[paulcole]

This is pretty unfathomable to me. Similar to how youth is wasted on the young, wealth is too often wasted on the wealthy. Don’t these people have any hobbies or ability to entertain themselves? Is going in to work their favorite thing to do or simply the only thing they know?

[chrisseaton]

> Don’t these people have any hobbies or ability to entertain themselves? Is going in to work their favorite thing to do or simply the only thing they know?

Why are you so snide towards them? What's wrong with them enjoying their work as a hobby and entertainment? Why is building whatever at Google invalid as a joyful activity someone might chose to do, but building a model aeroplane or anything else outside work would be a valid hobby instead?

[seabird]

Have you considered that maybe their work is their hobby, and a huge part of their life and purpose?

I work somewhere where a lot of my coworkers and management are incredibly dedicated and passionate about what we do. They will show up and go apeshit on a project for 12+ hours a day for a month at a time because they're excited about the challenge and the outcomes. Even when they're not working on such a schedule, they often go home and work on personal projects that parallel what they do in their work. There are plenty of days where I can't wait to get to work; all issues outside of it take the backseat. No matter how bad those issues are, I have no choice but to get over them, because my work is never finished.

I'd imagine that some jobs would be grating, but there's a lot of them that would never get old for some people.

[paulcole]

Yeah, I guess as someone with a purposeless life it’s hard to understand how somebody could feel their life has purpose.

[jkaye2012]

It's not an accident... Success people are successful in part because they like doing these things.

I see it all the time here and on Reddit: people eschew giving a shit about what they do, then turn around and complain that they can't get ahead. News flash: people that care about things are better at those things. I don't think this should be a surprise to anyone, but it sometimes feels like it is...

[paulcole]

I’m not complaining about not getting ahead. I know I’m a lazy loser with no ambition and even less follow-through.

It’s just a foreign concept to me that someone with enough money to do whatever they want chooses to keep earning more money for their boss.

[chrisseaton]

> chooses to keep earning more money for their boss

But they aren't choosing to keep earning money for their boss. They're choosing to keep doing what they enjoy. That happens to earn their company money as well - why's that an issue?

[bearmcbearsly]

Would you say the same thing about A-list actors or pro athletes? After a couple of successful movies or seasons, they could afford to retire too, but most choose to continue working as long as they possibly can.

[paulcole]

Yeah, I don’t get that either.

[nathan_f77]

I wouldn't work at Google for free if I was a junior or mid-level engineer doing something boring like maintaining an old codebase or trying to keep servers online. But some of these employees get to work on truly interesting projects with some of the best engineers in the world. Especially if they are inventing new products or researching and discovering new things. I imagine that the AI researchers earning millions per year probably love their work and would do it for free.