[pech0rin]

This is the most childish thing I’ve read. And shows a lot about he doesn’t have any people relying on him or community to support. He takes one hike and throws away 60m. Doesn’t try to find anything interesting to do at Atlassian just calls his coworkers NPCs. This is zero-empathy Peter Pan syndrome at its worse.

Sad how he just goes adventure hopping to try and find meaning. The problem is no matter where you are you are also there. Time to look inward and not outward.

[antics]

You are catching a lot of flak for this, but there is one thing you are right about. If you make tens of millions of dollars, and can't figure out what to do with those resources, you shouldn't be calling your coworkers NPCs. You're the NPC.

I truly mean this in an entirely non-judgemental way. I wish the author luck in achieving his dream of becoming high agency rather than simply high freedom. I wish it for everyone who wants it.

[dangus]

I’m not afraid to be judgmental…

The article author hasn’t figured out that he got to where he is because he was lucky, not because he was special in some way.

The cringe comes in with the way he does it. He seems to realize he is an Elon bro but still thinks DOGE is an important national priority and not a problematic oligarchic downsizing of our important federal services and regulatory bodies.

It’s amazing how even millionaires and billionaires don’t understand that national debt doesn’t work like personal debt.

But anyway, that’s a tangent. The guy dumped his girlfriend so he has no family to spend time with, and he’s wondering why he’s bored. His only attempts at stimulation involve self-service: how can I be smart and successful especially in a way that everyone will know it?

I can only imagine how being financially set for life would positively impact a typical fiscally responsible family (people with the restraint to hire a financial advisor). Imagine being able to cancel daycare and spend your days with your family instead of burning your life away in the office.

I even know a person who has no children but thanks to a windfall just does his hobbies and hangs out with friends. Still works a day job for health insurance but now work doesn’t define their life. They’ve done things like learn how to DJ and travel to see their international friends on longer visits and not just little two week vacations that corporate zombies get to take.

But the author is struggling to find a way to make work define their life, to get their life to return to capitalism that they have been blessed to escape.

Hey author if you are reading this, try doing something positive like help people. Volunteer. Everything you have tried so far has been self-centered.

[verygoodnotbad]

I am afraid to be judgemental.

> The article author hasn’t figured out that he got to where he is because he was lucky, not because he was special in some way.

It seems like a lot to assume that suggests the author is not a fast technical learner and builder.

> Hey author if you are reading this, try doing something positive like help people. Volunteer. Everything you have tried so far has been self-centered.

That sounds like good advice for me, but not to the author. I sometimes follow orders from random people for fun, but I infer that the author does not.

The author traveled off the paved path. Reality gave him with wealth and time, but unsatisfaction instead of satisfaction. His role is now to figure out a path back to satisfaction, perhaps it will be a short path or a long path, a common one or a one the world hasn't seen before.

[lazide]

I think it’s the natural result of someone who has ‘won’ a game they have been obsessing about/that defined them.

People often find a similar lack of purpose (albeit much, much shorter lived) after being engrossed in a book series, very hard video game, or any other pursuit.

The big difference here, IMO, is this is a game that society is literally constructed around - for its own survival. The ‘rat race’ puts food on everyone’s table, provides care when we’re sick, defines what future our children can have (and if we can even have children) - even what rights we have (or don’t have) in many cases.

Is it so surprising that having won that game, some people - often the ones most obsessed with it - struggle to figure out what is next?

[sausagefeet]

> It seems like a lot to assume that suggests the author is not a fast technical learner and builder.

Unless you think one can choose to be a "fast technical leaner and builder", then that is still luck.

[Chris2048]

Then what is the antonym of luck? Sound like a tautology.

[sausagefeet]

I don't know! But I don't think that changes the argument very much. Unless one thinks that we can choose to be smart or a fast learner or have interests that happen to be lucrative, we should be very thoughtful about how we choose to reward people who are successful. This isn't a new or original idea, it's an old debate.

[bruce343434]

It depends wether you believe in determinism. If you do, then everything is just "luck". If you believe that your mind is something special that can come to conclusions truly independently (create information out of thin air) then the consequences of actions are skill or intelligence.

Or whatever. "Luck" is just a dumb concept we humans use to handwave away edge cases.

[Spooky23]

Luck is a combination fortune and the ability to exploit it. We all have examples of the right ideas at the wrong time, as well as serendipity dropping the right circumstances at the right time.

[xenophonf]

The antonym of "luck" is "misfortune".

[wizzwizz4]

> It seems like a lot to assume that suggests the author is not a fast technical learner and builder.

I'm a fast technical learner and builder. I will never be where this guy is, in part because most of my resources are going into keeping myself afloat. I live my life as though "luck" isn't a factor (what's the use in declaring defeat?), but it's certainly not merit that separates the rich from the poor.

[tw04]

> It seems like a lot to assume that suggests the author is not a fast technical learner and builder.

There are a lot of really, really, really smart people who never become generationally wealthy. Generational wealth almost always includes either luck, or intentionally heading down a morally reprehensible path.

You’ll have a tough time convincing me the guy who invented loom is smarter than or contributed more to mankind than Nikola Tesla.

Which is probably a perfect example because Edison took the morally reprehensible path.

[boringg]

Your examples are at the extreme end. You can be a fast technical learner or builder which does make you special but not be an inventor or someone who can grok science and systems similar to Tesla / Edison.

Loom != DC or AC electricity its a helpful tool not transformational technology such as electricity.

[tw04]

Op said he got lucky, the response implied he didn’t. My example is extreme because the circumstances of making several hundred million dollars on a startup exit is EXTREMELY rare, and has far more to do with luck than skill.

[dangus]

If he was a fast learner and thinker he would have figured out that DOGE is an illegal oligarchy scheme.

[antics]

There is truth to what you say. But I sense what I wrote came off more negative than I intended, and I am not sure it makes any of our lives (our lives or his) better to be hard on the author. Self actualization is legitimately extremely difficult.

[dangus]

If I were you I wouldn’t worry about what you said coming across negative.

The article author is essentially on the wrong side of the class war. I don’t really care how well he self-actualizes and I don’t think anyone should.

At this point he’s a <1%er who essentially thinks it’s a good idea to help the richest man alive fuck up the government.

[numpad0]

I think he IS special. You can't easily have $60m income and be this bored. He could probably, say, get a million dollar in $1 note and burn it dollar by dollar in the backyard one evening and be a YouTuber overnight. Getting exposure is stupid, so what, he could pay an "NPC" do it for him.

