Ask HN: If you had $10M in the bank, would you still show up to your job?

I believe that unless one manages to regress to our primal animal state the brain has a need to think about something in order not to think about self and the possible dark existential stuff which should absolutely be ignored and avoided.

In this scenario the best possible way to occupy the brain is to set goals and build discipline towards reaching such goals.

Even pleasurable stuff like music or social connection or even I'd go as far as sex might seem 'not work' on day-1 after you fire yourself after receving the 10mil cheque

But On day 60 after leaving work with 10m

1) the 'fucking around' on the fretboard becomes 'practicing scales for at least 30 mins'

2) the hanging out at the bar becomes 'organizing parties in a way to maximize social fun with games etc'

3) the 'ONS from the club' becomes 'trying to find an escort with girl-next-door look who'd also offer Pornstar sex service and greek sex service'

Every human endevour of any kind has an S-curve type shape where after a while if you want to progress and get novelty from higher experiences you must apply IQ and discipline and so it becomes a 'work'

Leonardo Da Vinci after having signed off all the accomplishments that we know basically turned wedding planner and party organizer in Milan , I suppose orgy organizer too but don't quote me on that, and guess what? After 60 days or so it became a 'job' for him to put the pieces together in a way to reach an amazing social result.

Same with today marriages, happiest day of her life? It's the most work of her life too to get those 8 hours or whatever is the party lenght exactly right

no

I would still do a job, but it would be something that is important to me.

And $10M would require some up-front management and ongoing maintenance to develop an index-tracked revenue stream from it. I mean, aside from an initial disbursement meant to wipe out harmful debts and get a few small toys, the vast majority of that $10M would go towards being productive revenue-generating assets. No, not from the backs of other members of the working class like rental homes, but via stocks that generate dividends.

For one, I would likely adopt one or more open-source projects that have people struggling to be maintainers, and to fund them in some manner via the dividend income. Kind of like a “you no longer have to worry about food and shelter needs anymore” type of support.

It’s not like I would be able to support oodles of projects like this, but a choice project or three that is vital to the entire tech ecosystem and which desperately needs to remain independent of corporate influence… yeah. I already know of a few.

Absolutely not. I'd be doing more enjoyable and meaningful projects instead.

No.

I have a cushy job, especially when I compare it to how many other people earn money, but it's still a job rather than a passion. The social aspect is all well and good, but much (but not all) of it in a company is actually quite fake.

No. Gonna dive 100% into my hobby xv6 OS project which I'm already working on.

I don't need $10M, 1 or 2 is good enough. I'm going to pay back all debts, rent a cabin (last checked about 127 CAD per night) for a few weeks and bring my son with me for a few nights. I'm also going to buy a telescope. 4-6 hours of kernel hacking at day, and 2-3 hours of stargazing during the night. Heaven!

I would work, not for my current employer (or any employer) but for myself. I would setup a one-man LLC or similar and build products I'm proud of. If some of them work out and bring money, good! If not, also good.

Also, I wouldn't work 40h/week on it. More like ~10h/week. I would take it very slow, focusing on the parts that I enjoy the most (like deciding the font of the website for my product, or deciding the dir. structure of my backend, or thinking about that algorithm for days or weeks until I got it right).

I don't like tech companies. I work for one because they pay good. I love my career nevertheless and I become better at it in my free time (that's another reason tech companies pay me good money, because I'm good at it... but I couldn't care less about their products; I pass their interviews with a fake facade)

It took me awhile, but I arrived at "no".

What I enjoy: the programming, the messing with large systems and solving challenging problems.

What I don't enjoy: the politics, the meetings, the ineptitude of colleagues (nobody hired in the last 10 years seems qualified to do their job), the infrastructure rot and misconfigurations.

Probably as an Eng manager because I remember Eng managers did jack shit. I’d just flex on the rest by showing up in my Ferrari. What are they gonna do? Fire me?

No. My labor is transactional. The rest of my time is leisure.

Same reason why I have no interest in working weekends. Is the CEO going to come by my house on Saturday and mow my lawn? Wait, HR said we were family...

If I had $1M in the bank I would leave (probably to start my own thing, but maybe to volunteer or even just take a risk on a new job).

I do, and I don’t. Not for lack of trying, but a (non-exec) job is usually full of people who are not in that situation and it creates all sorts of awkwardness I’d rather not deal with. For example, I was out at a team dinner one time and someone asked me where I lived and when I’d bought my place, and they replied with “so you’re rich then,” and I had nothing to say to that except feel awkward.

Also when shit hits the fan layoff-wise management tries to use fear as leverage, which just causes me to quit, leaving my teammates in the lurch. (I’m reminded that Warren Buffett said they don’t try to manage most of the business mangers under them, because many of them are independently wealthy and that would take away their desire to keep showing up. That’s probably why execs are insulated from these dramas too.)

Lastly, if you work with vapid people as I did, they will low-key judge you by your possessions while flaunting theirs, and that’s just nonsense I don’t need in my life.

That being said, I don’t mind working, just not “for money alone,” if that makes sense.

send me $10m and then i'll let you know

$10M in the bank is very different for a family of 4 staying in VHCOL (Bay Area/ Manhattan) vs single person staying in Bangkok. The answer to this question depends on a lot on that versus job satisfaction etc.

No. For me, work pays my bills and funds my (modest) lifestyle. With $10 million in the bank (or invested wisely), I won't need to work. I could continue to live my life the way I do and not have to worry about the ridiculousness of the corporate world.

I would not show up, I'd sell the business, and work on more fun projects.

I have written code for 40years, self-taught from 6502 to C++ and now Node.js, and I have always loved it.

I might keep working doing what I do now.

I have the job I want. I work remotely. I “retired my wife” when she was 44 8 years into our marriage in 2020 (I was 45) so we could travel and she could pursue her passions. There is really nothing I want to do that work stops me from doing. We travel, we have done the year long “digital nomad” thing, I can go home and spend time with my aging parents and our adult kids (my stepsons) for an extended time.

My other hobbies is I’m a gym rat and just hang out with friends and my wife.

I work in consulting so I never get bored working on the same problem. I’m a staff consultant so the company I work for really gives me almost complete autonomy. I get assigned a project and for the most part I get to lead the projects the way I want.

Nope, I would probably even quit at 250K of savings. Take some time off, then maybe learn pixel art / design , and spend 2 years to make a game or SaaS to get around 2k income per month for 2 years and then repeat the cycle. The initial money secures basic housing and bills, and the small monthly income is good enough for me.

Hell no. I would mess with my stuff, no AI, no bullshit, just fun programming. But I would also do things for myself: better health, better food, better socialization.

All these "NO" answers haha... makes sense why there are record layoffs and zombie/dead startups.

I think Claude Code will save many small businesses.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the legendary Office Space scene yet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu2HhlTEHMc

If you live in a modern 1st world country and have a family, at least 1 child or some old relatives and at least minimal ambition to eat good food and have okay level of life - 10M is not much at all.

It’ll get you okayish to allright property (depending on the region), will cover all basic expenses and (if you don’t have anyone with serious illness or financial problems) some non basic ones. For up to 10 years max.

Then what?

If you want to hear people’s passions I suggest using vague “F U money” term instead of a pretty small specific number.