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

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46545404

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

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.

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)

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!

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.

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

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?

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.

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.

Would I keep showing up to the job I had in 2015? Yes, not forever, but at least for a time. It was enjoyable socially and practicing the craft is enjoyable. At jobs like that, the ability to enjoy the craft outweighed the downsides of having to manage a job/career.

Would I keep showing up to the most recent job I had? Or seek out a job in what the market has become, or take a job in what the field has become? And what has become of the craft? Absolutely not. I retired with much less money than $10m, my living expenses are low.

Unfortunately my wife has a terminal illness, and while $10m would be quite a lot, when facing the bills of ALS without proper health insurance, that could run out very quickly. With $10m, I'd work, but do all of the things that I don't have the guts to ask for now: Go fully remote all the time (something that I'll likely have to do within the next few years to be a partial caretaker). When the bad times come, which they will, if I had $10m in the bank I'd walk away from the job and focus entirely on being the most present father that I can be.

Over the last couple years of her illness, I've become the sole caretaker of our young kids, and it's changed me dramatically. Being a parent can be exhausting, and I've always loved it, but I also loved logging into work and doing productive things, contributing to (what I thought were) important software projects, and working with my colleagues. I always loved the camaraderie of the work place and my colleagues. That's shifted entirely in the last 2 years. Other than the paycheck to maintain my kids' quality of life, other than the health insurance that we're now inextricably tethered to (something that I never had an appreciation for as a young, relatively healthy single or married-but-no-kids person), I just don't care about anything at work other than doing what I have to do to maintain those things.

$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.

Investors are not investing in small startups much, perhaps due to high interest rates.

Now is a great time to invest in small startups applying ML to realworld problems, and will result in a lot of useful new tech being built.

Id make a lot of small bets on early stage startups of this kind - and perhaps top up when they get a POC and at MVP / early traction stage.

It would almost be worth buying a building in Danang Vietnam, and hosting small teams for 3m at a time to get more bang for your buck - ie. rent arbitrage / quadruple the effective runway due to low cost of living.

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

I would quit my job and start my own freelance consulting business. No doubt my employer would hire me and I could escape the internal bureaucracy I have to deal with. Probably do part time as well.

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 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.

Not to the current job. I'd still want to use same skills, but I'd probably find some research groups assist for free.

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...

Probably so. I'm in academia as a teacher and as a researcher. I like teaching and I like research. If I were "rich" I'd probably do both things with a much clearer state of mind.

Not an easy question to answer.

On one hand I really like my job and get treated well and like being part of something bigger than myself. On the other hand it would be attractive to spend more time working on some ideas I have.

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.

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.

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 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.

This is a good question. Many of us work out of blind habit or to support a lifestyle we didn't consciously choose. Asking this question can lead to freedom, no matter how much money you have and no matter whether you work or not, because its a question that leads to living deliberately. Which I am all for. https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/

Short answer: No.

Long answer: maybe I would wrap up a few outstanding projects and then retire?

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.

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.

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

I might not stay in my current job, but I'd certainly want at least a part time job. Something external to impose schedule, where my capabilities are needed (or at least useful to others) is important to my mental health.

hell no. i quit tech with a lot less because life is too short.

I mean duh? At the very least wouldnt one just show upt to their job for the "non work related" activities? Or work becomes your "passive income"?

I get to solve interesting problems at a large scale with minimal politics or BS with legitimate unlimited PTO so I'd probably stick around. Eventually I might do my own startup or consulting business or some such. I find joy in solving interesting problems with real impact which is difficult outside some type of job. Thats due to my personality more than anything but it is what it is. The job is not the passion but the problems are.

No fuckin way, i don't like my job, and in fact i rather dislike the entire programming career.

I'm about an inch away from quitting my job today with no backup. The impossibility of finding a new way to pay rent is the only thing stopping me.

If i knew any way on earth for me to make as much as i do programming doing something else, i would.

No, capital NO.

And I think people who do continue, are engaging in a sociopathic mental illness, that is the primary cause of income inequality, and authoritarian hierarchies in general.

Some people just feel driven to dominate others...

Absolutely not show up. With the current level of expense I would live off of it for about 10 generations. But now I think I would push them up a little bit, so more like five.

Yes. That said, I work for myself at home in a job that takes only a few hours a day.

The money would affect that in the sense that the additional assets and guaranteed income would allow more investing in my business.

How is that dissonance? The best you can hope for, in order, are: 1) not having to work, for whatever reason, and having personally meaningful interests with which to fill your time; (two-way-tie) 2a) not having to work, 2b) having to work and having a job you love that means something to you; 3) everything else.

We require sustenance and shelter and sanitation and a few other things. Those require resources, one way or another. If one has to perform some activity in order to acquire the resources necessary to those needs, then one might as well do something one enjoys, if one can.

I absolutely LOVE my job (WFH systems programming in a challenging space (cross domain)), have the best team (my boss, the owner, is a friend from way back in another cyber co; my closest colleague is a great friend from off-roading; my other colleagues are all great people, with fantastic younger team members who break every cliché and trope about their generations; etc., etc.).

And if $10,000,000 showed up in my bank account tomorrow, I would wind down my work as smoothly and quickly as possible, to not leave them hanging, carry on consulting occasionally for them, when needed, and spend a year working on my house and Jeep and learning category theory and walking the dogs and watching as many football matches as I could (heck, with that money, maybe I even would spend the $50/month to get FA Cup games on top of what I already have).

Once the house was to my - and my GF's liking - and once the Jeep was again the beast it once was, and a bit more (portals!!!), well, there would be still be football to watch and math to learn and dogs to walk. Maybe we'd move somewhere we could foster many, many dogs? Ah, the mind reels.

I might even upgrade my phone or monitors.... (I'm a cheap bastard. The dead pixels on the phone screen are a PITA, but they only really impact Quordle.)

I work independently as consultor/solo dev (https://www.elmalabarista.com) for years now, so with that much money (even 1 million) I just be set for life!.

But I actually love my job (programming) and do it in my spare time (after program for work!) and like to join others to learn (as I have done for https://spacetimedb.com/).

Will probably dedicate the time for my dream of build a FoxPro-alternative, and pretty certain will love it for more than a decade, so if anyone wanna help get funds I all hears!

Without a shadow of a doubt. 10 mil is more than a 100 years at my current salary rate, and I live quite comfortably.

10 mil means I can take care of my family, and significantly upgrade our standard of living, and sustain this for the remainder of our lives. We can spend our time doing things we actually enjoy doing.

I love my job. Don't get me wrong. But the fact that my job means I can eat plays a very significant part in me loving it in the first place. When the need to survive is removed, I think that love will evaporate.