[HN Gopher] Ask HN: What would you spend your time working on if...
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Ask HN: What would you spend your time working on if you didn't
need money?
basically what would your ideal job be, in an ideal world? would
you contribute towards making society more rational, healthy, and
well-coordinated? or do you have better ideas? sorry if this is a
silly question just a random thought.
Author : gooob
Score : 85 points
Date : 2024-05-28 13:13 UTC (9 hours ago)
| gregorymichael wrote:
| Check out the book From Strength To Strength by Arthur Brooks.
| It's a bit of a mid-life crisis book that addresses this. In
| short: develop hobbies, invest in friends/community, explore
| spiritually.
| keploy wrote:
| If cash wasn't a thing, I'd be all in on creating a system that
| lets you transfer your memories and brainpower into another body
| or a robot.
|
| I'll let you laugh at this like others, but I'm serious.
| akomtu wrote:
| When this becomes possible, prisons will become very compact: a
| micro SD card to trap one's consciousness.
| persnickety wrote:
| As you might expect, there's a Black Mirror episode not far
| from that (IIRC "White Christmas"). And several other works
| of literature.
| vlod wrote:
| Curious how one starts doing this. Don't we need several
| generations of Neuralink to even start?
| Cypher wrote:
| I'd read and relax and take care of myself more
| theGeatZhopa wrote:
| Some voluntary work and care giving to others who need help. I
| would do some social projects supporting the teens finding
| orientation. That's what I would do.
| oumua_don17 wrote:
| Fortunately, I have reached that stage.
|
| OTOH, still figuring out what to do next.
|
| I keep reminding myself of what PG had to say: By compressing the
| dull but necessary task of making a living into the smallest
| possible time, you show respect for life, and there is something
| grand about that.
| thiago_fm wrote:
| I'd focus on becoming more spiritual, spending more time in
| nature, reducing my waste footprint and disconnecting from the
| world.
|
| I don't believe that "making society more rational, healthy, and
| well-coordinated" is a contribution; this sounds like those who
| have private jets and go to global conventions to about saving
| the environment. It sounds to me like you are a narcissist as
| well, to think that you are more rational than others or know
| better just because you have money.
|
| The world is pretty rational, if they aren't healthy, it's
| because people are building the Coke's and Kraft Heinz around the
| world, companies that are predatory and exploit weaknesses of
| others.
|
| Try to live a life that you no longer need to exploit others, or
| animals, or the environment you live in, and of course, document
| it so others can do it as well.
|
| There are way too many rich folks already trying to change the
| world and making it worse because they are only looking at the
| bright side, not the side-effects of what they do, much less on
| how they live.
|
| Rich people don't try to do this because they know it's really
| hard. Living sustainably is harder than having a job or making
| money.
| irq wrote:
| This is the most realistic answer provided in this post thus
| far, and I feel the downvotes are just proving the point. _Not
| needing money doesn't make you an expert on the world_, please
| repeat that to yourself and everyone else on that path.
| jjice wrote:
| I'm not sure, and that slightly concerning to me. I'm on the path
| to be financially independent within the decade, but I'm not
| really sure what I'd do in that case. I'd probably keep writing
| software (since that's my first love) and just have the complete
| freedom to quit a job or take time off if I want.
|
| I'd like to get into some more hobbies, since I really went 100%
| in on software once I started working full time and I'd really
| hate to burn out on this. Working a shorter week or with more
| half days would be great too. We'll see. Life changes.
| bbkane wrote:
| Some people get a lot of meaning out of helping others;
| probably worth a try
| xur17 wrote:
| I'm on a similar path, and still haven't figured it out. My
| main recommendation would be to increase the time you spend on
| hobbies, travelling, volunteering, etc. Use the next few years
| to figure out what you enjoy, and what you are retiring to.
| Slowly let it expand to fill your available time.
|
| And if you decide not to stop working, there is something truly
| freeing about knowing that you don't need the job. In some
| cases I'd argue that it actually makes you a better employee
| (since you aren't willing to put up with bs, play politics,
| etc).
| PretzelSweat wrote:
| I'd probably jump between service based positions gear towards
| helping others/community even if they resemble a job.
|
| Cobbler, Librarian, Prepare food in a school, stage crew, idc
| just something relatively physical and with an end
| product/objective and for the support of others/something. It
| would probably change every 3 - 6 months or so.
| leros wrote:
| I don't think I would work. I would pour myself full time into a
| few creative pursuits like woodworking. I would also travel a
| lot.
| anonymoushn wrote:
| Probably making LLVM compile times not suck or something.
| cauefcr wrote:
| Someone retire this man.
| Ajay-p wrote:
| There's two different ways of answering this question: What would
| I do if I didn't need money for myself, and what would I do if I
| didn't need money for myself but had money for others.
|
| In the first, I would keep working and enjoy life. In the latter,
| I would use it to help others. Specifically investing in
| technologies, companies, and public policy that helps people with
| disabilities and make their lives easier; better jobs, housing,
| everyday life, etc.
| saintkaye wrote:
| Trying to improve the drop in sex & reproduction. Or make
| Japanese style game shows in the US.
| more_corn wrote:
| I'm stuck here picturing these two efforts combined.
| momentmaker wrote:
| Put more energy into this movement: `walk, talk, meditate`[0]
|
| [0]: https://github.com/momentmaker/walk-talk-meditate
| soobinrho wrote:
| Love it! I will definitely try to make these a part of my
| lifestyle.
| 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
| Open source projects.
|
| Gardening.
| KingOfCoders wrote:
| As a CTO coach helping others having a better life, probably the
| same thing :-)
| nickdothutton wrote:
| I feel like my answer should be something reliable like
| "educating the next generation", but instead I think what I'd
| actually do is some kind of "shoot for the moon" / "hail mary"
| ultra ambitious project (hopefully with a bunch of similarly
| motivated and smart people).
| danjl wrote:
| I'm a programmer. I've reached this stage. I still write code.
| glitchc wrote:
| Work on problems that interest me.
| orlandrescu wrote:
| I would work on improving HaikuOS.
| helpfulContrib wrote:
| Teaching kids computers. Old computers, not new ones. Giving them
| the tools they need to be really, really good hackers.
| mattgreenrocks wrote:
| Not a silly question, worth revisiting periodically.
|
| I'd spend part of the time doing some sort of weight-lifting or
| low-stress cardio, part of the time working on independent
| B2B/B2C software ventures, and part of the time training as a
| musician.
|
| Eventually I'd like to add some component of service to others
| there, but I haven't really felt a pull to that yet.
| cashsterling wrote:
| A free, open-source, federated platform for scientific/technical
| collaboration & publishing.
| hnthrowaway0328 wrote:
| I'd ask the same question, but with a sinister twist:
|
| What would you do if you don't worry about money AND law
| enforcement?
