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Woz: 'I Am the Happiest Person'
- spacedcowboy 1y agoWhereas I am not trying to take anything away from Woz (I’ve never met that Steve, but by all accounts he’s a really nice guy), I can’t help but feel that his personality and the ethos he espouses have been made a lot more possible by the fact that he had a lot of disposable income…
- vdupras 1y agoOf course, it goes without saying. But on the other side, not many people would have what it take to not let that kind of wealth go to their head. This désinvolture has to be praised.
- seydor 1y agonot a lot of people dispose it
- gazpachotron 1y agoI've been to a lecture he gave, and Q&A session. I was left with no doubt that his ethos of joy and honesty predate his wealth and are entirely independent of it.
- pengaru 1y ago> I've been to a lecture he gave, and Q&A session. I was left with no doubt that his ethos of joy and honesty predate his wealth and are entirely independent of it. Don't most young people start life this way? It's the influences of time spent in the rat race and a society fighting for scraps that beats it out of us. I find those who struck it rich early and still turned out assholes more noteworthy.
- achenet 1y agoI started life in a family where money was often an issue, and it did give me some issues with it, which my chill dev job has actually helped me get over (I feel rich, so I'm generous). So sometimes it's the opposite, you start out needy and the 'rat race' actually brings you to a more abundant world-view :)
- chaps 1y agoNoteworthy in what way, exactly?
- pengaru 1y ago> Noteworthy in what way, exactly? Being kind to others costs something, the wealthy can inherently afford it. When they're still assholes it seems dysfunctional to me, like these folks are actively aspiring to be jerks. What a strange path to choose, when you have so many options at your disposal.
- esafak 1y agoYou said it costs something; getting along with other people, at least. They can afford not to do that.
- paulpauper 1y agobut he also had to live with having sold apple stock far too soon. Not that he cares that much .
- underlipton 1y agoI do wonder if the relative ease he might have had with his craft early on contributed, too. He doesn't strike me as someone who's ever really struggled to learn or produce, just met a steady stream of interesting, surmountable challenges (and was blessed to be able to eschew anything that would have been troublesome). Such a combination of prodigious talent and a keen awareness of where it ends probably makes for a pretty happy existence.
- tchalla 1y ago“Money isn’t everything in life but before you say that make sure you have enough money”
- bsimpson 1y ago"They say money can't buy happiness. It buys a Sea-Doo. You ever seen a sad person on a Sea-Doo?" - Daniel Tosh
- tchalla 1y agoI don’t know Daniel Tosh or what Sea-Doo. Can you explain this quote to me in like plain English where I don’t have to search something?
- orthoxerox 1y agoAlso called an aquabike or a jetski.
- spacedcowboy 1y agoI was going to complain about the baby-talk naming system, but frankly I’m not sure the others are much better…
- dcrazy 1y agoSea-Doo is a derivative of Ski-Doo. Both are made by Bombardier Recreational Products; the Sea-Doo is a “personal watercraft,” and the Ski-Doo is a snowmobile. The Ski-Doo came first, and I’m guessing the name is a pun on “twenty-three skidoo”, which Wikipedia says originally referred to “leaving quickly”, something like “skedaddle”. Obviously, a snowmobile allows one to travel quickly over the snow. So the etymology appears to be Skedaddle -> 23 Skidoo -> Ski-Doo -> Sea-Doo. (Edit: I’m wrong! Wikipedia says the Ski-Doo was originally supposed to be called the “Ski-Dog”, but someone made a typo and they stuck with it! So much for my attempt to reconstruct a derivation!) Jet Ski is also a trademark used by Kawasaki for their personal watercraft. It was designed by the same guy who designed the Sea-Doo for Bombardier.
- antithesizer 1y ago"While" not "whereas"
- spacedcowboy 1y agoPerhaps. I think it’s perfectly correct English, personally. If you’re American then your grammar rules might differ, I don’t know… “Whereas” can be used at the start of a sentence to introduce two contrasting clauses - in this case the first being his own statement, and the second being my rather more cynical money-based reasoning for his continuing wonderful personality.
- geodel 1y agoOf course. And he mentioned as such having multiple houses and USD 10M in accounts. There is no gotcha here.
- FirmwareBurner 1y agoYep. It's easy to be happy, bubbly, carefree and say money is not important to to you when you're set for life and don't ever have to worry about paying the mortgage, healthcare, childcare, bills, etc in one of the most expensive regions on the planet, but people without seven figures in the bank might disagree. Sure, he's not Musk, Bezos or Zuckerberg levels of rich, but compared to average folk who need to work for a living till retirement, he's still very, VERY rich.
