6 ms·

Ask HN: what would you do if you did not have to work?

14 points by mynegation 13y ago

With all the latest talk about basic income and the future of work (or lack thereof), I am genuinely interested what would HN readers do if they did not have to work.

a3voices 13y ago
I'd probably sit around on the Internet most of the day.
karolisd 13y ago
I would just bike around, lay at the beach, and eat great food. And I would not have a care in the world. Serious answer. That would satisfy me.
mynegation 13y ago
I would go on long road trips through interesting places. But I would still create software along the way.
kevrone 13y ago
I would work. But not for someone else, and perhaps not for any clear goal or achievement. I would work patiently and methodically on long-term projects that could only be possible with that amount of leisure time.
zachlatta 13y ago
Work for myself, on things I'm interested in. Likely nonprofit work in the education space.
michaelkavanagh 13y ago
A lot of developers are so because of the need to fix problems, that and a flair for logical mathematics. Sitting on a beach sounds nice but I think it would only be a matter of time before members of this community try to come up with a solution to sitting on the beach. I think workers work. The satisfaction is in achievement of worth, or at least in the endeavor.
- rjwebb 13y ago
  If I sat on a beach, I'd have to take a computer with me...
munimkazia 13y ago
Travel. And work on my own side projects ( I guess you can't call them side projects any more, can you). Not for immediate gains, but for the long term goal of building a good product.
strwbrry 13y ago
Great question and it's one that is driving my current plans for 2014 "to wake up and do what I want to do". I would spend a lot more time with my wife and daughter even in the small things such as taking my girl to school and picking her up. I would spend more time being aware, walking and meditating. I would then spend a huge chunk of time giving somehow. I have a few projects me and my wife are starting in this area such as running a free course for new parents on how to resuscitate babies, top 5 risks for new borns etc And travel!
poissonpie 13y ago
Go back to university and study more. I would probably start with arts - literature, music and move towards psychology, philosophy, medicine, economics and if time permitted, some languages. I could happily spend my days learning.
codegeek 13y ago
I already try to do these things but not with complete freedom because I have to make money and that takes my time. But if I had complete independence, then in order: 1. Spend time with my family and friends as much as I can. 2. Travel around the world (with family/friends again) 3. Teach for free whatever I can. 4. Get really good at few of the things: Guitar, Martial Arts, handyman at my house etc.
ElongatedTowel 13y ago
You're asking for plans, but I'd like to tell you what actually happened for me. As someone who did this in the past for far too long I've seen the darkness that emerges. I'd rate myself 2/10 in terms of willpower and 8/10 in terms of can-always-find-something-interesting. I probably handled it better than most people would (never ended up unshaven for weeks in a yellowed wifebeater), which to be honest frightens me whenever the topic of not-having-to-work comes up. A bad day might have looked like this: 1. Get up at 11AM. 2. Eat for an hour while watching some Let's Play/V-Log or listening to some podcast. 3. Start reading blogs and learning which after an hour turns into reading bullshit that leaves my brain a day after. 4. Play guitar for two hours. 5. Play videogames for two hours. If lucky with people over skype (the tiniest amount of social interaction for the day) 6. Repeat the eat-watch-routine 7. Lift weights for an hour 8. Repeat the eat-watch-routine 9. Reddit/HN 10. Get bored by the general Reddit/HN and read the weird subreddits instead 11. Do what I call the horny-but-jerking-off-in-5-minutes-is-too-fast routine which I guess releases quite the potent mix of endorphines because I might end up sitting there for an hour with my pants open 12. If nothing good comes up I use my useless amount of private torrent tracker invites to find some porn I've never seen before (which becomes increasingly rare). If I'm too lazy to do that I just browse around and might come across some weird shit like Japanese women squirting milk on each others out of their ass (I guess that's pretty tame in comparison). Not that it matters, my mind is sometimes so numb, I could jerk off to a car accident 13. Lament for an hour where my life has gone while doing Yoga and stretching to bottle up some memories 14. Play a poker freeroll and lose 15. Refocus and write 20 lines of code for a project that I'll never finish in a hundred years 16. Throw a coin. Heads I shower, shave and promise myself tomorrow will be the day everything changes. Tails I contemplate suicide again. 17. Cry myself to sleep if bottled up memories come to light At the end of the day I'm a better guitarist, one step closer to beeing jacked and one step closer to insanity. That must be the reason why some rockstars are complete lunatics.
- GFischer 13y ago
  What was your life situation then? Were you independently wealthy or just basic income (as the author suggests)? Were you looking forward to something? How did you break the circle?
Casseres 13y ago
As someone who plans to stop working for income in the next 5 to 10 years, I've put some thought into it. 1) Volunteer. This is the only thing in my list that I know I will do for certain. I don't want to become a sloth, and doing so would seem like a crime against humanity when I have so much to offer. I genuinely like helping people. It's also a great way to meet interesting people. While it's not really a reason, I also find that I'm more of a producer than a consumer. 2) Travel. Nothing too extravagant. I'll still be watching my penny bank so I don't cause myself to have to go back to work for an income. 3) Backpacking. It's important to me to be able to connect with nature sometimes. 4) Write two novels that I already have ideas for. 5) Write essays on the human condition.
- mercer 13y ago
  That sounds like a great combination. I've found that volunteering and traveling are wonderful in themselves, but also 'unlock' the ability to write and produce things I want to produce, rather than sit around and do nothing (and eventually feel bad about it). I'll be embarking for something similar, but for about a year. I wish you all the best, and would love to hear what you have to say about humanity.
ereckers 13y ago
If I didn't have to work because of money concerns I'd probably become a hobbyist fishing guide, which can still be work in some sense. If I didn't have to work because of a basic income guarantee I'd probably still work. It would feel different to me, plus a basic income guarantee I doubt will be financial boon in a sense that you could do something other than working.
petercooper 13y ago
I had a couple of years like this after selling a business (for non-crazy money) coupled with stumbling onto an accidental Adsense scenario where I had $2-10k coming in monthly for zero work. In short, I just alternated between goofing off and being bummed out. Once that faucet dried up after a Google reranking I started working again (still for myself), then got married, had kids, etc. Now I always have tons to do, am upbeat 99% of the time, and doing better than ever! I've learnt working and making money in exchange for what I do is a core part of what keeps me happy and sane. If a basic income were available and high enough in my 20s, I'd have stayed on it, probably remained single forever, and lived a hikikomori-esque lifestyle.. which is why I remain a little skeptical of some basic income ideas despite appreciating the idea. Would all people be like me? No. But I think a higher basic income for everyone who holds down a job is a far better idea and we already have something mildly like that in the UK.
OafTobark 13y ago
I'm in that situation already and if you had asked me this question before, I would have said something along the lines of travel, have fun, or some other variation thereof. The reality is while I did do those things for awhile, what I ended up doing was went back to "work". By work I mean grinding on other things of interest to me. I can't speak for others but its incredibly tough for me to not proactively work on something I enjoy, especially once you have develop the habit of getting use to working a lot.
collyw 13y ago
Whitewater kayaking, lots of it. Learn to surf. Cook nice stuff every day. There are many things I enjoy more than coding, but coding is sometimes fun, and does pay the bills.