| silverquiet wrote:
| With enough money, you don't need to worry about law
| enforcement.
| more_corn wrote:
| Adding counter spin: And you had the unquestioned backing of
| world leaders ala the wall watchers in The Three Body Problem.
|
| What would you do if you didn't have to worry about money, or
| opposition, and the sky itself wasn't even the limit.
| markus_zhang wrote:
| I will create a global society that is mostly a dictate of
| scientists and engineers. My point: It's better to be
| dictated by scientists and engineers than lawyers and
| accountants, if we have to be dictated.
|
| - It is MANDATORY to receive STEM education up to
| undergraduate level AND pass several tests unless you are
| proved to be unfit by more than one independent medical
| institutions;
|
| - A commission consists of global scientific and engineering
| elites dictate what scientific humans should pursue in the
| next X years. So for example it could be Space exploration,
| etc;
|
| - All basic needs are free. Food, housing, clothing,
| transportation, entertainment etc are free. But any
| extravagant material (e.g. a family of 3 wants a 3,000 s.f.
| detached house with a 2-acre land? That's extravagant) is
| expensive and may require extraordinary contribution to
| Science or Engineering;
|
| - All other resources are poured into research and
| development of above mentioned scientific pursuits;
|
| - We don't really need a monetary system because most of the
| basic needs are free. Instead we have a "contribution point"
| system. Detail to be revealed;
|
| I could probably go on and on but that's the basic ideas.
| vlod wrote:
| Since you're on a throwaway account, I'm assuming you've
| already started this machiavellian endevour. ;-)
| hnthrowaway0328 wrote:
| I wish I had the $$$$...
| YossarianFrPrez wrote:
| I used to be a data scientist, I'm now a grad student researching
| personality development. There are easier ways to make a lot more
| money, but I feel like I'm doing the deepest possible work, given
| my interests and skillset.
| nlarion wrote:
| Stopping climate change, and helping homeless would be at the top
| of my list, and if those are not up your alley space exploration
| and AGI seem fun.
|
| For bonus points, you could work on not making us poor folk feel
| bad for having to work a 9-5! ;)
| silisili wrote:
| Gardening and either a small farm or animal rescue.
| tastyfreeze wrote:
| I would have a nut tree orchard and nursery. I love gardening and
| being outside. If I didn't need to work to support my family I
| would risk starting a nursery.
| mdavid626 wrote:
| I'd build race cars.
| faxmeyourcode wrote:
| I would not touch another computer for a very long time.
| SoftTalker wrote:
| Yep. I'd cut computer technology out of my life as much as I
| could.
| asdf6969 wrote:
| In an ideal world I obviously wouldn't have a job.
| forgueam wrote:
| A depressing reality to this question is to just look at the
| current crop of billionaires. None of them need money, yet many
| of them spend their time pursuing more.
|
| I know all of us have these quaint answers about all the noble or
| fulfilling things we would do, but the data doesn't seem to
| support that.
| generalizations wrote:
| Glass half full, or glass half empty? Look at the ones who are
| doing noble/fulfilling things.
| monsieurbanana wrote:
| There's a bit less than 3000 billionaires, are you sure you're
| not just hearing about a very vocal minority?
|
| Not to mention survivorship bias, the ones that reach that kind
| of wealth like money more than (other people's) life itself,
| often quite literally.
| 13of40 wrote:
| I've met people who were born into enough money they never
| needed to work, and a lot of them are just pretty normal people
| sans jobs. I think the interesting question here would be how
| would you live if you had enough without working, but little
| enough that you still had to think about how to stretch it over
| a lifetime. E.g. are you flying first class to spend a few days
| skiing in the Alps this weekend? Probably not, but you can make
| sandwiches and go for a hike instead of clocking in to work.
| ghaff wrote:
| The specifics do matter. You can have a very comfortable
| month-long international trip for certainly low five figures.
| (Obviously can do less but a few $K/week for a couple is a
| reasonable baseline.) You can also quickly add to the tab by
| picking the luxury hotels, first class flights, limos, etc.
| that may or may not add a lot to the experience considering.
|
| I've traveled a lot and sometimes the splurge is really worth
| it. Often, it's not unless the money involved is just pocket
| lint to the person.
| 13of40 wrote:
| I agree - I've travelled enough on my own dime and the
| corporate one to know that you definitely don't want to get
| the cheapest room on Expedia, but satisfaction doesn't
| scale linearly with the amount you spend. Filet mignon
| doesn't automatically beat a nice warm rock to sit on.
| oops wrote:
| See Selection bias
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selection_bias
| more_corn wrote:
| Because the work they do is satisfying and interesting. Take
| that away and they're less of a person. They can't stop because
| the person they are is tied up with what they do.
| karaterobot wrote:
| I mean, I think it is a different scenario. The kind of person
| who makes a billion dollars has something going on in their
| brain that makes them want to keep going. Think about it: by
| the point where they've made a billion dollars, they've long
| since passed on the opportunity to retire comfortably. They
| already had all the money they needed, and, faced with the
| chance to stop, they decided to stay in. They flew past $10MM,
| past $50MM, even $100MM--far more than anyone could ever spend
| unless they really tried--all while saying "no, I'm not done
| yet". I would not expect someone with this mentality to
| suddenly stop at $1 billion. They are in it for something other
| than reaching the point of not having to work anymore. I'm not
| saying I admire them, in fact it sounds like a terrifying inner
| life to me.
|
| On the other hand, the rest of us, the 98.7% of people who are
| only working for the paycheck that allows us to do the other
| things we actually want to do instead of our jobs. The extent
| to which we work is the extent to which we must pay for those
| needs. Remove the need to work, and we wouldn't be working
| anymore--not at those jobs, anyway.
|
| What I'm saying is, I believe non-generational billionaires are
| weird outliers, and we can ignore them for the purposes of this
| question.
| datavirtue wrote:
| Our CEO is obsessed with "engagement." He has a problem where
| older employees are not engaged and are retiring in droves,
| and the incoming employees couldn't give two shits less about
| the company. They keep begging retirees to return.
|
| I think this is microcosim of our wider economy. If it is,
| output is going to fall off a cliff, soon.
| aristofun wrote:
| I wouldn't work. I would play with my kids, travel and have fun.
| robotburrito wrote:
| I'd probably just own some kind of cycling adjacent
| coffee/bicycle shop where I barely do anything but nod towards my
| workers and talk with everyone who visits.
| nanomonkey wrote:
| Have you read, 'A Psalm For The Wild Built' by Becky Chambers?
| The protagonist is a monk that cycles around on a bicycle-
| camper making tea for people, and ends up making friends with
| wild robots. Touching...I've thought of serving coffee and tea
| at the nearby parks via bicycle often. A physical location such
| as yours would be nice too.
| yial wrote:
| I'd build handcrafted furniture, millwork, etc. give it away.
