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I have reached that point, and it's still impossible to answer. :-)

by sivers 13y ago

saganus 13y ago
Then perhaps you need to do some more soul-searching? Not saying it's a bad thing that you have reached this point and haven't figured "the answer" yet, but I'm pretty sure "the answer" is probably somewhere inside of you. I have not reached that point.. yet (I hope I will, rather sooner than later), but supposing I did reached that point, let's say, yesterday, oh boy, there are soooo many things that I would love to be doing. For instance, after maybe going on a shopping spree for all those things that I've always wanted (truly not that many or that extravagant), for example setting up a very nice NAS + Media Center for my house, getting a swimming pool maybe, a laptop upgrade (mine is past 7 years of daily use...) and maybe stuff for my girlfriend/wife, I would then spend a few months travelling (not the whole world mind you, maybe 4-5 2-month trips or so). But aside from inane things and materialistic desires... I would love to do a few things (besides spending time with family/friends) that would make up my "daily life", meaning I would like to do this as a form of retirement. - Study without worrying if I'm going to be able to maintain the scholarship for example. Just get a Physics degree and maybe a chemistry one. - Put an animal shelter and then replicate if successful, i.e. put a LOT of shelters throughout my country. - My most desired idea: To develop what I call an "Idea Lab", which is something I'm sure a lot of other people have thought of. What about using my bottomless bucket of money to fund really neat and cool ideas that a lot of normal folks have, and having a staff of engineers, mathematicians, and in general all types of scientists and makers, to make these ideas come to life. Ideas that should help other people like water purification tools/processes, clean energy generation, etc. I think those are the 3 things that would very easily consume my life if I had no need for money. I would love for example to donate to my college a building or two, computers, maybe pay lecture for really cool guys to inspire students, etc. In short, I do actually dream on becoming wealthy enough not to care about my survival so I could help others around me. First family and friends and then my immediate community. And finally, if I actually become like ultra-rich, I would just DIE to put my own space company and help, even if a tiny bit, to get humanity out of this planet and unto the stars. In that regard I think something like Carmack's Armadillo Aerospace would absolutely rock! But of course, like someone else mentioned before, that's what I say I will do in my hypothetically perfect world. But I like to think that I won't deviate much from the general idea.... of course only time will tell. PS: Now that I think of it, I would certainly look at putting libraries around my hometown for example. Real libraries (like with books and maybe even classrooms or something). What about putting some type of "online university", that's basically a building with the necessary tools to let people study coursers from Coursera and the like? and maybe even have "TA's" that would help you out if you got stuck. I think that could go a long way to help people bootstrap themselves out of poverty, like one other poster commented before. So no giving away free money, but the opportunity to make something for yourself. Which coming in from a third world country, let me tell you how satisfactory it is to see someone that had everything against them, succeed and be a happy person. ...and of course I would like a pony that shits rainbows... but like my dad likes to say "the cool thing about imagination is that it's free, so why dream small?"
conductr 13y ago
Me too and that's exactly my point. I don't know you but based on your writing and presence here on HN we probably have a few things in common. Specifically a need to be challenged and a need to learn and/or explore. This leads us to change as a person each day and it is very interesting the types of things a person will pursue when not pursuing money. For that matter, the same applies to marriage. When I stopped pursuing a mate I had the time to indulge on myself. Some of the weirdest things I've done that I never would have seen coming: - paint. I literally rent a warehouse so I can paint on massive canvases. Been doing it for years now, I don't show off my work, I have no need to be an artist I have a need to be creative - work a 9-5 mega corp job. I know this sounds like a bummer to most of the HN world. But it keeps me active. Gives me a place to be and a regular schedule and a network of friend. Where I live 5 days a week there is nobody my age that isn't at work. Without a job, my natural habit it to be nocturnal and I don't live in on of the few cities where that is reasonably possible. - code for fun and not the profit. I've coded since ~97, that's when I was in high school. Before that, I wasn't a typical kid that was coding back then. I was semi-popular bully/pothead/dropout kid that just wanted to party all the time. But I always liked math so my counselors would force me towards computers. That changed everything for me. I never saw it coming but now recognize that was the most pivotal part of my life Point is, speculating on what you will want to do with your time in the future assuming two of the biggest variables in our society were removed or became inapplicable to you is like guessing what the price of bitcoin will be in 3 years. You can guess, and probably make a solid case to defend your guess but more than likely three years from now you will be proved wrong. Either way I agree with your message and agree that you should strive for this thought process. Always chase a passion and always look for new ones. Too much focus on money and fame will likely not fulfill you in the long run.