14 points by mynegation 13y ago

With all the latest talk about basic income and the future of work (or lack thereof), I am genuinely interested what would HN readers do if they did not have to work.

a3voices 13y ago

I'd probably sit around on the Internet most of the day.

karolisd 13y ago

I would just bike around, lay at the beach, and eat great food. And I would not have a care in the world. Serious answer. That would satisfy me.

mynegation 13y ago

I would go on long road trips through interesting places. But I would still create software along the way.

kevrone 13y ago

I would work. But not for someone else, and perhaps not for any clear goal or achievement. I would work patiently and methodically on long-term projects that could only be possible with that amount of leisure time.

zachlatta 13y ago

Work for myself, on things I'm interested in. Likely nonprofit work in the education space.

michaelkavanagh 13y ago

A lot of developers are so because of the need to fix problems, that and a flair for logical mathematics. Sitting on a beach sounds nice but I think it would only be a matter of time before members of this community try to come up with a solution to sitting on the beach. I think workers work. The satisfaction is in achievement of worth, or at least in the endeavor.

rjwebb 13y ago
If I sat on a beach, I'd have to take a computer with me...

munimkazia 13y ago

Travel. And work on my own side projects ( I guess you can't call them side projects any more, can you). Not for immediate gains, but for the long term goal of building a good product.

strwbrry 13y ago

Great question and it's one that is driving my current plans for 2014 "to wake up and do what I want to do". I would spend a lot more time with my wife and daughter even in the small things such as taking my girl to school and picking her up. I would spend more time being aware, walking and meditating. I would then spend a huge chunk of time giving somehow. I have a few projects me and my wife are starting in this area such as running a free course for new parents on how to resuscitate babies, top 5 risks for new borns etc And travel!

poissonpie 13y ago

Go back to university and study more. I would probably start with arts - literature, music and move towards psychology, philosophy, medicine, economics and if time permitted, some languages. I could happily spend my days learning.

codegeek 13y ago

I already try to do these things but not with complete freedom because I have to make money and that takes my time. But if I had complete independence, then in order: 1. Spend time with my family and friends as much as I can. 2. Travel around the world (with family/friends again) 3. Teach for free whatever I can. 4. Get really good at few of the things: Guitar, Martial Arts, handyman at my house etc.