| Help others in the community / area with projects. Sail, grow
| more food, spend more time reflecting, staring at clouds,
| watching the ecosystem in the grass etc.
| gtech1 wrote:
| Math. I'd do math and let my curiosity take me wherever it goes
| in this vast field
| jmuguy wrote:
| I've been making scented candles. Its easy enough to get started
| but there's enough complexity to it to keep things interesting.
| If I didn't need money I'd just do that all the time and build it
| into a small business (that didn't need to make money, since I'm
| sure it wouldn't haha)
| misiti3780 wrote:
| I'd open a bakery and make fresh sourdough bread, pizzas,
| focaccia and pasta every single day, and give it away for cost.
| nanomonkey wrote:
| Would you still start at 4am in the morning? I was
| contemplating "retiring" to work at a local cooperative bakery
| that makes similar things, but their shifts were at horrible
| times that felt like it would ruin my health.
| Fradow wrote:
| I'd work on whatever my current hobby is. The actual hobby
| changes over time. Currently, my hobby is maintaining/repairing
| cars. If I had more time (and space), I'd restore old cars and/or
| build a track car (and of course use it on track).
|
| Unfortunately the time and space limits means I don't even have
| the time to finish my very long TODO list on my own car.
| blueferret wrote:
| That's easy. Writing books and researching curiosities.
|
| I have dozens of book ideas, from novels to reference volumes. My
| research would at least partially focus on energy/power
| generation/storage, and partially on current scientific mysteries
| in our reality.
|
| Ideally, such work could help enrich humanity. Make the world
| better in some way. Sadly, unless I win a lottery tomorrow or a
| wealthy person issues me a grant, some of this work won't get
| done.
| vekker wrote:
| I already love what I'm doing for a living as a CTO for a small
| start-up, and probably wouldn't quit, but if money absolutely
| wasn't an object and my current mission were fullfilled, then I'd
| probably spend more hours on gardening, and more hours on
| "technoetic" art/research projects: exploring consciousness
| through technological means.
| bee_rider wrote:
| I think I would want to work on an open source video game engine
| or a CPU.
|
| In a world where nobody had to worry about money, I think we'd
| have trouble getting enough people together to work on a very
| good CPU. And I don't know enough to do it on my own. But I think
| I'd enjoy tinkering with it, even if I got a very poor result.
| S_Bear wrote:
| I'd spend my days painting miniatures and reading. Don't really
| care enough about the rest of the world, to be honest; I'd turn
| inward.
| nonameiguess wrote:
| I don't think there is really one answer to this. I'd be
| surprised if people's hobbies and interests are really this
| stable across a lifetime. If you'd have asked me five years ago,
| all my hobbies were very close to my actual job and I'd have been
| building compute labs and writing infrastructure orchestration
| software for fun. Ten years ago, I was more into amateur data
| analytics and I'd have at least wanted to try setting up my own
| BCS computer ranking for NCAA football. 20 years ago, it would
| have been photography and travel writing. Right now, I'd be all-
| in on personal athletics, trying to continue lifting and rehab my
| old fledgling habits of climbing and swimming, but mostly
| doubling down on running since it's what I'm best at and it
| consumes a lot of time anyway. I'd also love to get involved in
| big cat rescue, but with the success pumas are already having in
| the Americas, the need is probably mostly in Eurasia and Africa
| and I don't think I'd want to leave the only continent I've ever
| called home. Family still matters. I'd move closer to them, not
| farther.
|
| Given all this history, I'm definitely not going to pretend I
| have any idea what I'm going to want to do when I actually
| retire. I'm also not alone. What I really end up doing is
| contingent on not disupting whatever my wife wants to do.
| bachmeier wrote:
| Maybe a better question for me would be what I would stop
| spending time working on. I'd continue doing what I currently do,
| but I'd cut out some of the things that come with the job that no
| sane person would do other than for the pay. For instance, I
| would still be doing research, which I view as very important,
| but I'd do more research and wouldn't mess around with the peer
| review process. I'd be writing open source software that would
| help others do their research too. I'd write textbooks and give
| them away for free. I wouldn't be doing administrative work of
| any kind, and I wouldn't waste time on a lot of the stuff I do at
| home.
| thimabi wrote:
| I'd love to help universal basic education become true.
|
| There are some people who are extremely qualified and specialized
| in their fields, but many more would really benefit from
| additional formal education. Even tech literacy is taken for
| granted sometimes, even though it shouldn't. It's the kind of
| thing that makes an actual difference in the lives of people.
| xboxnolifes wrote:
| Mostly just do whatever I find fun. Maybe contribute to the
| communities of those hobbies a bit while I still enjoy them.
| Thinking I'd do anything grander than that would be lying to
| myself.
| diwank wrote:
| I would love to do research in Foundation Models and Philosophy
| of Mind.
| gisborne wrote:
| I would develop a production-ready Datalog database system.
|
| I am convinced a better alternative to the execrable SQL would
| significantly raise developer productivity.
|
| http://frest.substack.com
| badpun wrote:
| I've been FI for around 18 months now. I don't work on anything.
| bokohut wrote:
| A few days back "Where are the builders?" was asked and I was
| going to chime in there but then today this comes up which
| correlates, good timing. I too was a Nintendo and Lego kid that
| took it to extremes, I still play with Legos today as they are
| great for mock ideas and concepts.
|
| My lifestyle and past choices now afford me all my time as I made
| great sacrifices for many years saving prolifically while others
| accrued more and more debt chasing the Jones. Apparently this is
| called FIRE now but I was doing it long before the acronym.
|
| I have been a problem solver my entire life and have both reverse
| engineered many things but more importantly I have built a vast
| variety of personal and professional solutions using mechanics,
| electronics, technology, automation, and more. I am now building
| and patenting an energy storage device of my own design given the
| problem that I personally have which one can likely deduce. I am
| in absolutely no hurry as all my time is mine to invest where I
| see fit and as such I am my own boss with ONLY the goal of
| solving my problem.
|
| For those with the entrepreneurial mindset, exactly like my own,
| I'll answer your implicit question from the above reading: "Yes".
| Once I have my device functioning and it performs as I designed
| it to the satisfaction of my requirements then a business
| opportunity unfolds. Given my past choices I am referred to
| professionally as a serial entrepreneur so I may as well apply my
| time to my interests and keep solving problems. The difference
| now however is that I have zero anxiety in my pursuit of my
| problem since the goal is the objective, not money.
|
| Stay Healthy!
| natpalmer1776 wrote:
| I would devote my time to building high quality, durable, and
| energy efficient 3bd 2ba homes in the rural areas surrounding
| major metropolitan areas, which I would then sell at material
| cost.