What this guy is missing is creativity. And we don't have data to determine if it's contributor, detractor, or tangent to the position where he is at. I'd bet it's a bigly contributory, as gains from x-factors are called gambling.

[Litost]

I suspect burning $1 notes one at a time might take a very long time (it takes longer than you might expect burning bundles of £50 notes [1]) and as you say "What this guy is missing is creativity", just burning $1m dollars just for the sake of it, unless you're making some creative comment some would probably see as pointless/divisive.

[1] See here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K_Foundation_Burn_a_Million_Qu...

[jkestner]

See, what separates the special titans of startup industry from the rest of us is the creativity to burn those dollars at scale.

[deltarholamda]

The girlfriend thing was very odd. At one time, "making it" meant now you can marry the girl, have a bunch of kids, and become a pillar of your community.

Get rich? Move to a small or mid-sized city, marry your girl, have some kids, and get involved. Need to be busy? Run a local business that hires locals. Use your money and expertise to improve your community, which is a lot easier to do as a big fish in a small pond.

[InsideOutSanta]

Yeah, the "I dumped my girlfriend of two years as soon as things got a little bit hard for me, why is my life boring and meaningless?" thing also stood out to me. As well as this:

"Within 2 minutes of talking to the final interviewer for DOGE, he asked me if I wanted to join. I said “yes”. Then he said “cool” and I was in multiple Signal groups."

DOGE is run on Signal, and his conclusion is "so smart," not "that seems like a huge red flag." This guy sounds like he's in line to be the next George Papadopoulos, the guy who gets thrown under the bus when everything goes sideways.

[jkestner]

Joining a group of rich tech executives on Signal and “learning how completely dysfunctional the government was” sounds like cult behavior.

[adastra22]

What is sus about Signal?

[Spooky23]

Federal entities require transparency and various rules to be followed to enable investigations and oversight. Remember when a certain political party was concerned about somebody’s emails?

The signal of using signal for running the business is that by working there you’re likely committing a crime every day by working there. If you’re not DJT’s bff, or when Elon gets kicked out of cool kids club, you’re boned.

[adastra22]

DOGE is not a government entity.

[richiricho]

The ignorance that you can just 'fix' a very old, grown on purpose structure by having some signal chats, is very high.

[compass_copium]

Governmemt agencies are supposed to have publicly available records

[InsideOutSanta]

The funny thing is that the "Department of Government Efficiency" is not a government department, or any kind of official government entity. It is probably (or will be) a federal advisory committee. Federal advisory committees have official rules on open meetings and reporting.

So the fact that they think it's a good idea to just start a bunch of chats on Signal should be surprising, but it's Trump and Elon, so I guess it's just another thing in a long list of insane things that just happen, and we just kind of ignore them and pretend that everything is fine.

[totallynothoney]

I think he's saying that "running" DOGE via a messanger app sounds more like some cryptobro hustle university / shitpost chat group than a serious organization. The description in the blog of working there that sounds like cokehead bender doesn't help.

[richiricho]

Yep the DOGE thing was crazy fucked up. You worded it very nicely.

[mnky9800n]

there is a wonderful quote from a soviet movie called guest from the future, you can watch the whole movie on youtube with english subtitles here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BB6bwJ9agM

Anyways, the quote is:

>> You are a pathetic victim of an idle mind.

I think this aptly describes the author.

[nishantmodak]

Wasn't it pascal who said that all of our problems come from our inability to be bored.

[joncrocks]

The commonly repeated phrase:

All of humanity's problems, stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone. - attributed to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaise_Pascal

I think it's someone paraphrasing from the original text.

https://philosophy.stackexchange.com/questions/69487/why-did...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaise_Pascal

[lloeki]

It is, and the thinking of it runs deeper than the quote, in ways that directly echo TFA author's own words:

http://www.mpafrancais.weebly.com/uploads/1/9/9/8/19984595/p...

(en français, of course. I link to it in its original language as I take issue with the usual translation of the very title as "Diversion", which immediately lacks the double-entendre of "Divertissement", which in french stands for both "diversion" and "entertainment")

Maybe what TFA author should do is spend some time standing on the shoulders of giants and read some philosophy?

[BlueTemplar]

> Tel homme passe sa vie sans ennui en jouant tous les jours peu de chose. Donnez-lui tous les matins l’argent qu’il peu gagner chaque jour, à la charge qu’il ne joue point : vous le rendez malheureux. On dira peut-être que c’est qu’il recherche l’amusement du jeu, et non pas le gain. Faites-le donc jouer pour rien, il ne s’y échauffera pas et s’y ennuiera. Ce n’est donc pas l’amusement seul qu’il recherche : un amusement languissant et sans passion l’ennuiera. Il faut qu’il s’échauffe et qu’il se pipe lui-même, en s’imaginant qu’il serait heureux de gagner ce qu’il ne voudrait pas qu’on lui donnât à condition de ne point jouer, afin qu’il se forme un sujet de passion, et qu’il excite sur cela son désir, sa colère, sa crainte, pour l’objet qu’il s’est formé, comme les enfants qui s’effrayent du visage qu’ils ont barbouillé.

I wouldn't be so sure about this, this might depend on the personality of the player. Some might think that introducing monetary stakes in fact ruins the game itself. And you can even take it further : the winning itself might become secondary - at which point playing the game is probably more akin to a form of artistic expression, infused with a different kind of meaning. (There are also games where you win, but in cooperation with others rather than against others.)

But then this passage also reminded me of this recent thread :

"More men are addicted to the 'crack cocaine' of the stock market"

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42468255

[finnthehuman]

> Hey author if you are reading this, try doing something positive like help people. Volunteer. Everything you have tried so far has been self-centered.

It's a common enough idea to tell someone rudderless to volunteer, but I feel like it's never tempered with the perspective of having volunteered and reflected on how the donated time has effected one's own life. Shaming someone rudderless into volunteering doesn't help them for exactly the obvious reasons it won't. At least no more than anything else you can lean hard into in life to avoid something else. Suggesting it as a fix to ennui is bad advice, the virtuousness of volunteering just masks how terrible it is.

