Ask HN: What would you do if you didn't need money to live?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14577175

by atroyn • 9 years ago

14 19 9 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I like to think I'd do pretty much what I'm doing now: learning and building. But I'd love to hear about other perspectives!

webtechgal2• 9 years ago

learning and building.

This. And also, continuing to earn and giving it away to the needy.

atroyn3• 9 years ago

Who would you give to, out of interest?

webtechgal2• 9 years ago

Well, I live in India. :-)

Mz• 9 years ago

...people ask these questions and tend to assume that all answers are supposed to be about some personal passion for making the world a better place. The assumption is that no one is going to honestly answer "Are you kidding? If I didn't have to work for a living, I would just play video games all fucking day."

http://micheleincalifornia.blogspot.com/2016/10/ancient-wisd...

atroyn3• 9 years ago

I'd love for people to answer this honestly, and in that vein. I just can't ever picture myself playing that many video games.

BjoernKW2• 9 years ago

For most of the HN audience I suppose playing video games all day, every day would get boring pretty quickly.

Even that prostitutes and cocaine part might be not be so enticing anymore if you have those every day. Additionally, keeping up a healthy cocaine habit isn't, well, very healthy in the long run. Then again, living a long and healthy life might not exactly be your top priority in that case ...

Idle hands being the devil's workshop is a decidedly Puritan notion. I wouldn't be too surprised if the proverb actually came from Puritan origin. It can be interpreted in a way that work has value in itself even if it's entirely unproductive. I don't think it's a healthy approach to either life or business. I also don't think that humans who wouldn't have to work anymore to make a living would instinctively default to doing nothing and simply wasting their life on unproductive activities. Self-actualisation and creating something that has some sort of value is an important, perhaps even essential need once everything else is provided for.

hluska• 9 years ago

This is one of the funnier paragraphs that I have ever read. You have a great voice for satire!

BjoernKW2• 9 years ago

The past few years I've deliberately tried to design the way I work in a way I like what I'm doing and how I'm doing it. I could still do better but I'm quite happy with my progress so far.

Therefore it wouldn't change all that much in that case. I'd still be teaching, creating products and solving problems.

akulbe• 9 years ago

Four things:

1. Spend more time with my family.

2. Work on getting more healthy.

3. Help folks coming out of incarceration learn how to get on their feet, and thrive.

4. Study foreign languages.

johncoltrane2• 9 years ago

Nothing useful or kind for me or for others. I would almost certainly go back to writing my name on trains, like in my 20s.

atroyn3• 9 years ago

What's your secret graffiti name?

johncoltrane2• 9 years ago

Well it's a secret :-)

bsvalley• 9 years ago

I'd travel for the most part as I get satisfaction from discovering different cultures and new parts of the world.

Raed667• 9 years ago

Travel and live every couple of months in a different city.

SirLJ• 9 years ago

Right now now I'll do exactly the same - I work from home technical lead in security/sysadmin space for a big telco, (also have a side project generating more money than my salary and growing). The main reason I won't quit my job is the team I am managing and the kids are still at home... in few years when they move out, I am thinking about buying a million dollar sailboat and travel the world for a decade or so and chose a please to "retire" to...

owebmaster2• 9 years ago

I'd develop some apps

bananicorn• 9 years ago

Honestly, I'd be making videogames. No time pressure, no pressure to get anything done, just making them, maybe polishing them as well if I feel like it :) Maybe go on a hike with nothing but the stuff I need to survive, and pencil and paper. Then repeat it with my girlfriend and her dog. And move to the seaside somewhere warm - I can't stand the winter. Be an old man, I guess^^

Ask HN: What would you do if you didn't need money to live?

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