|
| Buying my first home (mobile/manufactured) has been a combination
| of the best and worst thing I've ever done. The house cost nearly
| 3 times what my grandparents paid about ~30 years ago in the same
| neighborhood (on the same street!) while the construction and
| finish quality are sub-par at best, with a nearly endless list of
| things that are constantly in need of repair, multiple water
| intrusion issues, etc. To make matters worse, the housing market
| in the area I live has reached unreasonable levels, with my
| current home being 'valued' at 1.4x what I bought it for roughly
| 3 years ago.
|
| Additionally, I keep seeing homes built that are on monolithic
| slabs and nearly everyone I know personally who is a homeowner is
| having issues with their home's foundation due to the high
| movement soil (clay) even in recently built homes. I would build
| homes that use pier and beam foundations with piles deep enough
| to resist soil movement, ensure site drainage was appropriate for
| each home, and generally put all the necessary care and work into
| ensuring that each home built would last for multiple
| generations.
|
| I want to build homes that last and allow others to flourish
| without the litany of concerns I currently have to struggle with
| on-top of my day job.
| camhart wrote:
| On nicer homes builders will sometimes put cylinders of
| concrete down from the slab towards bedrock. Then they pour the
| slab over top of them. I assume this helps prevent the
| movement. Not sure how this compares to p&b in cost. Just
| another option.
| natpalmer1776 wrote:
| Well most slab foundations will have various types of
| footings that transfer the majority of the load to deeper
| soil that can support significantly higher PSF.
|
| The slab part of the foundation generally is meant only to
| transfer the load of the house onto these footings rather
| than support the weight itself, sort of like a desk transfers
| the weight of it's contents onto the legs.
|
| While this can help resist movement, it all depends on the
| drainage and expansion qualities of the soil where the bottom
| of the footer rests. If the area sees periods of extreme
| drought in highly expansive soil and the drought 'reaches'
| the bottom of the footer then you'll end up with significant
| movement as the weight of the foundation and home settles
| down into the void created by the now dry soil, while the
| opposite is true during periods of extremely heavy rainfall.
|
| When you combine periods of extreme drought and heavy
| rainfall in close succession of each other on highly
| expansive soils, pretty much any slab that is not supported
| by bedrock in some way will be at risk of cracking due to the
| frequent seasonal movement of the surrounding soil.
|
| This can be mitigated somewhat during periods of drought by
| 'watering' the areas surrounding the foundation, and during
| periods of heavy rainfall by having a properly graded home
| site that routes water away from the home in every direction.
| Unfortunately these are mitigations that require monitoring
| by homeowners who may not be aware of these issues at all.
|
| Ideally prior to building any permanent foundation a core
| sample would be obtained from the site and analyzed to
| determine the footer depth necessary to compensate for the
| 'worst case' rainfall and temperature fluctuation in that
| region, additionally accounting for local movement due to
| topography.
|
| Except most folks building out in my area are just trying to
| make as much money with as little investment as possible, and
| thus do just enough to not be liable if any of the above
| scenarios conspire to create problems for their long-since-
| forgotten customers.
| GenerWork wrote:
| I've gotten into a habit of watching homebuilders on
| YouTube/reading about construction methods (especially with ICF
| forms), and it's been quite fun. Lots of advancements happening
| these days.
|
| As for foundation issues, I live in a Gulf Coast state 2 miles
| from the Gulf as the crow flies, and my crawlspace is so humid
| that I had to get it encapsulated. I have 2 dehumidifiers, and
| now that summer is here 1 of them runs 24/7. On the flip side,
| the deterioration has stopped, but now the joists and subloor
| are drying and warping (I was warned this would happen,
| though).
| natpalmer1776 wrote:
| This probably edges into the industrial-control level of
| automation, but have you thought about hooking up your
| dehumidifiers to humidity sensors to maintain humidity at a
| specific level rather than an all-or-nothing approach?
|
| It's my understanding that wood rot occurs mainly due to
| frequent changes in moisture, the expansion and contraction
| causing breakdown of the wood fibers, while warping occurs
| when wood transitions between 'wet' and 'dry' too
| slowly/quickly/unevenly.
|
| Allowing the moisture to increase back to previous levels
| *may* reverse some or most of the warping that has occurred,
| followed with a gradual decrease in humidity with an
| adjustment period between changes using the aforementioned
| control system may allow you to find a happy medium and ease
| the wood into a more stable moisture content without having
| to deal with squeaky subfloors and uneven joists.
|
| -\\_(tsu)_/-
| gary_0 wrote:
| Good answer! It's a massive societal failure that so few people
| are able to own a good house these days. It's 2024, we can
| build microchips virtually atom-by-atom, we can have plain
| English conversations with our computers about almost any
| topic, the number of billionaires has grown 20-fold since the
| 1980's, but the basic human need for shelter is a problem that
| is getting _less_ solved by the day. It 's perverse.
| ptrhvns wrote:
| Spending time with my kids, and guitar.
| tjwds wrote:
| I am very slowly working on a non-profit community management /
| RSVP collection platform. Think of this as an alternative of the
| websites you tend to think of if you want to collect RSVPs for a
| social club or meetup group, but run and maintained by a
| Wikimedia Foundation-style non-profit.
| RGamma wrote:
| NixOS, digital archiving and curation
| ralphc wrote:
| This is me. Fortunate to be able to retire at 55, programming my
| whole life, I love my career even when particular jobs had their
| issues. So now I work on projects I want to work on, no commute,
| no 20-person meetings.
|
| I'm currently working with a team that's recreating the Prodigy
| online service servers in Elixir. Having a blast, and I have my
| next project already in mind, also in Elixir or some other BEAM
| language.
|
| On top of that I'm reading programming-adjacent books and papers,
| for example on Category Theory and lambda calculus. I'm going
| through my backlog of interesting papers I've printed off over
| the last 30 years.
|
| So no, not saving the world but keeping my mind engaged and
| loving it.
| markus_zhang wrote:
| Thanks for sharing. I really look up to people like you as I'd
| like to semi-retire around 55 too (13 years from now on).
|
| I have a question for you: How do you assess your learning
| ability at 55? Let me explain -- I'd like to pursue studies in
| some Physics topics when I semi-retire (I can't do that now due
| to lack of time), but I'm not sure whether my brain is up to
| the job then. I know you are not studying Physics, but category
| theory is definitely non-trivial. How do you assess your
| ability to grapple with difficult theories?
|
| A side question: do you exercise routinely, and if so do you
| think it contributes significantly to your health?
|
| Thanks for any insight.
| Vivtek wrote:
| My wife and I are 57 years old, so I think I can address
| this. We finally got the younger child through to grad school
| and paid off all our debt, and now we can devote our time to
| what we want to do. Mostly, anyway - I'd like to be doing
| coding for pay, but instead I do technical translation.
|
| But in terms of _study_ - academic work - we 're free. She's
| got a PhD in theoretical physics and has finally had the time
| to start publishing, including picking up quantum
| chromodynamics.