[wadadadad]

I don't understand what you're trying to say here. To share my experience as someone who volunteers, I find it to be one of the most gratifying (humbling, helpful, makes me see the value of life) things, and I think it's worthwhile to share the idea that it could help someone who is searching for meaning. I wholeheartedly recommend volunteering for everyone who can afford it (which I recognize not everyone can). I'm not sure GP here needs to necessarily state "I volunteer and found it worthwhile" every time they recommend it.

What are these "obvious reasons" that volunteering won't help someone seeking direction?

I also don't follow why you haven't stated whether you've personally tried volunteering and whether it's "worked" for you, particularly when you seem dismissive of it and seem to looking for personal reasoning from others.

[finnthehuman]

>I also don't follow why you haven't stated whether you've personally tried volunteering and whether it's "worked" for you, particularly when you seem dismissive of it and seem to looking for personal reasoning from others.

I do. I did not start to distract myself from other life issues, I joined because I wanted to help the org accomplish it's mission. It's rewarding and fulfilling, but I'm not using it as a mental defense from something else in my life. Whether or not it "worked" in that sense is simply not a thing for me.

It certainly shifted a lot of my mental focus. That's why I mentioned you can lean hard into things in life as a distraction for what's consuming you. And I've certainly used that mental defense over the years, it just happened that the things I used didn't include volunteering. And over the years I've noticed through others that volunteering is a particularly good way of self-deception that you're not just employing that defense.

That's why shaming someone into volunteering when they're rudderless bothers me. It's hard to argue against because it has intrinsic value AND can work in the "the true $whatever was the friends we made along the way" sense, plus the slim chance they find a new life purpose. But also maybe it doesn't and they really should have been shamed into joining the clergy instead because that's where they would have found their calling.

[afpx]

How do you find a good volunteer organization? I volunteered for a couple years at different orgs, and it was a bad experience. All the bad parts of the workplace but with worse people and no pay.

[dijksterhuis]

i volunteer.

my suggestion to the author would be: spend some time volunteering and get over yourself (by that i mean their own ego which seems to be putting them at the centre of everything).

in my experience, some things tend to come out of it

- gratitude for where i am at in life because i’m struggling less than the people i’m helping

- empathy because jesus yeah these people are struggling and i’m seeing just how much it’s affecting them

- humility because you know what, i really am limited in what i can actually do for these people, none of my “technical prowess” is actually useful here

- purpose because man i feel bad for these people and id like to do more to help than just showing up once a week

i don’t volunteer because it’s “virtuous”. fuck virtuosity.

i do it because i need to for my own sake — to experience the stuff above. it’s selfish-selflessness. by helping others i also help myself.

edit — added the one about humility which is quite important

edit 2 — donating money (philanthropy) is not the same as volunteering. in case there’s any confusion. boots on the ground are required.

[begueradj]

<< I’m not afraid to be judgmental

Is there any single daily life situation where any person from around the globe and in the entire history of humankind who is not judgemental? Perhaps not at a job interview? Or maybe at dating or when trying to sell or buy something or simply when looking at that person?

[RaiausderDose]

100s meetings on Signal with the 'smartest people I have ever met' is a big red flag for me.

I know I'm an asshole, but I've never had good experiences with people who call themselves super smart.

And of course, they were identifying all problems with the government on signal in very short, super effective meetings... yeah sure, dude.

[2OEH8eoCRo0]

Some of the smartest people I know are also the most humble. Everyone can tell they're extremely smart but they'll be the last to admit it.

[lostlogin]

> He seems to realize he is an Elon bro but still thinks DOGE is an important national priority and not a problematic oligarchic downsizing of our important federal services and regulatory bodies.

Based on this blog and the needs of the overseeing oligarch, DOGE appears to be a therapy programme for millionaires and billionaires.

[dangus]

Now that is a hilarious take. It really is blatantly obvious how badly people like Elon Musk need therapy.

But we shouldn’t downplay what the program really intends to do: gut federal government spending rather than raising taxes on the wealthy to a sensible level.

Most federal government spending has very real benefits to the average person and should be thought of as more of an investment than a cost. But the DOGE mafia wants to cut programs that help the average person to protect their own fortunes.

E.g., the average person is harmed by shutting down the department of education. The wealthy who go to private school their whole lives are not.

[phkahler]

>> still thinks DOGE is an important national priority and not a problematic oligarchic downsizing of our important federal services and regulatory bodies.

I'm not convinced it's the later. There IS a looming financial problem with our government and nobody else is doing anything about it. Federal spending is up trillions of dollars (per year) in the last 5 years with nothing to show for it. There is huge inefficiency and Elon wants to take a stab at fixing it. Yes, the man has his flaws, but he's trying to fix things nobody else will even try. Not sure why people have to hate on that.

BTW, I do expect so over-cutting will happen and there will be fallout from that. But hopefully the budget gets fixed and congress learns something about fiscal responsibility.

[aga98mtl]

> He seems to realize he is an Elon bro but still thinks DOGE is an important national priority and not a problematic oligarchic downsizing of our important federal services and regulatory bodies.

I'm confused by this belief. Anyone who has ever interacted with a big government in the West knows they are a knot of old and confusing regulations that cause every thing to be slow and expensive. A leftist should be happy that the state gets to accomplish more with it's existing budget.

[tedivm]

The problem is that no one believes Elon and company are actually trying to "accomplish more with it's existing budget". That would be a great goal, but I don't believe that's what they're doing or even capable of doing.

Remember, Elon downsized Twitter by 80%, and then Twitter lost 80% of it's value. Simply firing a bunch of people doesn't accomplish more, it can actually destroy the value of the thing to begin with.

We've all seen this with republicans before. They take over, make things worse, and then use the fact that things are worse as an excuse for why the government shouldn't do the things it does. Elon isn't an expert in efficiency, he's an arsonist coming in to destroy the government so he and his buddies can extract more value out of this country.

[boringg]

Disagree with your take.

Many people believe Elon in that he's trying to right the ship. Elon has been very clear on his ambitions and he isn't what you are trying to paint him as (a political republican). And the counter point is that Elon and large portion SV have remained in the center while the Dems marched steadily left leaving everyone in the center without a party.

Twitter was broken and full of bloat as is clearly obvious given that it is performing in many ways better than before engineering wise. It has become much more of a wild west given his free speech absolutism perspective but you can't possibly argue that what he didn't proved all the critics wrong - lights stayed on, kept shipping products. It certainly hasn't lost 80% value from his actions - he bought it at the height of ZIRP mania.

