1. They're bored and want some challenge.
2. They can't stand being near their wife, husband or kids.
3. They like making money.
4. They're genuinely passionate about whatever niche topic they picked to focus on.
You can only use your toys so much before they get boring.
Why not? There are all sorts of extremely popular business and government simulation games, dating all the way back to Lemonade Stand on the Apple II to SimCity, to Railroad Tycoon, to Sid Meier's Civilization series. These guys are just doing it in real life.
The same applies for engineering and research jobs: why play Kerbal Space Simulator when you're capable of building something amazing in the real world?
In fact all my friends who had depression or committed suicide didn't have any responsibility really. I didn't see this pattern for a while though.
This has yet to be proven. We need an experiment.
Caveat: that's the rich who are self-made. The rich who are 2nd/3rd generation on the other hand, can spend money like there's no tomorrow (source: my experience hobnobbing w/the wealthy haha), and an entire industry has grown to "suport" their needs (swiss watch not enough? here's a swiss watch with diamonds... cartier diamonds, thank you very much. $20 organic, grass fed burger not good enough? here's a truffle infused, foie gras embedded burger for $100, TYVM... ad nauseum).
That's fun for a week, maybe even a month, then you'd get bored. Humans need purpose and we like structure. Complete freedom terrifies and unsettles us.
Source: All my life I wanted nothing but to have enough cash in bank to take a year off and do whatever. When I got it ... at first I panicked, then I considered the boundless possibilities, then realized I have no idea what to do with that much money, put it in index funds, and went back to work. Now it sits there as a source of comfort and potential.
A modest fuck you fund that makes me feel better and gives me that sense of Oh yeah, if I stop liking my situation, I can afford to do whatever I want for a year or two without compromising my lifestyle
I think this is the main goal that people pursuing wealth want to achieve; moving from HAVING to work to WANTING to work. I mean I'm at a stage myself where I can comfortably take a few months, probably up to a year off using my savings; it's making me a lot less attached to my current job, and makes me look a bit more critically at it and at what else is on the market. And it makes me consider working less hours or taking less pay in favor of more enjoyment in my job. (no luck yet in that regard, lol)
I enjoy my current job, but it's still a job. I have people to answer to, politics to deal with, work that I dislike that I have to do in order to do the work that I do like, frustrating people who I have to work with sometimes... the usual.
If that just went away, and I could choose what to do with every moment of my time, and associate with who I wanted, and focus on passions rather than work I don't care about... that would be the best.
I took four months off last year and it was absolutely incredible. Even to the point where when I was (very rarely) bored, I even enjoyed being bored. Sure, four months isn't a year, or ten years, or 40 years, but it just felt like the right way to live. In a weird way it actually felt more structured; I actually planned things with friends (or by myself) at particular times, stuck to the things I'd committed to, exercised more, cooked more, and just felt so unhurried and relaxed all the time.
We'll see, I guess.
Due to some lucky events I was able to maintain some fairly large custom ERP system. After few inital years all the big problems were fixed and I was keeping eye on it for next 10 years. In reality it meant about 1 or 2 hours of work every (other) month and I was paid enough to be confortable, not that much, but enough to live the life I wanted. Kind of universal income reality.
What do you think? Did I missed going to the office? Was I depressed because I haven't been climbing corporate ladder? Nah, it was awesome.
I spent few years traveling, I worked on more then 50 projects (SW and HW), I tried to launch few startups and helped couple VC funded companies, I've even bought farm and and was fortunate to spend a few years with my newly born kids without constantly thinking about some deadlines that was not imposed by me. I never felt like I was wasting my life, quite oposite: I had so much time for exploring various projects and learn new skill and I didn't need to think about will-that-make-it-me-some-money type of questions.
I am currently working normal job (well, it remote and 4-days a week, but still) writing software for banks, telcos and other corporations and it just didn't filled me with purpose or self-actualisation.
All of that _is_ work, just in a different form.
In my case when somebody asked me and I haven't have had much going on I did it, but I haven't chased anything.
Knowing you can always walk away from a job, project, or client is quite intoxicating.
> Yeah but then I’d be at zero
You'd not be at zero. Everyone's different but when I look back on my life, I treasure the travel I did and its been a regular influence on my perspective of the world ever since. I would love to have a year of FU money but... I don't think I would part with my travel history for it.
I showed up and there were a handful of people, turns out the coworker had rented the whole track (and skid pad) for the weekend for “trying out” different driving moves. I expect it cost them less than $100,000 for the weekend.
But the engineer in question here probably had a net worth of more than $50M and yet they came into work every day and built cool stuff.
Now the Sun case was more “typical” of the valley at the time where a company goes public and now there are lots of millionaires in the ranks. Same thing at Google when they went public, and Facebook. In my experience it is the unusual case that the newly wealthy person quits work and pursues a life of idle hedonism.
Not saying that it doesn’t happen, just saying that there is an alternative response to being wealthy.