|
| I've picked up my original doctoral work, too, which was on
| hold for thirty years while I supported the family. I've had
| no problems whatsoever tackling difficult topics - in fact,
| I've had less difficulty. I'm calmer, partly because I have
| to be in order to keep my blood pressure under control. I
| think I can do less in any given day, but I'm not even sure
| about that, because when I look back at items checked off
| over a week or a month, it's about what I wanted to get done.
|
| So putting off study until you're 55 is not a bad plan. Keep
| reading about things in the meantime, of course. Take good
| notes. Keep things where you can find them in ten or twenty
| years. Write down your daily thoughts. You'll thank yourself
| later, trust me on this.
| okdood64 wrote:
| > Write down your daily thoughts.
|
| Can you elaborate on this? What sorts of daily thoughts did
| you write down and how did it help you?
| ralphc wrote:
| I keep a notebook of ideas I want to pursue later. A lot
| of times if you don't write them down they'll be
| forgotten over the years, unless they're of major
| importance.
| markus_zhang wrote:
| Thanks a lot. I really appreciate your sharings. I'm glad
| that both of you manage to work on things you are
| interested in.
|
| Did your wife get the PHD recently or when she was young?
| Reading through the lines I feel it was when she was young
| but I could definitely be wrong.
|
| I also feel I don't have much to write down every day. Most
| of the time is spent on work chores or family chores. There
| are a few happy moments but that's it. May I ask what type
| of information do you retain?
| ralphc wrote:
| For the most part I'm staying near my field of study,
| programming, programming languages, theory about programming
| etc. In that way, just about everything I see I can relate to
| something I've learned before, I'm in true "I've seen it all
| before" mode at my age. For example the pattern matching and
| recursion-based "looping" navigation is just like when I went
| through my Haskell/Ocaml/Common Lisp/Scheme phase in the mid
| 2000's, so it was easy to pick up. The only new part of it is
| the actor-based concurrency model.
|
| My foray into Category Theory so far has been reading "The
| Joy of Abstraction", which is a layman's book to CT. So far
| what's she's written makes perfect sense and would be mostly
| obvious to anyone who hangs out on HN. Moving up and down
| various levels of abstraction, the idea of "functions", as I
| read this I'm basically thinking it's what I've been doing
| for the past 40 years, not a big deal. We'll see as I
| continue in it.
|
| Circling back to the original question, it's hard to assess
| my learning ability since I'm not venturing out into totally
| new territory for me.
|
| When you have a job it's hard to fit in as much exercise etc.
| as you want, it's easier when you're retired. But also when
| you're retired it's easy to fill the time with other things,
| errands, as you get older medical appointments, and
| motivation is a little harder since you don't have deadlines
| on your projects. Work comes in spurts interlaced with
| reading, which is important but doesn't move the projects
| forward.
|
| I do exercise regularly, especially after the heart attack.
| "Make these changes or you'll die" makes a great motivator.
| markus_zhang wrote:
| Thanks a lot. I do agree that staying in familiar ground
| requires less brain work.
|
| I do agree with the "more time without a job" observation.
| That's part of the motivation to pick up serious stuffs
| when I go semi-retire.
|
| I hope you get well (the heart attack thing), but I'm happy
| that you make those changes when still young (relatively).
| brcmthrowaway wrote:
| Tell us how you retired.
| Waterluvian wrote:
| I won't tell the whole story but the other day a 1st grader who
| came over to hang out with my kids punched me in the stomach with
| "wow you have so much food."
|
| The breakfast program at school is largely funded by Canada's
| largest, exceptionally profitable grocery chain. But this year
| they're radio silence on renewing the funding.
|
| So I'd probably be working on making sure children are fed.
| jononomo wrote:
| Probably Christian apologetics. It is clear to me that science is
| incompatible with atheism and supports the Christian worldview,
| but this does not seem to be widely understood.
| epiccoleman wrote:
| Family first, of course. I already dedicate a ton of my time to
| them - everything from just basic "hanging out" with my wife and
| kids, to all the basic maintenance of life - budgeting,
| housework, driving people around, scheduling appointments, and so
| on.
|
| With my day job gone, I have a huge stack of side projects and
| hobbies that I'd love to put more time into. I think the hardest
| part, in a world where I've regained the time I spend on my job,
| would be deciding which of those things I actually want to
| dedicate my time to (there isn't enough time in my life for all
| of them, sadly).
|
| I'd definitely spend more time on fitness, reading, and playing
| and listening to music. I have plenty of programming related
| projects I'd like to work on too. I like making videos and
| writing blog posts, and I'd continue doing that - probably at
| about the same rate that I currently do, creating a writeup or a
| video when I find something cool to share.
|
| Honestly, I'd spend my time about the same way I do now - just
| "more so." I guess I'm fortunate to be able to say that!
| fotta wrote:
| My life goal is to make enough money in tech to semi-retire
| around 40 and teach CS to underprivileged kids.
| unsigner wrote:
| There's brutal war two countries over, and if one falls, the war
| is coming here. I can't stop taking care of my family, but not a
| day passes without me wondering if bread on the table today is
| more important than preparing to stop Russia tomorrow.
| riehwvfbk wrote:
| You can calm down, there is absolutely no way the Russians are
| coming for you. Turn off the TV and enjoy time with your
| family.
| yashg wrote:
| I would just create software. I love coding little programs that
| make life easier. It gives me joy of creation. In fact that's
| what I have been doing, in last few months I have created (1)a
| video GPS viewer, (2)Windows based authenticator and an (3)online
| clipboard. After my day job and on weekends, this is how I like
| to spend my time. I have stopped trying to create the next killer
| app. I am just going to create whatever I feel like creating.
| Links to my latest creations (1) https://yash.info/camgeoplayer/
| (2) https://authwin.com/ (3) https://klipit.in/
| nhatcher wrote:
| I would work on a Computer Algebra System. Maybe one day, who is
| to say.
|
| That being said I'm pretty close to my dream job
| JonChesterfield wrote:
| That one can definitely be a hobby in the meantime.
| mmarian wrote:
| I'd create open-source software for hosting. Something like
| CapRover. Or take a big sum of money and do algorithmic trading.
| Or build something in crypto.
| vertis wrote:
| I have a real passion for the "Long Now". Understanding how to
| preserve knowledge for the 10,000 year timeframe. Inspired by
| everything from Anatheum by Neal Stephenson and subsequently
| finding the Long Now Foundation and even stupid games like
| Horizon: Zero Dawn.
|
| I would probably do more on that front than I currently am on the
| side. It's some balance of actually persisting knowledge in
| super-durable formats, and persisted knowledge in computer
| systems (Internet Archive, Arctic Code Vault, LibGen/Anna's
| Archive)
| delbronski wrote:
| I'd love to teach math/science to kids. I think I would be very
| good at it and enjoy it. But the pay really sucks.