Now whether Elon has a enough inertia to actually be able to tackle some of the truly endemic issues of the Federal government is another question. Some of his new found friends will certainly poison the water but my take is he is authentic in his attempt to reduce deficit and lower the debt for the US while increasing growth.

[sarchertech]

>he is authentic in his attempt to reduce deficit and lower the debt for the US while increasing growth.

The only way he is being authentic is if he is an idiot.

If he knew what he was talking about and was being authentic, he wouldn’t be publicly stating that he is going to cut $2 trillion from the budget.

Payroll for the entire Federal civilian workforce is only $300 billion.

I guess he could just be suffering from delusions of grandeur and he think he’s going to be able to eliminate Social Security, Medicare, or the Military.

[aga98mtl]

Yes, the republicans will cut spending. Next election cycle the Democrats will be able raise spending, but now from a more sound basis. The deadwood will be pruned. DOGE is good for both the left and the right.

Also do note that the current Twitter valuation is higher than we he bought it. Cutting 80% of the staff at twitter was the right move. https://www.yahoo.com/tech/elon-musks-startup-xai-now-120118...

[tedivm]

xAI and X are two separate companies. xAI is raising funds with a target valuation of $40b, but that has nothing to do with X. The article you linked to makes this pretty clear and validates what I said about the 80% lost.

> The new valuation means xAI has surpassed the $44 billion Musk paid for Twitter in October 2022. X was valued at $9.4 billion by Fidelity, one of its investors, in September. The firm, which invested $19.6 million in the platform, has written down the value of its investment by nearly 79% since 2022.

Cutting 80% of the staff happened during the same time period when Fidelity dropped the evaluation by 79%. Cutting the staff doesn't seem like a good move at all.

[sarchertech]

The problem isn’t that someone is trying to improve government efficiency.

The problem is that we picked a billionaire professional internet troll to do it whose stated goal is cutting 2 trillion from the budget.

And ignoring the fact that Elon is already running 3 companies, you couldn’t possibly find someone with more conflicts of interest than the richest man in the world.

Here’s a quote from Reason (hardly a left wing publication) that sums up how absurd their goal is.

“Musk and Ramaswamy's public pronouncements thus far do not inspire confidence. Musk's promise to save "at least $2 trillion" annually—approximately one-third of all (noninterest) federal spending—suggests a lack of familiarity with the federal budget. Roughly 75 percent of all federal spending goes to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, defense, veterans, and interest, and the final quarter includes priorities such as infrastructure, justice, border security, health research, national parks, unemployment benefits, disaster aid, and disability benefits.”

Large organizations are inherently inefficient because id the non linear growth in communications overhead. If you don’t understand an organization, coming in and hacking away at it is insanely dangerous. How many companies have been ruined when hedge fund buys then and starts trying to “maximize efficiency”?

[aga98mtl]

Yes cutting $2T is not realistic. If they manage to do a few percent of the goal it is still going to be good for everyone.

Bloat is a major issue that prevent anglosphere societies from achieving goals that poorer societies do easily. Ex: Spain or France do awesome public transit for 3 or 5 times less than we do.

[sarchertech]

You don’t accomplish things by setting wildly unrealistic goals that you know are unobtainable.

And he’s not going to completely reorganize society so that we can build cheap public transit. Especially not by running a “government agency” that can’t do anything other than make recommendations to the president.

Do you know how many similar commissions we’ve had to reduce waste and spending?

[bawolff]

I don't know i agree. I think its brave to be honest about it. Being able to acknowledge you don't have it together is the first stage of growth.

Most people struggle with meaning, most people don't have it figured out.

So what, dude who suddenly fell into massive wealth tried a bunch of cliched things to find meaning. Did they work? No, these types of cliched things usually don't. However you don't find meaning without trying things. You have to fail before you suceed.

[neuronic]

But both of you can be right. I would not judge the author for their attempt to find meaning but it is hard to read something like "all coworkers are NPCs" and dehumanizing expressions like that.

No, your coworkers are complex human beings with complex lives of their own seeking stability and a content life for themselves and their families. Blaming people for not always maximum pushing and risk taking is very simple minded. It is fine to enjoy a content, stable life without aiming for the stars all the time. It doesn't block you from being a star seeker yourself.

Responsibly raising a family is a massive and tiring task on its own but of course you can take the easy way out like Elon and delegate "family" to others starting at insemination because you burned your brain with drugs and had too many conversations with Peter Thiel. Most people don't want that.

And when he mentioned DOGE it was an immediate red flag. These people do not care why or for what purpose governments exist. They only see the inefficiencies and blockers and fail to understand that governments are not profit oriented companies. This is pretty much like failing pre-school. These folks belong in emotional special needs schools.

[andsoitis]

> but it is hard to read something like "all coworkers are NPCs" and dehumanizing expressions like that.

They did not say that all coworkers are NPCs.

What they said is "I knew that staying at the acquiring company was not it for me for the big company reasons you might suspect (lots of politics, things moved slowly, NPC coworkers, etc.)".

You should read that as "in a big company, there are more coworkers who don't do anything useful" rather than "at a big company, nobody is doing anything useful".

[bawolff]

I read it more as - in a big company there are a lot of people there just to get a paycheque who don't really care.

Which isn't really surprising. That is kind of what a job is. Company gives you money in exchange for them telling you what to do for a little while. There is a very real way where "becoming an npc" for 8 hours a day is what it means to be employed for a lot of people. That is not a dig at the person; we all need to do what we need to do to put food on the table.

[m463]

It would be interesting to learn what a bunch of people actually do with found wealth.

I've read that lottery winners frequently become seriously unhappy.

Maybe some of us aren't ultra-rich like this guy, but we might deal with some of the same existential issues either planning or encountering retirement.

[germinalphrase]

My intuition is that (sudden) wealth causes some amount of additional isolation (for different reasons: jealousy, privacy, security, etc), so if you are not someone with preexisting social bonds that are strong enough to weather that change, you’re going to ultimately feel emotionally worse off once the quick pleasure hits start to fade. If you’re someone going into that situation without strong social bonds, you end up even further isolated.

[karmakurtisaani]

I also thought about lottery winners. I wonder if this guy will end up like the Minecraft creator.

[vasco]

Yeah that comment just reads like someone who is pointing down at how unenlightened someone is, when that someone just finished telling you that they don't know what they are doing and being honest about it.