ElongatedTowel 13y ago

You're asking for plans, but I'd like to tell you what actually happened for me. As someone who did this in the past for far too long I've seen the darkness that emerges. I'd rate myself 2/10 in terms of willpower and 8/10 in terms of can-always-find-something-interesting. I probably handled it better than most people would (never ended up unshaven for weeks in a yellowed wifebeater), which to be honest frightens me whenever the topic of not-having-to-work comes up. A bad day might have looked like this: 1. Get up at 11AM. 2. Eat for an hour while watching some Let's Play/V-Log or listening to some podcast. 3. Start reading blogs and learning which after an hour turns into reading bullshit that leaves my brain a day after. 4. Play guitar for two hours. 5. Play videogames for two hours. If lucky with people over skype (the tiniest amount of social interaction for the day) 6. Repeat the eat-watch-routine 7. Lift weights for an hour 8. Repeat the eat-watch-routine 9. Reddit/HN 10. Get bored by the general Reddit/HN and read the weird subreddits instead 11. Do what I call the horny-but-jerking-off-in-5-minutes-is-too-fast routine which I guess releases quite the potent mix of endorphines because I might end up sitting there for an hour with my pants open 12. If nothing good comes up I use my useless amount of private torrent tracker invites to find some porn I've never seen before (which becomes increasingly rare). If I'm too lazy to do that I just browse around and might come across some weird shit like Japanese women squirting milk on each others out of their ass (I guess that's pretty tame in comparison). Not that it matters, my mind is sometimes so numb, I could jerk off to a car accident 13. Lament for an hour where my life has gone while doing Yoga and stretching to bottle up some memories 14. Play a poker freeroll and lose 15. Refocus and write 20 lines of code for a project that I'll never finish in a hundred years 16. Throw a coin. Heads I shower, shave and promise myself tomorrow will be the day everything changes. Tails I contemplate suicide again. 17. Cry myself to sleep if bottled up memories come to light At the end of the day I'm a better guitarist, one step closer to beeing jacked and one step closer to insanity. That must be the reason why some rockstars are complete lunatics.

GFischer 13y ago
What was your life situation then? Were you independently wealthy or just basic income (as the author suggests)? Were you looking forward to something? How did you break the circle?

Casseres 13y ago

As someone who plans to stop working for income in the next 5 to 10 years, I've put some thought into it. 1) Volunteer. This is the only thing in my list that I know I will do for certain. I don't want to become a sloth, and doing so would seem like a crime against humanity when I have so much to offer. I genuinely like helping people. It's also a great way to meet interesting people. While it's not really a reason, I also find that I'm more of a producer than a consumer. 2) Travel. Nothing too extravagant. I'll still be watching my penny bank so I don't cause myself to have to go back to work for an income. 3) Backpacking. It's important to me to be able to connect with nature sometimes. 4) Write two novels that I already have ideas for. 5) Write essays on the human condition.

mercer 13y ago
That sounds like a great combination. I've found that volunteering and traveling are wonderful in themselves, but also 'unlock' the ability to write and produce things I want to produce, rather than sit around and do nothing (and eventually feel bad about it). I'll be embarking for something similar, but for about a year. I wish you all the best, and would love to hear what you have to say about humanity.

ereckers 13y ago

If I didn't have to work because of money concerns I'd probably become a hobbyist fishing guide, which can still be work in some sense. If I didn't have to work because of a basic income guarantee I'd probably still work. It would feel different to me, plus a basic income guarantee I doubt will be financial boon in a sense that you could do something other than working.

petercooper 13y ago

I had a couple of years like this after selling a business (for non-crazy money) coupled with stumbling onto an accidental Adsense scenario where I had $2-10k coming in monthly for zero work. In short, I just alternated between goofing off and being bummed out. Once that faucet dried up after a Google reranking I started working again (still for myself), then got married, had kids, etc. Now I always have tons to do, am upbeat 99% of the time, and doing better than ever! I've learnt working and making money in exchange for what I do is a core part of what keeps me happy and sane. If a basic income were available and high enough in my 20s, I'd have stayed on it, probably remained single forever, and lived a hikikomori-esque lifestyle.. which is why I remain a little skeptical of some basic income ideas despite appreciating the idea. Would all people be like me? No. But I think a higher basic income for everyone who holds down a job is a far better idea and we already have something mildly like that in the UK.

OafTobark 13y ago

I'm in that situation already and if you had asked me this question before, I would have said something along the lines of travel, have fun, or some other variation thereof. The reality is while I did do those things for awhile, what I ended up doing was went back to "work". By work I mean grinding on other things of interest to me. I can't speak for others but its incredibly tough for me to not proactively work on something I enjoy, especially once you have develop the habit of getting use to working a lot.

collyw 13y ago

Whitewater kayaking, lots of it. Learn to surf. Cook nice stuff every day. There are many things I enjoy more than coding, but coding is sometimes fun, and does pay the bills.