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Ask HN: What would you spend your time working on if you didn't need money?

176 points by gooob ↗ HN
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.

304 comments

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gregorymichael
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
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
When this becomes possible, prisons will become very compact: a micro SD card to trap one's consciousness.
persnickety
As you might expect, there's a Black Mirror episode not far from that (IIRC "White Christmas"). And several other works of literature.
vlod
Curious how one starts doing this. Don't we need several generations of Neuralink to even start?
neupsh
You will enjoy Netflix series Carbon. Exact same basis for the series.
soyverde
Assuming you are referring to Altered Carbon, I would definitely suggest the books, too (or first, IMO).
Cypher
I'd read and relax and take care of myself more
theGeatZhopa
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
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.

aaronrobinson
Figuring it out is so much fun.
oumua_don17
:-), it's a good problem to have. If you have figured it out, it would be genuinely useful to hear how you did so? Thanks.
aaronrobinson
I’m figuring it out and I fully expect that to always be true. One thing I tried to do was be as honest with myself as possible about what was important to me. I concluded that being fit and healthy and maintaining financial independence were the most important because they are the enablers for everything else but they need balancing between each other. A lot of people work too long for more money and find themselves in a position where they are less capable mentally or physically. And some people sacrifice their health for money. You can have all the money in the world but it’s much less use to you if you’re unhealthily and unfit. After that are the things that take advantage of you health and the time financial freedom gives you. Spend more time with the people you love, particular those who are closer to not being here. Do things for other, help people out, not just financially. Carpe diem, do things while you can. Go and climb that mountain. Make the places you live beautiful places to be. Travel. Make the most of your time through being highly productive. They are the tenets I follow. Then I have a million things I want to do. I use Obsidian to record these things and what I need to do to make them happen then organise those things to create schedules for each day. So I know each day what I need to do to make progress towards the things I really want to do.
thiago_fm
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
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.
gooob
i didn't mean to say that making society more rational healthy and coordinated is the only way to contribute. you could certainly go to a monastery and meditate. also i meant that money would not even be something to think about, not that you are very rich. and i know what you're talking about with the rationalist thing, where a lot of "rational people" are really just overly-intellectual and selfish and don't really do anything; that's not what i mean by rational. i'm talking about evolutionary adaptation, surviving collectively, doing actual science, changing our mindset to care for everyone and make money obsolete because we have the technology and skills to do so.

>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.

we're just sharing ideas, not implying that we know better than anyone. anyone can share their ideas in this thought experiment. i think you imposed an incorrect assumption of what i was trying to say upon my words.

jjice
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
Some people get a lot of meaning out of helping others; probably worth a try
xur17
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
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
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
Probably making LLVM compile times not suck or something.
cauefcr
Someone retire this man.
jimbobthrowawy
Do they? Last I compared them, LLVC was much faster than gcc. To the extent that I'd test with one, and release with the other.
Ajay-p
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
Trying to improve the drop in sex & reproduction. Or make Japanese style game shows in the US.
more_corn
I’m stuck here picturing these two efforts combined.
KingOfCoders
As a CTO coach helping others having a better life, probably the same thing :-)
nickdothutton
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
I'm a programmer. I've reached this stage. I still write code.
glitchc
Work on problems that interest me.
helpfulContrib
Teaching kids computers. Old computers, not new ones. Giving them the tools they need to be really, really good hackers.
mattgreenrocks
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
A free, open-source, federated platform for scientific/technical collaboration & publishing.
hnthrowaway0328
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
With enough money, you don't need to worry about law enforcement.
more_corn
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
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.

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gooob
i like it, and have thought of similar ideas. i would add yogis or "spiritual masters" or something like that to the scientists and engineers, just to keep things in check and not let the intellect take over too much.

so it seems like your vision would be to maximize understanding of the universe, which i agree with, because that is like the ultimate thing that makes sense to do in order for our species to survive for the longest amount of time possible.

markus_zhang
I have given my "model" some thoughts and unfortunately arrive at the conclusion that it probably won't change much, for the following reasons:

- Extraordinary scientists and engineers usually don't like management, so eventually management goes into the "managers". The rest is history.

- How can we make sure that ordinary people have a say? In my model I frankly dismiss their right to rule because they cannot compete with the elite scientists.

But again maybe this is still better than what we have today. Imagine the whole society functioning as a huge university. Sure you get corruption and cronyism in universities too, but at least if you mess up something and if you get caught, you will be shunned.

gooob
ayy 3 body problem. good book series.
vlod
Since you're on a throwaway account, I'm assuming you've already started this machiavellian endevour. ;-)
YossarianFrPrez
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
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! ;)