Would it be so much better for the author to hide this phase of personal growth, and then later on comment on other people's struggles to mock how far they are from them?

[danielbarla]

While the tone of the post might come off as childish, I don't think it should be dismissed quite so off hand, because I think there's a lot more behind it than one might think.

I cannot but help think that there's a fair bit of truth behind Terror Management Theory [1], which paraphrased states that a lot of human activity is centered around the need to get our minds off the topic of our mortality, or to find something meaningful in it. I can totally see that someone who spends much of their life working towards a goal of essentially getting rich now finds that he is somewhat rudderless after that point. Is finding something interesting to do meaningful? I mean, it's completely subjective.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terror_management_theory

[lazide]

Nihilism when understanding/dealing with the problem is also a common trap in Buddhism, and a big reason why Monks will often discourage unguided meditation practice. The Void is a powerful thing to grasp, and can very much be ‘held wrong’ [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%9A%C5%ABnyat%C4%81]

Ultimately, that nothing ultimately matters, also does not really ultimately matter.

All we really have is now, and the conditions which have led to now, and our ability to do things within our power now. And that does matter, as much as anything ever can. Which is something. Getting through to that point is not a given.

IMO, part of what made the Buddha, well, the Buddha, is he tried to make it better. Despite knowing all this. And despite it being much, much harder, messier, and more painful than the path he could of taken - which is opting out.

Will you make it better (in your judgement)? Make it worse (in your judgement)? Rely on someone else’s judgement? How accurate is your judgement?

Or opt out (and what does that mean)?

Buddha (depending on the tradition) taught a path to reduce pain, and in some cases opt out (for Monks, at least, to some extent) by hopefully seeing the truth as best as one can.

That form of Buddhism is not very popular.

Religions that give a narrative involving conquering (Islam, Christianity in the recent past), surrendering (Modern Christianity, Jainism), or being chosen/made (Judaism/Hinduism) for/by a deity to achieve heaven or have one’s fate decided are much more popular.

I expect for much the same reason that action movies, dramas, and epics are more popular than quiet walks in the woods.

[richiricho]

Interesting to see.

I walked through this by myself and it took a decade to do so.

Always crazy to see that these things are as old as we are

[bormaj]

Any reading recommendations for exploring this further?

[lazide]

There are many roads. Finding a local Zen center may be one. [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen]. Location dependent, of course.

Be careful to not confuse reading a map, for walking the road.

Take some steps, and see if where it seems to be going makes sense to you.

[tough]

Never mistake the map for the territory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Map%E2%80%93territory_relation

[hoot]

I read "The Way of Zen" by Alan Watts and it completely changed my existence. It really got me away from concepts like searching for meaning, purpose, and making things better.

[danielbarla]

Indeed, and I think your comment throws some light on the depths of the topic. It's easily one of the most profound topics, and is worth exploring in and of itself (even if in this case the blog post author came off extremely tone deaf).

[richiricho]

I think it shows a complete lack of curiosity.

I watch a youtube video about anything like creating my own door fixtures through 3d print and metal casting.

I would immediadlty buy a nice old house, start working on it.

I have so so many things i don't have time due to money and work, he is so so far away from being intersting, it hurts to read that

[eamag]

You can see that's what OP did: he watched a youtube video about robotics (door fixtures), immediately wrote to 70 people (bought a nice old house) to start working on it.

But then he realized it's not what he wants to spend his time on

[richiricho]

Nope. His motivations are capitalstic in nature and his idol is Elon Musk.

He doesn't care to help people or getting into robotics because he is interested in it.

He doesn't have a real deep relationship with someone to share his live with (he mentions his ex-girlfriend).

He is the type of human being who got lucky rich, but doesn't realize he is empty inside. Elon Musk is even worse.

Captialism as an endgoal for society doesn't bring us any closer to a Star Trek future and there are probably a Billion happier but a lot poorer people ou tthere than him.

He doesn't want to spend his time on it because his capitalistic thinking is so narrow that he doesn't care about the things which are already around him.

When you read the last thing from him " It’s the only thing that feels authentic." even his 'just learning physics' is not even authentic. He doesn't do it for being curious, he does it to " I can start a company that manufactures real world things. "

And the only interesting thing about this blog post, which i will forget tomorrow, is because we tent to like to read things which are more rare than others. There was not much insight or brilliance in his live at all.

[nextlevelwizard]

OK, but what is the solution? To get a (or multiple) child(ren)? Make a "family" that you don't actually want just so you can have people who rely on your support? And what then when you use your millions to support and nourish your kids? Then you get to read on HN about how they are "nepo-babies who did nothing on their own and are worthless human beings".

How do you know what he did at the company? When you get acqui-hired for large sums you are dropped somewhere in the management block where lets be real most people have no idea what they are doing and they dont even care they are there just for the money.

[numpad0]

Buy a RocketLab Electron launch and insert a literal hunk of lead or a beam reflector cube into geostationary graveyard orbit. They never had GTO launches before, let alone direct GEO, and I think no one had ever done an intentionally passive object into GEO let alone commissioned by an individual, it'll be an all around achievement. It's going to stay there for a geological timescale with negligible risk of space junk and gets its own Gunter's Space Page and Wikipedia article with legitimate interest from public.

There are countless stupid fun in the world that money can do that isn't about buying out a human or legally punching an NPC in face. As well as legit meaningful businesses that may or may not make money but kinda fun and useful. The fact that this person is being unable to come up with such a task suggests existence of a problem, though I wouldn't know if it's mental or developmental or physical or circumstantial.

[germinalphrase]

That’s said, if you’re struggling with humility and connection, legally punching someone in the face and being punched in return can be quite rewarding.

So, go join that boxing/bjj gym and learn just how pathetically average you really are!

[bumby]

David Brooks has a good book called “The Second Mountain” where he details the shift of priorities later in one’s life. The “first mountain” is what this guy achieved, monumental material success and freedom in pursuit of the “aesthetic life” that is overly portrayed in social media as the ultimate goal. But Brooks’ position is there is a “second mountain” to climb focused on commitment to a purpose beyond ourselves. Somewhat paradoxically, the second mountain is defined by a constraining of the freedom we pursue originally because it requires dogged commitment.

[richiricho]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikigai

Familiy is an option. But being curios and having hobbies also. Or helping people around you. Or starting to think about the people around you and enjoying the support you can provide.

