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Comment by tailrecursion | Hacker News Reader

I'd like to learn how to read billionaires' minds. Anyone know a good book I can read so that I can have the skills of this opinion writer?

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DSM-5

“I want more”

You’re welcome.

I met an almost billionaire once; I mentioned how a million dollars would cover me for the rest of my life and she followed with a 10 minute speech on how money is horrible and she can't sleep at night for their concern. I was moved but I confessed I'd still want that million dollars to fall out of the sky. It didn't feel like she "wanted more".

How did you meet her? Were you at a zen meditation retreat after retiring from remunerative employment?

On a semi-related note, one of the most predictive factors of stress in any primate societies is inequality, but one of the more surprising factors is that stress increases for everyone, even those at the top of the heap.

> How did you meet her? Were you at a zen meditation retreat after retiring from remunerative employment?

I wish. It was through an investor and it was incidental.

I used to ‘hang’ with a billionaire friend of the family and, maybe that might be dutch, he was incredibly frugal (drove a crappy old but not classic car, lived in a rather small house etc) and yea was obsessed with making more. He would ask me out for a coffee and ask to split the bill (or just pay his part and walk wait for me to pay my part) even though I usually just paid as I don’t like going dutch. He spent almost no money during his life. Guess that is all good for making fortunes.

Warren Buffett reputedly lives frugally and clips coupons.

That is what his PR team wants you to believe.

He recently sold a 7.5 million dollar Malibu second home (though he got a good deal on it in 1971 when he bought it)... https://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/hot-property/la-...

He also darns his own socks and eats from glued together porcelain. Your money is safe with him!

Johnny Rocco knows what he wants.

https://yewtu.be/watch?v=ITs-YX1yQ7o

There's reams of Musk's direct thoughts about this topic and many many others, coincidentally available on twitter dot com. It's not overly difficult to get a sense of who he is and how he thinks about things.

Just look at yourself and people you know. You want to know how to read humans' minds; humans with a billion dollars are no different.

By imaginging them as different, you are giving them great power and throwing away your own. You are as smart as they are.

They are of the same mind as any other person with a bit of arrogance and hubris they just have more money.

Imagine some lowly millionaire putting a bid in for a piece of land / cottage he wants, and the karma that can come from that. Same thing, different scale.

> They are of the same mind as any other person with a bit of arrogance and hubris they just have more money.

Not necessarily, but those are the ones that you will hear the most about.

Matt Levine is a lawyer. Nothing to do with understanding a billionaires mind. A solid legal understanding, especially of corporate finance, M&A, etc is what you're looking for here ...

Internet comment threads.

No, seriously. Just keep finding better ones.

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