- zer0zzz 1y agoI think that’s missing the point. This isn’t about glorifying being poor but understanding when enough is enough.
- rwmj 1y agoSet for life level of wealth (say, $2-3m) is achievable on a programmer's salary or for someone working in finance, and after only a decade or two of work. You just have to save and invest most of your salary instead of spending it all.
- herval 1y agoIs that really “set for life” amounts in the US these days? Sounds quite low. I can imagine it being a ton of money in the early 2000s, but not these days (unless you also have a fully paid out house on top of it, at least)
- jebarker 1y agoIt depends where you live and what your lifestyle expenses are. You can easily be set for most of your life on $3M if you live in a low CoL area and keep your expenses under control. Old age could wipe you out if you need a lot of care though.
- esalman 1y ago> his personality and the ethos he espouses We have to remember that it is a choice.
- dyauspitr 1y agoOf course, for most regular people money buys happiness.
- krupan 1y agoWrong. Sorry, but totally, completely wrong. 99% of people with the kind of money he has are nowhere near as happy as him. Many "poor" people are just as happy as him. The kind of money he has ruins the personal lives of so many people. I've heard him speak a few times and he's been happily married, happily taking care of his dogs, and just spreading joy and enthusiasm wherever he goes for years and years now. That doesn't require a lot of money at all. I worked at Fusion-io and he was sort of an employee there early on. We opened a tiny office in San Jose and he sat there and basically worked as a receptionist at that office for a while, just happily greeting people as they came and went. He's just a chill dude without pretension.
- gls2ro 1y agoI think we should compare the two sides in percentage and reason: How many people as percentage from the wealthy people are really unhappy and not just saying so because of (insert here guilt, peer pressure, fear of losing it all …) How many people as percentage from the poor people are happy (and not just saying so because they are trying to cope mentally with their helplessness situation) And I know that all this points to mindset. So lets ask the real question: On average how easy (as in having time, access, …) is to fix your mindset (whatever that fix is) when you are healthy or poor?
- layman51 1y agoMaybe, but recently I came across an article where he had reached out to scam victims who fell prey to scammers who used AI to copy Woz's likeness to dupe people into depositing cryptocurrency so that they could get it much more of it back. It's a classic scam that would have almost anyone blaming the victims for falling for it. But what was touching is that Woz had read some emails from victims who were confused. I think almost anyone would have ignored it, but he decided to at least try to fix it by filing a lawsuit on behalf of victims. I think the lawsuit ended up getting stuck since the scam relies on shady ads on YouTube. But I thought it was cool that at least he tried arguing that it is weird that scammers can make ads that impersonate others and it takes quite a while for them to get taken down.
- thr0waway001 1y agoyes that's true, but the but the guy had every opportunity to become a soulless money grubbing prick with hundreds of millions (or maybe even billions) instead of just tens of millions if he didn't have a good sense of compassion and generosity. But at some point he decided he had enough money and success and that it was important for other people who had been with Apple to get their fair share. In other words, he was a kind soul before the money and the success. The money and the success did not change him, but in fact, amplified his generosity and other good qualities. And to this day he remains a warm charismatic pioneer of Silicon Valley. Jobs, on the other hand, boy that guy was selfish to the bone, and though he was not as money hungry as other CEOs, the success really amplified his ugliest traits that allowed him to treat people as disposable including his own friend Wozniak. Worst thing he ever did, if you ask me, was deny his daughter Lisa even when he had the means to give her mother and his daughter a better life. He seemed spiteful in principle. I understand being skeptical at first about being alleged as the father of a kid, especially while you're trying to make it early on in your career, but after the paternity test proves you're the dad, and you have the means to provide, and you still don't then you are trash.
- 1970-01-01 1y ago>I earn money from my labor and pay something like 55% combined tax on it. I am the happiest person ever. Those juxtaposed sentences do not compute for the vast majority of ultrawealthy engineers/CEOs/upperclass/1%. It certainly proves that after a fuzzy but real number of dollars, there exists a point where you simply have a superfluous amount of money.
- paulpauper 1y agoIt kidna sucks having accomplished so much very early in life and then being "now what?" It's like he was never able to relive that glory of Apple, not that he necessarily wanted to. But it's like, 'what do you do to fill the time?'