I had my nihilistic depression phase for a decade. There is not much to it.

[saagarjha]

There are lot of things you can do in your life other than being in a relationship you are unhappy about.

[rw_panic0_0]

to start going to therapy bro, it's like on the surface

[vasco]

The modern cure to all problems. Pay someone to talk to you. Incredible insight.

[wjellyz]

i know therapy has helped a lot of people in my personal life, which is why i tried it, but i think it really made me feel alone that the only person i can talk to is someone that i pay to listen to me.

i went to therapy for 2 years with this perspective that the therapist would fix me like the mechanic fixes my car. I spent 2 hours a week with a psychiatrist & therapist bitching about my life thinking eventually I would get "better".

but then i realized that wasn't getting any better. it's not their responsibility to "fix" me. the only person that could help me was me.

the first thing we reach for is an external solution to solve or escape our current problems and everything is so commoditized that there is something that we can fixate our attention on.

i think that reflecting this fixation inward has made all the difference for me personally.

[cardanome]

The hard part is finding a therapist that works for you.

Therapy is such a broad spectrum from psychoanalysis to behavior therapy. It is very unlikely that you just click with the first therapist that you visit, it can take years to find someone.

Two years without any tangible progress sound extremely unethical from the therapist. Yes, therapy takes time but it still something you do for a fixed time period with hopefully clear goals where you track your progress.

And yes, the actual work is done by the patient. Just like a personal trainer can not just work out for you.

[7speter]

Therapy isn’t a social relationship. What you’re paying for is someone to be non judgmental as you unpack things. They can help talk you througj it. Friends don’t know how/wouldn’t want to do that.

[jkestner]

What therapy did was give me a framework by which to debug myself.

[swiftcoder]

He's got the money, I don't see how talking to a professional could make things worse

[totallynothoney]

I mean yeah? He clearly needs to talk to someone and feels isolated. A neutralish third party to talk to (and is trained to help!) is a excellent suggestion. Therapy isn't a cure all, and is expensive (not that it matters in this case) but your comment sounds like:

> The modern cure to all problems. Going to the gym if you feel unfit. Incredible insight.

[nextlevelwizard]

What for? Because I don't want kids? And what could they possibly say to fix the world? I can re-consider after we get rid of Putin, Trump, and Xi and fix the economy to a place where I don't constantly have to hear how people can't afford homes or even food.

Before that you are irresponsible to bring new people into this world and should be ashamed.

[awb]

Abstracting out the details, it’s the same theme as the general who wins the war and now there’s no war to fight and thinks to himself, “Now what?”

There are many people struggling with far greater challenges in life and with far less support, but feeling directionless and without a purpose is a common struggle that many people go through.

[necovek]

Many "generals" turn to crime because it's largely compatible in the way things are achieved, types of rules in place, and the rewards (at least here in the Balkans).

Possibly speaks more of the culture I am surrounded with than "generals", but maybe not.

[moomin]

David Stirling, who is currently being lauded in a show on BBC One for creating the SAS, spent his later life running mercenary companies and, in one particularly ignoble episode, organised a coup against the British government.

[Pxtl]

> calls his coworkers NPCs.

Seriously, that's kind of a "fuck you" moment to all the people who helped him earn those millions isn't it?

Between this and hanging around with the head-cases at DOGE, I think the first thing he should spend his money on is a shrink.

[elevatedastalt]

To be fair, he was not calling people at Loom NPCs. He was saying that he didn't feel like joining a big company Atlassian coz he feels he would be surrounded by "NPC coworkers" there.

[hackernewds]

There's absolutely nothing wrong with atlassian employees. High and mighty horse he's on there

[hackernewds]

> So I reached out to some people and got in. After 8 calls with people who all talked fast and sounded very <strike through>autistic</strike through > smart

Dude really sounds like a bozo again, being brutally honest is no excuse to be unkind

[david-gpu]

Yeah, self-described "brutally honest" people lean a bit much on the brutal part. You can be direct and kind.

[capr]

there's absolutely something wrong with the fruits of their labor though, which I am forced to use every day

[swiftcoder]

Atlassian presumably also hired a bunch of his people from Loom, so to some extent he is implying that all the Loom folks became "NPCs" during the acquisition.

I've seen several founders who kept their team together within a bigger company after a buyout, and went on to do pretty significant projects together with big company resources. It's not a given that you have to be swallowed up by the bureaucracy

[mvdtnz]

As a proud ex-Atlassian employee, fuck this guy.

[dorfsmay]

You forgot:

> So I broke things off after almost 2 years of unconditional love.

[wukerplank]

Fully agree, and my first association was the "Men Will Do Everything But Go to Therapy" meme.

[dbtablesorrows]

What's with this therapy industrial complex?

Men need purpose not some consoling words.

[hylaride]

Because most men can't admit they need purpose or what's lacking. Therapy isn't the cliché of bawling into your therapist's shoulders (although it can be that). It's often them telling and pointing out to you what others, including friends, won't. And an experienced professional can be excellent at bringing that out. It's also not for everybody, but often the most hostile people to it are the ones who'd benefit the most.

From what I've gathered in his post, this guy needs to be told he pushes people away and has trouble forming non-professional relationships (platonic and romantic) as well as as a deep seated desire to be liked, which he can't get out of a professional setting that he was at the top of. But it could also be much more deep than that.

Of course, finding the right therapist is like finding the right mechanical keyboard. You'll go through tons you hate before you find the right one.

[amanaplanacanal]

The purpose of therapy is not "consoling words".

[ParetoOptimal]

It seems you've not been to a good therapist.

[FooBarBizBazz]

Many people, myself included, are skeptical of "therapy" and do not automatically consider its practicioners to be legitimate authorities. These are people who need a job just the same as you, and this is the one they landed in. Whether they do anybody any good is hard to say.

One source of skepticism is that they are not really invested in you. If you succeed or if you fail, if you're happy or if you're sad, what's it really to them? Will they have to live with the consequences? At least in a relationship the "therapist" maybe "has some shares" in the other person. (Granted, you can also reverse the logic, e.g., "my parents didn't pay attention to my happiness and just pushed me to become a doctor" / "my wife just wanted me to have money because she wanted to spend it".) This is also why I am skeptical of startup advisors: I'm sure they mean well, but, if you really don't know what you're doing, it's probably better to be an employee for a while, under a boss who succeeds only when you succeed.