|
| At home id setup a shop with a 3d printer, laser cutter, cnc
| machine, power tools, etc. And I'd spend my free time just making
| all sorts of fun stuff.
| throwaway22032 wrote:
| I am in this situation and I focus on friends, family, hobbies.
|
| I think that most problems in "society" stem from people losing
| track of these things.
| alecsm wrote:
| Farming, beekeeping and moving around on a horse.
| gth158a wrote:
| my stand up routine and perhaps more intentional writing
| ivylee wrote:
| In addition to taking care of myself and my family, I'm working
| on:
|
| - Polishing my personal website[1], and going back to blogging.
|
| - Figuring out trading signals[2] and algorithms, testing via
| paper trading.
|
| - An API[3] to verify YC company and founders.
|
| - Monitoring my investment portfolio, re-balance once or twice a
| year.
|
| - Mentoring AI/ML engineers and leaders. Free 30-min intro
| call[4].
|
| - Various indie projects that are under research or haven't been
| launched... :)
|
| [1]: https://ivylee.github.io/
|
| [2]: https://www.signalstalk.com/
|
| [3]: https://www.ycverify.com/
|
| [4]: https://cal.com/studioxolo/intro
| jq-r wrote:
| Health. I'm in lower 40ties and in two and a half years had two
| surgeries to fix a herniated disc. After the first surgery a part
| of my recovery were exercises on pilates reformer and it worked
| wonders. Unfortunately I needed a second surgery and now I'm
| slowly getting back on the reformer.
|
| My original plan was just to get back to normal and continue
| living as normal. This recently changed, and I don't want to get
| back to normal. I want to be healthier than I ever was. I want to
| be stronger and much more flexible. You don't know what you have
| until you lose it.
|
| So without much money I'll work on myself by doing pilates and
| other resistance training, and if I had more money I would
| probably open up pilates studio so I could share the joy which
| I'm having.
|
| When you're not healthy, the only thing you want above all is
| health. If I were asked the same question 3 years ago I would
| say: riding bikes all day long. This still might be the answer,
| but long and toned muscles come first.
| anonzzzies wrote:
| I have almost always done what I want and that is writing
| software. I like writing development tools, formal theories and
| low level stuff (databases, OS, editors).
|
| And, since about two years, I am working with some friends on
| Common Lisp software again; far more enjoyable than anything else
| imho. I regret going for some of the new fads in the 90s while I
| could've been working with CL all that time. But he, regrets are
| useless and I did learn a lot.
| ralphc wrote:
| What do you consider fads of the 90's? We had object-
| orientation, of course, Java, it was the beginning of XML.
| anonzzzies wrote:
| All of them and more... We did CL, and Perl before Java and
| then immediately went to the 0.1 of Java when it was
| available. JSP didn't exist yet, or servlets even, but we
| were hooked.
|
| I went into 2000s doing enterprise java beans (and Corba code
| generators in xml) and stupid over architected Java stuff
| with everything XML (and XSLT). We wrote our own db which
| stored XML (but was mostly in memory), our own frontend
| language in XML. All with Java under it.
|
| Our own fairly comprehensive application server with all
| kinds of ready made components; we sold a lot of licenses and
| in the end the company for a lot to a big vendor who
| immediately threw it all away.
|
| But yes, we drank all the koolaid and it was good timing of
| course, just all very stodgy, especially as the system and
| the clients grew; we did the same large sized applications as
| we (other 'we' but still me) do now, but with far more people
| and far worse processes. The first years we had zip file
| version control (until moving to csv and then svn), tests,
| what are those? And more like that.
|
| In hindsight, I would've skipped Java until Clojure, or
| skipped it altogether. I was very good at Common Lisp and
| c/c++ and liked all those things better. But I was convinced
| somehow that all that was going to die because of Java.
| ralphc wrote:
| It all did die because of Java, or at least went into
| hibernation.
|
| Common Lisp, true or not, was known as an AI language and
| died because it was attached to the AI winter.
|
| C++ was killed by Java for a lot of business software,
| including at my company. It won what I call the 80/20
| battle, meaning it gave you 80% of what the old technology
| gave you for 20% of the hassle. You still had OO, but
| didn't have to worry about pass by reference vs. pass by
| value, interfaces got you out of the multiple inheritance
| diamond problem, and garbage collection of course. Do you
| think if your application server was in Common Lisp or Perl
| that it would have sold for a lot?
|
| Other losers of the 80/20 battles, Java over C++, XML over
| SGML, JSON over XML.
|
| Cobra...shudder. Oh and COM, don't forget COM. My greatest
| accomplishments in my career were avoiding going into
| management and avoiding COM.
| Guid_NewGuid wrote:
| In an ideal world I would go back to chemistry.
|
| Since the option in the world we have is working 60 hours sub
| minimum wage trying to get through a PhD followed by bouncing
| round on 2 year short term contracts as a postdoc (still barely
| on minimum wage) while University administrators make your life
| hell I took the only rational route.
|
| I switched to software and make people's lives and the climate
| worse for a paycheck that still isn't enough to live where I want
| to live.
|
| But ideally I'd use my brain to research some of the fundamental
| challenges we face, battery chemistry, plastic recycling,
| industrial catalysts, etc, etc.
| asfarley wrote:
| Try to make some progress on arthritis, cancer and dementia
| johnea wrote:
| Making even more money, of course.
|
| Just look to your VC darlings, how many of them "don't need
| money"? By definition, all of them, and yet, what are they
| spending their time on? Making even more money, of course.
|
| HN really is a cesspit of financial pillaging apologists...
| horsellama wrote:
| Go back to uni, get that degree in Mathematics, earn that PhD, go
| back to uni, get that degree in Physics, earn the PhD, die?
| scruple wrote:
| Working on myself, my relationships, and my family. Exercising
| more, but doing more of the types of exercise I'd prefer (hiking
| and mountain biking) than I can really handle right now with work
| and young children. Gardening, canning and preserving food.
| Reading and writing. I'd spend more time with my parents and
| brother, who live very far away.
|
| I'd work on house projects, too. I'd redo our flooring right out
| of the gate if I had more time. I did it in my previous home and
| enjoyed both the process and the outcome.
|
| I still love programming, I started when I was single digits and
| am now in my 40s. I've been doing it professionally for just
| about 20 years now. But I'm frankly tired of digital everything
| at this point in my life. I have been filling my personal life
| with offline and analog hobbies and with every passing year I
| wish I could spend even less time in front of a computer.
| Gigachad wrote:
| At this point I'm kind of bored of programming and I'd probably
| leave if it didn't pay so well.
|
| If I had enough money I'd probably take up sewing full time and
| make furry cosplay stuff. Seems much more rewarding than building
| corporate tech junk.
