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Comment by ChuckMcM | Hacker News Reader

I don't know anyone who "defaulted" to working when they didn't have to. I do know several people who actively avoid explaining why they are working to people who don't have the choice to work or not.

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Huh? Isn't that what the IBM guy in your original story was doing?

Misunderstanding, I asked him that exact question which was "Why are you working when you could be doing anything you want?" and his response was that he was doing what he wanted. It was a conscious choice. I've mentioned this before but I joined Sun Microsystems the Monday after they had gone public on Friday. As a result I had a unique opportunity to become acquainted with a large number of people > 1000 who had become suddenly wealthy. The observation was that some of them wanted "big things" and some of them wanted "small things." It seems to be an individual preference thing. But mostly people didn't become 'asshole rich people'[1], the majority went off to do the thing they enjoyed doing. One of my co-workers left Sun, paid off their house, and spent their time doing hobby robotics stuff. If you're a curious person with average or better intelligence, working is much more preferable to being bored. That was Guido's complaint, he could do what ever he wanted but he was bored, and one thing "work" does is supply a bunch of things to do.

[1] Some did of course and the contrast was super stark, why live your life antagonizing those less fortunate than you? It's a choice but I never felt it was a healthy one.

> and one thing "work" does is supply a bunch of things to do.

and a social environment. "belonging" is a very important human need.

> If you're a curious person with average or better intelligence, working is much more preferable to being bored.

If you're a curious person with average or better intelligence you'll never be bored.

My mom told me that once I learned to read I would never be bored. Turns out that wasn't accurate :-)

I'm pretty sure that guy didn't go around telling people "I'm rich but I only do this job because I like it."

I don't understand this comment. He literally did tell a person this.

> I discovered that his portfolio was worth more than $4M and I asked him why he was working at IBM if he was "rich". His answer was that he enjoyed working at IBM, you could just "spend" stock as you would lose out on future growth, and what would he do with his time if he wasn't working?

There's a difference between answering a specific, pointed question versus openly advertising the fact.

Yes, but I don't see how this is a useful insight at all.

People keep all sorts of things to themselves unless asked and even when asked.

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