about whether or not if she had the chance she would quit her job and sit on the beach all day doing whatever she wanted and she said that no, she would never be able to stop working because it has been a part of her entire life and if she was going to quit her job and do anything she would open a book shop (I think it was a book shop). I think for a lot of people work is a part of who they are and it's not as simple as just taking money and spending life on a beach, I'm sure the cleaner would love financial freedom but I would suspect she would keep working. For a lot of people they don't have things they enjoy that have some sort of output (for most of HN that's programming, or design) so working is all they have to feel like they have value in the world. Maybe his cleaner has financial freedom already (saving, inheritance etc) and chooses to work.

davidw 14y ago
I can't stand going to the beach myself, and if I were wealthy, would see myself continuing to work on things. I'd probably have more 'projects' though, things where there might not be any way of making money off it. And I sure as hell would be spending a lot more time riding my bicycle instead of getting fat sitting at a desk. To each his own, but would someone really want to keep cleaning professionally even if they were wealthy? I could easily seeing less-than-profitable but creative hobbies being way more interesting for hypothetical cleaners who were wealthy and wanted to stay busy. The reality though, is that unless the cleaning lady is good at hiring and managing other cleaners, she's never going to get the chance to cash out, or sell the company or any of the other avenues the 37 signals guys have.
- mikepmalai 14y ago
  > To each his own, but would someone really want to keep cleaning professionally even if they were wealthy? I could easily seeing less-than-profitable but creative hobbies being way more interesting for hypothetical cleaners who were wealthy and wanted to stay busy. I felt the same way until I actually met a wealthy cleaner. All I can say is never underestimate the power of habit and the difficulty of breaking routines. I used to intern at a small investment manager years ago where one of the clients was a cleaning lady. Every couple weeks she would come into the office to deposit a portion of her modest housecleaning income into her investment account. I didn't think much of it until I found out she was actually a multi-millionaire. This cleaner had been investing with the investment manager for years and (at ~20% annual returns) her small contributions compounded into millions of dollars. It was pretty mind blowing. Why didn't she just retire!? She just loved her job and the routine... Anyway, the best part is she refers her high net worth customers all the time to the fund and they all sheepishly try to explain how they heard about the fund from their cleaning lady. Little did they know that their house cleaner was actually richer than them.
  - davidw 14y ago
    Cute story, but I'd put money on people doing cleaning work, statistically, being happier doing their hobby rather than cleaning. Not all cleaning people work for investment managers that cut them in on sweet deals. Truth be told, I would guess that those are probably a minority.
    - mikepmalai 14y ago
      I'd put money on most cleaners not having hobbies =) (Sorry couldn't help myself...I come from a family of very blue collar folks and it's a running joke that your hobby is sleep) My main point is it's hard to break years of routine/habit. If someone has done the same thing for 20 years, I don't expect them to suddenly change. Even when change would bring greater happiness over the long-term, I'm not betting against the comfort of status quo.
      - salemh 14y ago
        You are probably on to something with the lack of "retirement" (US, business and academia). Also, the change may lead to less happiness, from breaking such a long-term "routine" (I would say "life").
        mikepmalai 14y ago
        It seems like with enough time we become institutionalized to a certain way of life and will reshape our happiness to fit perfectly to that world. Oddly, first time I saw the world this way was after watching Shawshank Redemption as a kid and seeing Brooks killing himself after he was freed. From that point on, a lot of the seemingly irrational decisions people make made a lot more sense to me.
Evbn 14y ago
Running a book shop with your FU money is completely different from running a book shop to put food onnthr table.

davidw 14y ago

I can't stand going to the beach myself, and if I were wealthy, would see myself continuing to work on things. I'd probably have more 'projects' though, things where there might not be any way of making money off it. And I sure as hell would be spending a lot more time riding my bicycle instead of getting fat sitting at a desk. To each his own, but would someone really want to keep cleaning professionally even if they were wealthy? I could easily seeing less-than-profitable but creative hobbies being way more interesting for hypothetical cleaners who were wealthy and wanted to stay busy. The reality though, is that unless the cleaning lady is good at hiring and managing other cleaners, she's never going to get the chance to cash out, or sell the company or any of the other avenues the 37 signals guys have.

mikepmalai 14y ago
> To each his own, but would someone really want to keep cleaning professionally even if they were wealthy? I could easily seeing less-than-profitable but creative hobbies being way more interesting for hypothetical cleaners who were wealthy and wanted to stay busy. I felt the same way until I actually met a wealthy cleaner. All I can say is never underestimate the power of habit and the difficulty of breaking routines. I used to intern at a small investment manager years ago where one of the clients was a cleaning lady. Every couple weeks she would come into the office to deposit a portion of her modest housecleaning income into her investment account. I didn't think much of it until I found out she was actually a multi-millionaire. This cleaner had been investing with the investment manager for years and (at ~20% annual returns) her small contributions compounded into millions of dollars. It was pretty mind blowing. Why didn't she just retire!? She just loved her job and the routine... Anyway, the best part is she refers her high net worth customers all the time to the fund and they all sheepishly try to explain how they heard about the fund from their cleaning lady. Little did they know that their house cleaner was actually richer than them.
- davidw 14y ago
  Cute story, but I'd put money on people doing cleaning work, statistically, being happier doing their hobby rather than cleaning. Not all cleaning people work for investment managers that cut them in on sweet deals. Truth be told, I would guess that those are probably a minority.
  - mikepmalai 14y ago
    I'd put money on most cleaners not having hobbies =) (Sorry couldn't help myself...I come from a family of very blue collar folks and it's a running joke that your hobby is sleep) My main point is it's hard to break years of routine/habit. If someone has done the same thing for 20 years, I don't expect them to suddenly change. Even when change would bring greater happiness over the long-term, I'm not betting against the comfort of status quo.
    - salemh 14y ago
      You are probably on to something with the lack of "retirement" (US, business and academia). Also, the change may lead to less happiness, from breaking such a long-term "routine" (I would say "life").
      - mikepmalai 14y ago
        It seems like with enough time we become institutionalized to a certain way of life and will reshape our happiness to fit perfectly to that world. Oddly, first time I saw the world this way was after watching Shawshank Redemption as a kid and seeing Brooks killing himself after he was freed. From that point on, a lot of the seemingly irrational decisions people make made a lot more sense to me.

Evbn 14y ago

Running a book shop with your FU money is completely different from running a book shop to put food onnthr table.