Another is that, when I hear therapistic language, a lot seems to embed assumptions of omnipresent psychic violence, and this disturbs me. Perhaps there are people who truly are trapped in situations of "psychological abuse", "gaslighting", and so-on, but my sense is that these words usually become weapons that people wave around, as they adopt darker and darker interpretations of their own, imperfect but basically good, relationships. Then the cynic in me says: Wouldn't causing people to reject their "organic" relationships, create dependence on the relationship with the therapist?

That "therapy" grew out of psychology also is grounds for caution, to me. There is an underlying manipulativeness in the field. Many of the famous experiments, stories of which attract students into the field, were quite manipulative. Some of the core theories of psychology that you learn in school, like operant conditioning, are fairly inhumane. If this is the ground that you build on, what kind of structure do you get? Who is attracted to the field to begin with?

Also, the very fact that the meme is gendered tells you something. Sure, men don't trust therapists, any more than college-educated women trust bearded imams. If a whole school of thought seems somehow not to be on your side, you're not going to trust it. (And I do not mean to imply that to be "college-educated" is ideology-neutral, or that the hypothetical imam is not actually on the hypothetical woman's side.)

...

In the context of this blog post, though, I kind of get it. The guy literally climbed, if not Everest, then some similar peak in the Himalayas. So when you focus on that it's kind of funny.

I'm not sure how what he's doing is "wrong" and what other thing he could be doing would be "right" though. What is the therapist going to tell him to do, and why would that thing be superior to climbing mountains at random? Does existential angst even have a solution?

...

Some of the religions have their own answers, which would encourage different behavior, I suppose. E.g.:

a.)

> 36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

> 37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

> 38 This is the first and great commandment.

> 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

> 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

If the author of the blog repeated the second half of verse 39 to himself over and over, he might do something different. You do pushups, you develop muscles. You repeat mantras, and, if those mantras are really meaningful, you can shape your own mind.

Or, the works of mercy:

> feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, care for the sick, visit the imprisoned, bury the dead

> admonish the sinner, instruct the ignorant, counsel the doubtful, bear wrongs patiently, forgive offenses willingly, comfort the afflicted, pray for the living and the dead

Add in Galatians 3:28 and you've got the high points of Christianity. If you take the words seriously they can affect how you think and what you do: "Right thought, right speech, right action".

b.)

I recall also once reading a Jain text and seeing the Ten Virtues, and reflecting on them altered my behavior at the time, in a positive way. These can be found e.g. here: https://jainworld.jainworld.com/pdf/Ten%20Universal%20Virtue...

One virtue that it emphasized, which is not emphasized to the same degree in Christianity, is honesty. Yes, Christianity inherits the Ten Commandments (which are actually good), but "thou shalt not bear false witness" seems like a somewhat more narrow thing. In much the same way that "though shalt not kill" is really, debatably, the more limited "though shalt not murder". Indeed, Jainism seems to go further than Christianity in many respects. Those virtues, by the way, are (per the previously-linked text):

> 1. Uttama Kshama - Supreme Forgiveness (To observe tolerance whole-heartedly, shunning anger.)

> 2. Mardava - Tenderness or Humility (To observe the virtue of humility subduing vanity and passions.)

> 3. Arjaya - Straight-forwardness or Honesty (To practice a deceit free conduct in life by vanquishing the passion of deception.)

> 4. Shaucha - Contentment or Purity (To keep the body, mind and speech pure by discarding greed.

> 5. Satya - Truthfulness (To speak affectionate and just words with a holy intention causing no injury to any living being.)

> 6. Sanyam - Self-restraint (To defend all living beings with utmost power in a cosmopolitan spirit abstaining from all the pleasures provided by the five senses - touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing; and the sixth - mind.)

> 7. Tapa - Penance or Austerities (To practice austerities putting a check on all worldly allurements.)

> 8. Tyaga - Renunciation (To give four fold charities - Ahara (food), Abhaya (fearlessness), Aushadha (medicine), and Shastra Dana (distribution of Holy Scriptures), and to patronize social and religious institutions for self and other uplifts.)

> 9. Akinchanya - Non-attachment (To enhance faith in the real self as against non-self i.e., material objects; and to discard internal Parigraha viz. anger and pride; and external Parigraha viz. accumulation of gold, diamonds, and royal treasures.)

> 10. Brahmacarya - Chastity or celibacy (To observe the great vow of celibacy; to have devotion for the inner soul and the omniscient Lord; to discard the carnal desires, vulgar fashions, child and old-age marriages, dowry dominated marriages, polygamy, criminal assault on ladies, use of foul and vulgar language)

In particular, I note both Arjaya and Satya.

(A new thing to me, that I notice now, is the inclusion of abhaya (fearlessness) as a kind of tyaga -- a kind of renunciation, a giving-away, a charity. This is food for thought.)

(And personally I would moderate Sanyam.)

My point is, if one needs direction, perhaps these are where one should be looking?

Just miscellaneous thoughts.

[darthrupert]

Going to therapy when all your problems are this mundane would be like going to open heart surgegy because you heartrate got slightly elevated.

People need meaning, not therapy. Meaning used to be provided by religion and philosophy. Religion is diminishing and philosophy is too difficult.

[Tainnor]

Depression doesn't care about how mundane your problems are. Some people have horrible things happening to them and they don't get depressed - while others struggle with common setbacks that everyone experiences.

IMHO, the author sounds like he's missing a lot of perspective on things, and talking to other people could help with that - preferably even in a group setting.

[saulpw]

Victor Frankl, psychotherapist, wrote "Man's Search for Meaning" in which he propones "logotherapy", which is literally a therapeutic regimen based on finding meaning.

[ParetoOptimal]

Therapy is more like a physical trainer but for your brain crossed with your primary care doctor, not open heart surgery.

[lazide]

Philosophy, frankly, also only provides questions, not answers.

[oliwarner]

I agree, but rather than just laying into them, perhaps it's a symptom of too much money. Perhaps that's the cause, not something that has happened upon an already vapid simpleton.

It follows that completely removing any potential scarcity might separate you from other people. And how long would you last stewing in your own mental urine before you started thinking of others as less?

Honestly I read this as something to pity; a situation to avoid. Megalomania robs otherwise interesting people of all their humanity and having read a few more comments here , the best thing he could do would be to throw as much money as possible into therapy. You don't have to spare any sympathy for him but Vinay desperately needs help.

