> what drives billionaires to keep going

I don't think it's a mystery; if you want to do a good job, then you'll continue to want to do a good job, even if you're already succeeding at doing a good job.

A lot of people who make money love "making money" most of all. I come from a successful entrepreneurial family and it was the big difference between my parents and most of their peers, my parents did not care about money per se, it was just part of the business. But the other businesspeople they knew, they loved making money. Loved it.

Consider the hypothetical case of a man who can have anything he wants just by wishing for it. Such a man has power, but he will develop serious psychological problems. At first he will have a lot of fun, but by and by he will become acutely bored and demoralized. Eventually he may become clinically depressed. History shows that leisured aristocracies tend to become decadent. This is not true of fighting aristocracies that have to struggle to maintain their power. But leisured, secure aristocracies that have no need to exert themselves usually become bored, hedonistic and demoralized, even though they have power. This shows that power is not enough. One must have goals toward which to exercise one’s power.

Everyone has goals; if nothing else, to obtain the physical necessities of life: food, water and whatever clothing and shelter are made necessary by the climate. But the leisured aristocrat obtains these things without effort. Hence his boredom and demoralization.

Nonattainment of important goals results in death if the goals are physical necessities, and in frustration if nonattainment of the goals is compatible with survival. Consistent failure to attain goals throughout life results in defeatism, low self-esteem or depression.

Thus, in order to avoid serious psychological problems, a human being needs goals whose attainment requires effort, and he must have a reasonable rate of success in attaining his goals.

But not every leisured aristocrat becomes bored and demoralized. For example, the emperor Hirohito, instead of sinking into decadent hedonism, devoted himself to marine biology, a field in which he became distinguished. When people do not have to exert themselves to satisfy their physical needs they often set up artificial goals for themselves. In many cases they then pursue these goals with the same energy and emotional involvement that they otherwise would have put into the search for physical necessities. Thus the aristocrats of the Roman Empire had their literary pretensions; many European aristocrats a few centuries ago invested tremendous time and energy in hunting, though they certainly didn’t need the meat; other aristocracies have competed for status through elaborate displays of wealth; and a few aristocrats, like Hirohito, have turned to science.

Please read paragraphs 33 through 41, or better yet, the full text for context https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/unab...

I've never seen anybody cite the Unabomber before.

Ted's major major mistake was using violence and intimidation to raise awareness

'James Q. Wilson, in a 1998 New York Times Op-Ed, wrote: "If it is the work of a madman, then the writings of many political philosophers—Jean Jacques Rousseau, Tom Paine, Karl Marx—are scarcely more sane.'

Thanks to this thread for introducing me to this manifesto. I have heard of it, but I didn't know it was a critique of our industrial world from a "madman" wishing to return to more primitivistic roots. As someone going through the same concerns, without the violence, this essay seems right down my alley.

A good idea, associated with evil.

> it makes me wonder what drives billionaires to keep going. they're probably just bored when they're not working. it really might be as simple as that.

If we're looking at billionaires, it's a very different situation from the rest of the rich.

Billionaires carve out and control portions of civilization. I mean any business or other venture does this to a degree, but when you're working with billions of USD, you're playing a different game entirely. It is about power.