- achenet 1y agoDo things you love with people you love. If you have kids, go be with them. Travel, see the world. Philanthropy. Start another business if you feel the urge. Meet people. Get into the arts (the founder of my present company, OVH, used his fortune to buy a bunch of guitars and become a performing musician, Ken Block used his DC money to get into car racing)... A creative soul like Woz will always find something worth doing :)
- mrexroad 1y agoConfused why this comment is downvoted, as it seems like an appropriate response. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Woz a few times over the years and even getting to spend a few hours with him on two occasions. Your last sentence pretty much sums up what I feel, along with that you can tell he just enjoys being helpful or just make others laugh. I’ve met plenty of other people with similar net worth where I cannot say the same. Edit: no longer gray by the time I typed this.
- martinpw 1y agoProbably feels a lot better than the opposite of spending your whole life hoping to achieve something and never feeling you quite did - always becoming and never being.
- dcrazy 1y agoI don’t think he was chasing glory, but he did a bunch of stuff post-Apple. In addition to the things mentioned in the book passage Gruber quoted, he funded the Us festival because he loves music.
- layer8 1y agoHe’s fortunate to have accomplished so much at all, and he seems to be aware of that good fortune.
- perihelions 1y agoAdditional comments here, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44903803 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44903803 ("Steve Wozniak: Life to me was never about accomplishment, but about happiness (slashdot.org)"—593 comments)
- algo_lover 1y agoThe only thing I feel is 2nd hand regret for Woz. What if he didn't cash out? What would his net worth be today? I am so caught up in the rat race, that I can't even understand what Woz want's to say, or what makes him happy. I only feel sad for him. But if you think about it, I actually feel sad for myself. If I were in Woz's position with ~$20m or so and had missed the Apple cash cow (assuming $500m at the very least), how would I react? Would I live my entire life with regret and remorse? Would I be bitter? Huge props to Woz for figuring out what makes him happy and doing exactly that.
- m463 1y ago> with ~$20m or so and had missed the Apple cash cow But he already HAD a lot more money, and he gave it away. Do you think his behavior or outlook would change if he had $500m? Parents should take their kids to the children's discovery museum (I think it is on Woz way). There is nothing quite like seeing kids enraptured by playing with water or bubbles. It is also amusing to watch closing time, as parents have to literally DRAG their crying kids away from it all out the door.
- tra3 1y agoHow about this: Steve J made ~10 billion at the time of his death at 56. Steve W made ~100 million and is still around at 75. To make math real simple, I would definitely pay $500 million a year to stick around.
- ozim 1y agoJobs is ultimately an example of how death doesn’t care what is your net worth.
- oceanhaiyang 1y agoAs is anyone.
- wkat4242 1y agoWell it kinda would have cared a bit but he himself didn't. He could have afforded the most bleeding edge treatments. But he chose to go to witch doctors instead.
- achenet 1y ago[flagged]
- chaps 1y agoanything beyond that I'll probably blow on various charitable projects to impress hot leftist chicks :) this made me shiver. gross.
- walterbell 1y agoOther tech pioneers who rode off into the sunset: Blackberry co-founder (sold stock when iPhone launched), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Fregin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Fregin Facebook co-founder (pushed out), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_Saverin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_Saverin MySpace founder (pushed out after sale), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Anderson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Anderson, "If you knew me before Myspace, you'd probably thought I'd have been a scholar teaching philosophy in a university my whole life. If you met me before college, you'd probably have thought I'd be a musician for my entire life ... I like change.
- simonebrunozzi 1y agoI met Saverin at a private event not long ago. I had high expectations, I came out deeply disappointed. He didn't share any interesting insight, and essentially avoided any confrontation or controversy in the discussion - even if it was completely private and non-recorded.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- herval 1y agoTrivia: Saverin still owns 2% of Facebook. He’s currently the richest Brazilian (and of Singapore, where he lives), according to multiple sources. Now _that_ is how you ride off into the sunset!
- FirmwareBurner 1y ago>Trivia: Saverin still owns 2% of Facebook. It also helps that he was financially well off before Facebook too and could afford top lawyers. I imagine things would have gone differently if he were some broke immigrant kid on a visa, getting buried by Zuck's lawyers. Justice may be blind, but it's definitely not free.
- brettgriffin 1y ago
- Zigurd 1y ago[flagged]
- IncreasePosts 1y agoHow can you tell how happy or unhappy thiel is?
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- cobbechampo 1y ago[flagged]
- themafia 1y agoI'm sorry, but without your time at Apple, people would probably not pay so lavishly to hear you speak. Your speaking money very much is a continuation of your "Apple wealth." I'm not sure how you can legitimately separate them. Anyways. Money. It buys happiness. Whoever says otherwise is a fool.
- ozim 1y agoIt seems like all the money Steve Jobs had didn’t help him to be a happy person. Pretty much what I feel from reading Issacson and fact Jobs died rather early.