| 01HNNWZ0MV43FF wrote:
| I'm bored too. I got into programming young so I'm only about
| 15 years into my career and it's been my hobby for 25 years.
|
| Not only will I never learn everything about software, but I
| hit the point of negative returns a while ago. Every hour I
| spend on the computer is an hour I'm not spending on myself or
| my friends or on making new friends
|
| I just want to travel, exercise, practice non-monogamy, do
| stuff like that I didn't do as a teenager because I was busy
| programming. The computer will be there when I'm done.
| dmayilyan wrote:
| 1. Science 2. Philosophy 3. Art
|
| I am currently factually volunteering to a project in CERN that
| needs full-time attention, but unfortunately I need to feed
| myself and my family so I work at daytime as a full-time
| Software(Data) Engineer. I spent whatever time I find (mostly
| nights) doing science. I do hope I will manage to deliver new NN
| method I experiment now. This has a lifelong meaning for me.
| cko wrote:
| How do you "work on" philosophy?
|
| Asking because my web developer wife, who happened to have
| majored in art and philosophy, is currently unemployed and
| kinda bummed about it.
| jrussino wrote:
| YouTube video essays?
|
| Only sort of joking; I have no idea what the economics of a
| small YouTube/Nebula channel look like and I suspect it's one
| of those things with a tiny minority of people whose work
| ends up being net positive and a long tail of others who
| break even or lose money.
| tayo42 wrote:
| It seems like there isn't any hobbyist philosophy right?
| Either your in academia or reposting stoic quotes on
| Instagram it feels like lol
| aaomidi wrote:
| I would spend my time creating automation to hold public CAs
| accountable.
|
| Some of my work is visible in https://WebPKI.substack.com
| lotsoweiners wrote:
| I'd do absolutely nothing. I'd sit on a beach or in a pool/hot
| tub drinking beer and wine while reading or watching tv. I'd walk
| enough so that I don't look like the future people from Wall-E.
| I'd make sure to do absolutely nothing productive though.
| aaronrobinson wrote:
| I stopped work at 55 after 40 years in tech, from being a
| developer right up to CTO. I do very little coding, mainly
| because there are so many other things I want to do. Having this
| time really makes you ask yourself what it is you really want to
| do and for me that means running, particularly in mountains. Like
| another poster I also watch a ton of stuff on YouTube about DIY
| and I'm learning how to do stuff on my own house and doing a van
| conversion (to take to the mountains). I see a lot more of family
| than I did and I consciously try to spend more time with and in
| particular give my time to help others. I'm helping my daughter a
| lot to break into software engineering. Like another poster I
| have so many things I want to do and just not enough time so I'm
| journaling a lot and making a lot of notes about ideas I have and
| these are starting to lead to some ideas about software that
| would be useful to me and so I expect others. I'm constantly
| learning what I like to do and I have so many non technical
| projects on the go.
| DontchaKnowit wrote:
| Id probably just sit and play guitar all day.
| JohnBooty wrote:
| In the tech realm: I'd spend my time doing optimization work for
| open-source projects. It's fun, and you get to show some
| objective results. I'd probably do that until I had some sort of
| concrete idea for a cool project or some kind of project that
| might benefit the world somehow.
|
| Or maybe I'd just leave tech behind entirely and do volunteer
| work.
|
| But I feel like that's a one-way street. If I walked away from
| tech for a few years, and decided I wanted to go back... it feels
| like it would be very difficult.
| jarbus wrote:
| Linux on Mobile
| mikestew wrote:
| I guess I'll find out on Friday, which is my last day. Poking
| around on computers has been good enough to me that I can call it
| quits at 60. What comes after this? First, a summer of being a
| bum (if I last that long). After that, more volunteering at the
| animal shelter, more volunteering with the local running club,
| and I half-jokingly say I'm going to be a professional trail
| runner (where I'll be paid in socks and cheap medals from my age
| group wins).
|
| I'll buckle down on my mandolin playing, and it's time to pick up
| the fiddle and give it a good effort.
|
| Read more.
|
| Let's not let all that coding experience go to waste: I'll go
| hunt down an open source project that I could make some good
| contributions to, and then devote a good chunk of time to that.
| Or write something new that the world could use.
|
| But beware: "if you didn't need money" is a pretty loaded phrase.
| As I stare down the firehose of money and realize it will soon
| produce only a trickle, if that, I still ask if we have enough
| even though we're probably better off than the majority of
| retirees (if various sources are to be believed). Because there's
| "don't _need_ an income " and then there's "won the startup
| lottery, and my _kids_ won 't need an income", and we are firmly
| in the former category. :-)
| RecycledEle wrote:
| Teach school
|
| Learn new things
|
| Help peiple
| JohnFen wrote:
| > basically what would your ideal job be, in an ideal world?
|
| But that's a completely different question from the one in the
| title. My ideal job and what I'd do if I didn't need money are
| two very different things.
|
| If I didn't need money, I'd have more time to do the things I
| already do when I'm not "on the clock", so I'd do more of them.
|
| > would you contribute towards making society more rational,
| healthy, and well-coordinated?
|
| Yes, absolutely. I already do. But I'd also be able to spend more
| time expanding my knowledge and skillset, having fun, and other
| such stuff with no direct connection with improving the world.
| meiraleal wrote:
| I would (I will?) become a politician. We gotta have a few honest
| ones after all.
| antisthenes wrote:
| Gardening and Dog training. You can get pretty deep into
| gardening, it's quite a rabbit hole, when you go into hydroponics
| and scientific approach.
|
| For dog training, most people have no idea how to treat their
| animals (lots of shitty "folk wisdom" and pseudoscience in that
| area), so I would be doing both them and their owners a service.
|
| Would probably run a dog-retreat and charge enough for some beer
| money, but that's it.
|
| > would you contribute towards making society more rational,
| healthy, and well-coordinated?
|
| Can't really do that, unless society is willing to do so
| themselves. It's hard enough to change 1 person's mind on an
| issue, and nearly impossible to help someone who doesn't want the
| help.
| paulcole wrote:
| I wouldn't work towards anything.
|
| I'd shitpost online, read books, go to the coffeeshop, watch
| movies, go on walks, etc.
|
| Took 3 years off in my 20s to do exactly that and it was
| incredible. Best years of my life. Would drop everything and do
| it again in heartbeat if I could swing it financially.
| thelastgallon wrote:
| I'll work on these:
|
| (1) Convince car manufacturers to add a battery port in the
| trunk. They can make smaller cars with 100 mile range which
| covers >98%[2] of the trips and anyone who needs more can rent
| extra batteries from their nearest retailers. Fast chargers don't
| work, queueing theory explains why: What happens when you add a
| new teller? [0]. Fast chargers won't work because we have to
| solve for the peak case, which is a third of US population
| driving during Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year, Spring break,
| etc. Cars with smaller batteries will be cheaper, lighter and far
| more importantly we can make 3X the cars from the same battery
| materials. There will be a lone commenter who will complain that
| EV doesn't work for him, because he commutes every week from
| Miami to Seattle, but EVs work for most people's driving habits.
