About money

But first things first. I think the main motivation for most of my generation for having enough money isn't luxury. It is freedom. Having more time and setting your own personal motivations for life is the main reason we actually chase money. Or at least that's the first and most important step for wanting to have more money.

We have started to understand that luxury is fine but after a while what it really matters is how you actually feel and your purpose in life. More luxury sooner or later won't be enough to help you on that. Many believe in stoic philosophy and that you don't actually need a deeper reason to live but just enjoy life is enough, but I'll catch on this in another post.

I'd like to challenge first, the thought regarding luxuries. Imagine that you have two choices. Choice one: Being the richest person in 1822 or even 1922. Choice two: Being an average person in a Western country at 2022. Which one is living "better" and has more luxury? For sure the average person has much better medical treatment. Better knowledge of the world if he decides to learn something. Much safer transportation, travel in any countryin the world if he wants to and much faster. He can communicate with ease with many people and he has much more options for enjoyment. What about hygiene? Still better (toilet, clean water, clean food etc.). So probably the average person enjoys nowadays a better life in almost all the aspect of the most luxurious man in 1922. My guess is that the same is happening if you could look back every 100-200 years: The average person of the most advanced society would have much more luxury that the richest person 100-200 years ago of his era.

Where am I getting to? I think this will also be the case for the average person of our society in 200 or even 100 years from now. He will enjoy a much better life even from the luxury options of Elon Musk. You probably think right now that this is not going to be and that's crazy, but imagine the above scenario and how crazy could be the life of the average person 200 years from now. We could have instant teleportation, regeneration and being immortal, we may be able to learn something in seconds due to brain improvements, change bodies and transfer our conscious, live in virtual worlds like gods or anything else you can imagine. Crazy thoughts I know, but bare with me. Where am I getting to?

If you believe the above, even being super rich and enjoying the best luxury your era can give you, isn't so important. Sooner or later it won't be so crazy and humanity will probably reach it. Also sooner or later, I think you will have a converstation with your inner self. You will have to decide if that's enough and if this is the only thing that you want or if you want something more. You realize that time is more important than luxury. I think that's the reason most people of my generation want to be wealthy and just retire. It is a matter of having a goal. The goal could be to raise kids up to living a life like a stoic philosopher.

Now, what about the super rich people? You have the option to decide what else your money can buy. I have done this kind of conversation with many people. What would you do if you were a super rich billionaire? My wife believes in philanthropy. She will start giving more food and better education to people in need, so more people in the world will be able to enjoy a better life (like Bill Gates). She will probably had many cat shelters as well *sign*. But what if you are greedy? If you don't believe in humankind and want more power and money, you may want to take over the world. You may start by buying your android army, control TV, politics and twitter :D . Or just enjoy space travels and a life full of luxuries and no deeper purpose, experiment as much as you can with brain chemistry of pleasure and anything that will make you feel great. Or just focus on what you love which could be to do surf up to making money and more businesses.

Anyway I think we are getting in a better world each year and the destination of mankind is to colonize other planets and defeat mortality. But the path to go there faster isn't through philanthropy. Or I may be wrong. But I think the path to advance humankind is through research in some fields of the following: Healthcare (my current favorite), colonize other planets and make planet more sustainable by finding more effective ways of energy.

Back to conclusions. Most people of my generation, first want to be wealthy enough or find a way to have more time. Second and at least for me, the more money they have, the more they will be spent on reasons for improving the above. For me, this is either trying to learn more, invest and take part on teams which I believe they have this vision etc. What about you?

Enough of my crazy midnight thoughts, hope I read the above in the morning and I won't delete it. I'd love to send me related links and share your thoughts (and tell me that I am not crazy!).