[shinycode]

I agree. He could give the money to greater causes and start over. That’s a challenge worth a post and a read and good use of time instead of what he just did.

[SuperHeavy256]

it's so easy to point fingers. why don't you do what you're telling him to do instead?

[saagarjha]

Besides the lack of millions of dollars?

[lazide]

“A man with an empty stomach has one problem. A man with a full stomach has 100.” - confucius maybe?

[ip26]

As a founder, the people relying on him would have been the employees at Loom. But now that’s done. Far from the first story about a founder feeling unmoored after a buyout.

[cwalv]

To me it reads like the author wants you to think this way. There's more than a little self loathing in there, starting with the title.

But IMO it's not surprising. When I left my first "real job" after ~4 years, it took months before I stopped dreaming about that job. I was amazed how wrapped-up I was in it.

What is surprising is that they put this out there so plainly. Unless they're just trolling .. but I'm going to go with "not trolling", because cynicism just leads to sorrow.

[jcgrillo]

Seems like the ex dodged a bullet

[zozbot234]

OP has enough money to live like an actual Doge [0]. (And get a pet Shiba Inu K-9 while he's at it.)

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doge_(title)

[martins_irbe]

The post title should read, "I am poor and have no idea what to do". :D

[gamblor956]

Fully agree. Clients like this are why I left firm life and went in-house doing corporate tax work.

[rideontime]

BTW, Honey was, in fact, stealing affiliate commissions.

[gamblor956]

BTW, Honey was, not in fact stealing affiliate commissions.

Because if they were, that would have been a crime, and a tort, and at some point in the past 7 years you would have seen a class action lawsuit or criminal investigation over it. Hell, at the very least a short report about their business model being extremely risky. But even though the details of their business model have been public for 7 year...none of those things has happened. (What's the next counter argument guys? That prosecutors in 50 states and countries around the world are all in league with Honey? That absolutely every shortseller on Earth didn't want to make money? That thousands of supposedly aggrieved influencers in the most litigation-happy nation on earth all decided not to pursue any sort of litigation because they were all too embarrassed?)

Honey used its own affiliate codes because that is how it tracked purchases. Sales platforms generally don't provide multi-level affiliate reporting, so that is the only technical way they have to capture transaction-related data. Before the Paypal acquisition (and for some time after) they shared their commissions with marketing affiliates. Whether they still do or not depends on the particular arrangement the marketing affiliate makes with Honey, though based on their current website it appears that revenue sharing is now the exception to be negotiated and not the norm.

Seriously, honey is not the evil conspiracy you all think it is.

[rideontime]

Oh, I guess you haven't been keeping up with the news? You're a star now. https://youtu.be/vc4yL3YTwWk?t=360

As soon as people saw this, they started filing class action lawsuits. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H4sScCB1cY So I guess we'll see!

[antony_pond]

You are so full of judgmental behavior, envy is probably driving your ego.

[orochimaaru]

I have a different take. Most people in corporate jobs are NPCs, me included. I don’t mind it. My meaning and purpose is the family I’m trying to support. If that means things at work are on autopilot so be it. It’s just a matter of priorities.

So yeah - it’s fine to call me an NPC. I just have my priorities figured out better than the author.

[rat87]

That sounds like the opposite of an npc. Someone with a personal life. One of the reasons its a stupid insult. If you want to rag on people for being shitty or minimumn effort workers then do so. NPC implies you cant tell the difference if they were replaced by a shitty program that repeats the same lines over and over.

[pavlov]

The irony of calling other people NPCs is that a player character in a computer game barely has any more freedom. All the possible actions and end states are pre-designed and scripted.

If you think of yourself as “Player One”, you are literally thinking inside the box. The first step to freedom is to stop thinking about games and scores because they are not the world.

[DiscourseFan]

Well, most people in society are forced to repeat the same behaviors as every one else for a minimum of comfort: friends, family, etc. For the college-educated in the US that often means getting a professional job and joining a hobby club of some sort and getting married and having one or two kids. Most of them are happy with that, but most of them also remember the freedom they had in college and know that deep down they are settling for less than the most they could have, because they’re probably afraid of what that would mean. I can understand why someone who is freed from that world of the “normal” might not know what to do outside of it.

[jebarker]

> Most of them are happy with that, but most of them also remember the freedom they had in college

The freedom you have in college is a shallow, parasitic kind of freedom. College is the apex point of your being an uncontributing member of society. Up to that point all you've done is receive. Becoming an adult is taking on responsibility, contributing to society and earning the real freedom to live a life you value. If you maintained the supposed freedom you have at college you're just blind to the fact that you're totally dependent on other people. A more authentic version of the college freedom would be to go live in the woods and forage for sustenance.

[germinalphrase]

Another reason why a structured, public service year between high school and college would likely be beneficial for most young people in the US.

[david-gpu]

Well put. Becoming a parent made me rethink what it means to be an adult, much along the lines of what you're describing here.

[DiscourseFan]

With the amount of excess wealth in today's society we can afford to give everyone that same level of freedom that people experience in college; there is no need to have people "go out into the woods" if they don't want to, that's insane! I'd rather people go out into space or explore new territories than just try to survive on their own, starve to death meaninglessly. We do not live in wandering bands of hunter-gatherers, we live in an advanced capitalist society with the most marvelous technological capacities in history--your imagination is limited to survival alone?

Plus, you're ignoring that in college many students have the opportunity to spontaneously begin working on projects together that they would never be able to outside of a college campus. I remember reading on here even that a student team broke a world record for a rocket launch I believe, and all the commenters agreed, it could not have happened outside of college, it could not have happened with those exact "responsibilities" that you refer to. Elon Musk has eleven kids just because, you know, he can--many aspiring parents in this country today struggle to have just one.

Those responsibilities? They are the crushing of individual creative potential in society through the extraction of wealth via wage-labor. Oh, but it's "privileged" to be a creative, its privileged to build something on your own for your own sake, its privileged to go out and explore and discover new things, its privileged to have children; perhaps you might see why many believe their own society has it out for them, and why this whole logic of "building character" is just a horrific repetition of their daily lives filled with meaningless toil just to survive so some millionaire can have an existential crisis because they can't imagine a world outside of it.

"There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

[jebarker]

I don't believe that we should all be off in the woods on our own. Quite the opposite. I think human society is an incredible thing but it requires contribution from those involved in it.