|
| (2) Convince retailers to build battery banks, they can charge
| for free (or get paid for charging when electricity prices go
| negative!) and (a) rent fully charge batteries (b) participate in
| virtual power plants replacing natural gas, they can make
| bank[1]. This also increases their foot traffic, most of the big
| retail chains operate gas stations anyways as loss leaders.
| Batteries for rent will be extremely profitable, in addition to
| adding foot traffic.
|
| (3) Change residential building codes to require 240V outlets in
| the garage, heat pump water heater, heat pump furnace, induction
| stove, solar panels, or better yet solar shingles. Solar shingles
| are coming up, may not be cost effective today, but probably
| soon? Also make the main panel and circuitry future proof -- home
| can be powered by vehicle (V2H - no need to generator for
| emergencies) and also V2G so everyone can participate in VPP.[2]
| I've already started working on this.
|
| (4) Change commercial (anything non-residential) building code to
| require conduit before paving parking lot. Doesn't need to add EV
| chargers, but that makes the parking lot future proof, can make
| 10%, 20% or 100% of it EV ready whenever.
|
| With (3) and (4) all new construction is energy efficient, future
| proof. People who buy these homes can have zero energy bills as
| well as make money from VPP.
|
| (5) Everyone complains about high home prices. We see spirited
| discussions on HN once or twice a week. Convince builders to
| build homes to standards (#3 above) that make the old homes
| entirely undesirable to most people. There can be a huge building
| boom (builders benefit from this), very low sales of old homes,
| stopping the growth of home prices. Convince people to stop
| buying old homes.
|
| (6) Work with cities on providing free charging at schools,
| parks, libraries and all city owned infrastructure.
|
| (7) Work with HOAs/communities to build chargers in HOA managed
| parks, these are 10 - 100x more than city parks.
|
| (8) Put shareholder resolutions to make companies either offer
| (a) fully remote (b) free charging.
|
| (9) Put shareholder resolutions at Restaurants and Retailers to
| offer free charging. This is a win-win, they get high quality
| foot traffic, traffic that stays at least 30 mins.
|
| I'm in my 40s, I think these are important and solvable problems,
| nothing more I'd love than working on these. Better yet, teach
| the younger generation on how to work on these. We can't change
| the world by thinking about fossil fuel led COP summits, Govts,
| but we can change by making decisions on where we live, work and
| shop. Gradually, then suddenly, everything will change for the
| better.
|
| [0] https://www.johndcook.com/blog/2008/10/21/what-happens-
| when-... [1] https://electrek.co/2023/07/05/tesla-electric-
| customers-repo... [2] 98 percent of all single-trip journeys were
| under 50 miles in length:
| https://www.greencarcongress.com/2022/03/more-than-half-of-a...
| supportengineer wrote:
| Native desktop Mac software
| foobarkey wrote:
| Working on building my yacht and working on open source for fun
| (probably Debian developer)
|
| Maybe doing something with biogas, CO2 capture
| ragingroosevelt wrote:
| I've really been enjoying designing and 3d printing crochet tools
| for my partner and releasing them for free on printables.
| paulrpotts wrote:
| Let's say by "didn't need money" you mean I have an income that
| is enough to fully support my family and keep my home in good
| repair and even make home improvements (we need some big repairs
| to gutters and fascia, deck, HVAC, etc.) That's not a small
| number especially factoring in health care... but let's assume
| it's taken care of and all our needs are taken care of, and I
| even have a little disposable income for IT, music stuff, books,
| etc. I could continue with the things I've done in my limited
| free time for decades:
|
| - writing non-fiction and fiction - making original music and
| podcasts - developing educational hardware/software projects -
| developing my own programming languages - continuing to refine
| and catalog our large home library - gardening and transitioning
| towards growing more of our own food.
|
| I'd spend much more time involved with my kids since my wife and
| I already homeschool, but I can't put very much time into it now.
| thelastquestion wrote:
| General infrastructure that benefits humanity in a goal agnostic
| way, e.g., related to energy or compute seems like a meaningful
| thing to get behind. This could be novel technology or logistics
| and efficiency improvements, but these are things that can
| augment everyone's ability to do the things they want.
|
| Socially, there are a lot of things that seem "silly"
| (euphemistically), and it's a blight on civilization that they
| are tolerated. That people in my country (USA, but can apply to
| many countries in the world) are homeless or starving is silly;
| if you were running a country, ensuring the citizenry have food
| and shelter might be an obvious top priority. The world can seem
| really complex at times and our systems become so convoluted that
| people rationalize why the things that seem obviously silly are
| too difficult to solve or worthwhile tradeoffs. I think it's
| generally a good heuristic to avoid doing things that seem
| obviously silly and fix the things that are (that is, it's often
| better to be naive about it!).
|
| This portion of the comment is not a direct answer to the
| question but a related thought others may have further insights
| about. Practically, a situation in which you don't need money
| rarely materializes instantaneously; it usually arises from
| circumstances that have constituted a great deal of your life and
| identity. As a consequence of this, I think ego can become a real
| challenge that prevents people from pursuing possible "ideals".
| If you've been in a certain kind of position for a long time,
| there can be psychological barriers to pursuing something in a
| way in which, e.g., you are a true beginner or have less control.
| This tends to be something that can dissipate with age but can be
| especially difficult for people who've achieved financial success
| well before standard retirement age.
| pseudocomposer wrote:
| I'd work on my app BeatScratch full time.
| (https://beatscratch.io)
| sharadov wrote:
| I am 46 and hope to retire at 50.
|
| Been active most of my life and plan to do more of it - mountain-
| biking, racquet sports, skiing, etc.
|
| My kids will be in their teens, and I hope to focus more on them
| and prepare them for life.
|
| Get involved in the local community, and help less fortunate
| people. I do this mainly by contributing money but I hope to give
| time.
|
| Travel - Not as a tourist which I've done for most of my life,
| but as a true explorer of cultures.
| stefanos82 wrote:
| > What would you spend your time working on if you didn't need
| money?
|
| What an interesting question; thank you for asking it!
|
| What I would spend my time working on...I guess I would continue
| with what I have been doing the past 15 years. -
| continue working on improving my character - fixing my past
| mistakes and learn from them - enrich my knowledge with
| topics I may find interesting at any time - learn to
| forgive and put myself in others' shoes to see their own POV
| - embrace life - appreciate little things; such as a smile,
| a hug, a kiss
|
| This whole process I have aforementioned can impact anyone's job
| towards the best, because people will notice (eventually) that
| something is different with you and how you approach things in
| your life, let alone in your job, and they will appreciate it;
| well, at least I hope!
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