- wnc3141 1y agoI think it's more of a "it depends" It's everything to someone facing the crushing anxiety of scarcity but "meh" to someone who spent most of their adult life being able to buy anything they want.
- kelnos 1y agoI think a better way to look at it is that money is no guarantee of happiness, but it usually doesn't hurt, can often help, and you're much more likely to be unhappy if you're poor/struggling.
- krupan 1y agoMoney absolutely hurts people's happiness in so many cases. Happiness has more to do with your attitude and relationships than anything else
- themafia 1y agoI think Steve loved running Apple more than he ever let on. Is his form of happiness identical to your or mine? Probably not. Was he exactly where he wanted to be in life? Absolutely.
- markx2 1y ago> Anyways. Money. It buys happiness. Whoever says otherwise is a fool. Money allows you choices. It does not buy happiness.
- __turbobrew__ 1y agoMoney doesn’t cause happiness, but poverty does cause grief.
- labrador 1y agoI used to be a software millionaire back in the 80's. My discovery is that money does buy happiness so the phrase should actually be "Money does buy happiness, but can't cure clinical depression." The list of wealthy people who have committed suicide is long, starting with my contemporaries Kurt Cobain, Chris Cantrell, Anthony Bourdain... and almost me. The money is gone now but I'm happy with enough to live comfortably.
- tasuki 1y ago> The money is gone now How did it happen? Millions in 80's sounds like a whole lot of money... > but I'm happy with enough to live comfortably. Congrats!
- labrador 1y agoI spent it all looking for a cure: therapy, travel, spiritual journies like road trips. My needs are low so the social security I paid into here in America is enough for me now. I'm happy like Woz.
- wood-porch 1y agoI’m glad you made it man. I don’t know how much longer I can hold out
- reilly3000 1y agoPlease keep trying. You are here for a reason.
- labrador 1y agoI feel for you. Try therapies like CBT. Check yourself in if you have to. You are not alone by a long shot.
- sharadov 1y agoAgree, I'm you now, but I feel I paid a huge price for that success - as an immigrant, I had no choice looking back. But after losing my dad a few months ago, I had an existential crisis, am slowly but surely limping back. Am glad you found peace.
- herval 1y agoI met Woz briefly at a Coffee Shop in NYC, many years ago. I was pitching investors for funding and had no idea what I was doing. He gave me some quick feedback that made a world of difference in SF (years later, when I tried raising angel money): get closer to people first. You don’t have to be their friends - just show up to where they show up (bars, meetups, library - anything), then tell them what you’re doing, and they’ll write you checks without you asking. This is still the key reason why raising money in the Bay Area is so much easier than anywhere else. I didn’t get any check from him that night, but he came across as such a human person - like someone you know for years - even to a complete stranger trying to go straight for his wallet. Tech would be amazing if we had 1000x more Wozes around.
- throwanem 1y agoIf it were still about something other than going straight for the wallet, maybe we would.
- herval 1y agoThere’s still idealists and inventors around. The problem is that the bulk of investment money these days comes through professional finance people (not the stereotypical “engineer who made a lot of money and now wants to help others”), who prioritize others who think like them, creating this self-fulfilling spiral of value extraction above all else. It’s the kind of thing you always see in “late stage” industries (eg aviation in the 1980s vs 1970s). It’s not irreversible though (eg there’s a small resurgence in hardware innovation happening right now, with companies like Framework, being funded by “idealist” investors, Pebble coming back, etc). I think lots of people expected AI to be that too (the new “world of opportunity” that would come with a new “platform”), although so far it seems to be shaping up as FAANG players fighting for control (which is a bit disappointing from a user’s perspective)
- throwanem 1y agoWhat happened after the dotcom boom?
- ChrisArchitect 1y ago[dupe] Main discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44903803 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44903803
- sharadov 1y agoWoz lives not too far from me and is a regular at the park I go to, walking his dogs. The first time I saw him, I wasn't sure if it was him, so asked a person nearby - he has a very distinctive look with his facial hair and smile. Since then, I've seen him a bunch of times, chatting with people and being friendly.
- crmd 1y agoTo me Woz is a connection back to the hippy-libertarian utopian engineering roots of Silicon Valley, decades before the current leaders, who seem to be much more misanthropic and ethically challenged than the generation of CEOs before them.
- nialv7 1y agoToo bad the world isn't run by people like him.
- temptemptemp111 1y ago[dead]
- RShackleford 1y ago[dead]
- bmitc 1y agoI would be as well.