I have reached that point, and it's still impossible to answer. :-)

by sivers 13y ago

I have reached that point, and it's still impossible to answer. :-)

Then perhaps you need to do some more soul-searching? Not saying it's a bad thing that you have reached this point and haven't figured "the answer" yet, but I'm pretty sure "the answer" is probably somewhere inside of you. I have not reached that point.. yet (I hope I will, rather sooner than later), but supposing I did reached that point, let's say, yesterday, oh boy, there are soooo many things that I would love to be doing. For instance, after maybe going on a shopping spree for all those things that I've always wanted (truly not that many or that extravagant), for example setting up a very nice NAS + Media Center for my house, getting a swimming pool maybe, a laptop upgrade (mine is past 7 years of daily use...) and maybe stuff for my girlfriend/wife, I would then spend a few months travelling (not the whole world mind you, maybe 4-5 2-month trips or so). But aside from inane things and materialistic desires... I would love to do a few things (besides spending time with family/friends) that would make up my "daily life", meaning I would like to do this as a form of retirement. - Study without worrying if I'm going to be able to maintain the scholarship for example. Just get a Physics degree and maybe a chemistry one. - Put an animal shelter and then replicate if successful, i.e. put a LOT of shelters throughout my country. - My most desired idea: To develop what I call an "Idea Lab", which is something I'm sure a lot of other people have thought of. What about using my bottomless bucket of money to fund really neat and cool ideas that a lot of normal folks have, and having a staff of engineers, mathematicians, and in general all types of scientists and makers, to make these ideas come to life. Ideas that should help other people like water purification tools/processes, clean energy generation, etc. I think those are the 3 things that would very easily consume my life if I had no need for money. I would love for example to donate to my college a building or two, computers, maybe pay lecture for really cool guys to inspire students, etc. In short, I do actually dream on becoming wealthy enough not to care about my survival so I could help others around me. First family and friends and then my immediate community. And finally, if I actually become like ultra-rich, I would just DIE to put my own space company and help, even if a tiny bit, to get humanity out of this planet and unto the stars. In that regard I think something like Carmack's Armadillo Aerospace would absolutely rock! But of course, like someone else mentioned before, that's what I say I will do in my hypothetically perfect world. But I like to think that I won't deviate much from the general idea.... of course only time will tell. PS: Now that I think of it, I would certainly look at putting libraries around my hometown for example. Real libraries (like with books and maybe even classrooms or something). What about putting some type of "online university", that's basically a building with the necessary tools to let people study coursers from Coursera and the like? and maybe even have "TA's" that would help you out if you got stuck. I think that could go a long way to help people bootstrap themselves out of poverty, like one other poster commented before. So no giving away free money, but the opportunity to make something for yourself. Which coming in from a third world country, let me tell you how satisfactory it is to see someone that had everything against them, succeed and be a happy person. ...and of course I would like a pony that shits rainbows... but like my dad likes to say "the cool thing about imagination is that it's free, so why dream small?"

conductr 13y ago

Me too and that's exactly my point. I don't know you but based on your writing and presence here on HN we probably have a few things in common. Specifically a need to be challenged and a need to learn and/or explore. This leads us to change as a person each day and it is very interesting the types of things a person will pursue when not pursuing money. For that matter, the same applies to marriage. When I stopped pursuing a mate I had the time to indulge on myself. Some of the weirdest things I've done that I never would have seen coming: - paint. I literally rent a warehouse so I can paint on massive canvases. Been doing it for years now, I don't show off my work, I have no need to be an artist I have a need to be creative - work a 9-5 mega corp job. I know this sounds like a bummer to most of the HN world. But it keeps me active. Gives me a place to be and a regular schedule and a network of friend. Where I live 5 days a week there is nobody my age that isn't at work. Without a job, my natural habit it to be nocturnal and I don't live in on of the few cities where that is reasonably possible. - code for fun and not the profit. I've coded since ~97, that's when I was in high school. Before that, I wasn't a typical kid that was coding back then. I was semi-popular bully/pothead/dropout kid that just wanted to party all the time. But I always liked math so my counselors would force me towards computers. That changed everything for me. I never saw it coming but now recognize that was the most pivotal part of my life Point is, speculating on what you will want to do with your time in the future assuming two of the biggest variables in our society were removed or became inapplicable to you is like guessing what the price of bitcoin will be in 3 years. You can guess, and probably make a solid case to defend your guess but more than likely three years from now you will be proved wrong. Either way I agree with your message and agree that you should strive for this thought process. Always chase a passion and always look for new ones. Too much focus on money and fame will likely not fulfill you in the long run.