what if money were no object?
Mood: calm
Music: Radiohead - "The Bends"
Posted on 2007-06-04 09:27:00
Tags: music poll
Words: 342

(this is by no means an original question) Let's say that you won the lottery today, and you'd be receiving enough money to live on comfortably (maybe a little lower than your current standard of living) for the rest of your life.


My thoughts, cut to avoid influencing your answers :-)

For me, work is more than just a way to earn money; it's a way for me to make a difference (however small) in the world. I guess even if I couldn't find a job that I liked/was sufficiently good at, I would spend my time doing work-like activities. (contributing to open source products, etc.)


We had a good weekend. The weather was pretty nice on Friday and Saturday - we got together with a work friend and played some Mario Party 8. (verdict: not much different from previous Mario Parties, but still fun, and the minigames that use Wiimote functionality were neat) Saturday was gorgeous in the afternoon and I went out and got new CDs: 3 Radiohead, 2 Wilco, the new Linkin Park, and the Muse one with "Knights of Cydonia". The last I got because I was reminded of the songs existence via wildrice13 who was excited it was going to be on Guitar Hero III. I heard it at New Year's, and really liked it. The sample on iTunes was OK but not the part I remembered. Anyway, I listened to it later, and at first was disappointed because it was neat but not awesome like I remembered. Then it got to the good part with the great harmonies and stuff and I was happy and listened to it like 6 times :-) Point being, all the albums are up on my music site if you'd like to listen (if you don't have access, drop me a line!)

quijax came later that evening, after it started raining. (I think, anyway...it was definitely raining most of the time) It was fun having a guest! (and somewhat reinforced our feelings of missing our friends and not getting to hang out with people)

7 comments

Comment from taesmar:
2007-06-04T09:28:00+00:00
Y'all know how stressful and sometimes lame my job is. I'd so leave.

Comment from djedi:
2007-06-04T13:19:54+00:00
Hey, didn't I technically ask for you to pick up the Muse one for me? That's *my* cd. :P

Yeah, man would it be nice to get to retire in 20 years and just work for the fun of it. I think I'd still do work, but I"d make sure it was fun and productive and NOT taking up 50 hours of my life each week. I think it'd be cool to like teach school for half-day or volunteer or work on open-source stuff. That is a great idea there, Greg.

Comment from wildrice13:
2007-06-04T14:27:12+00:00
Not sure what job, but such money would ensure that I was comfortable while looking for a new job/new realm of work entirely, which is the point I am not willing to concede at the moment. If I could explore other interests or different work environments or styles of work without worrying about my own well-being, I think I would be a far less stressed and happier person. I am almost certain that I would want to work somewhere, though. Even some low-paying random job, with the key point being that I would enjoy it. Maybe not as much as, say, the free time that I spent with friends and such. But enjoy it enough to not mind going, and have a routine, and be social, etc.

Comment from wildrice13:
2007-06-04T14:33:38+00:00
In interests of total honesty, though, what I probably WOULD do is quit, spend a lot of time playing games and such that I do in my spare time until I got bored, then find the kind of "lesser" job like I describe towards the end of the previous comment. Or, maybe, I'd spend lots of time on personal projects and random learning. I'd probably read a lot. I'd probably end up trying to learn several languages.

Yeah, see, these are things I'm interested in, but "don't have time"--in quotes because I actually have the time, but in my limited free time I like to do other things MORE, and would do these other things if I got bored; I assume the things I currently do (WoW being the main one) would get boring past a certain level of weekly involvement.

Comment from djedi:
2007-06-04T17:40:33+00:00
yeah, I have similar thoughts to you.

Comment from destroyerj:
2007-06-05T10:38:38+00:00
I guess I'll fill in my whole answer here again, since I ran out of room in the textbox.

I'd stay at my current job for a while cause I enjoy the people I work with a lot, and we have fun at work (I don't imagine they'd take kindly to me hanging out in the office distracting people during the day when I didn't work there). Then I'd probably do like wildrice13 and spend a lot of time gaming, then take a huge motorcycle trip across the country, and then I'd know I'd get bored in time so I'd find some job or other that would be interesting to me without caring how much it paid or about the security. It might be fun to do a stint as a developer in the gaming industry (though given the hours I've heard of, just a stint ;) ).

Actually, what I might end up learning to do would be building custom motorcycles, so that I could build my own some day :). So I'd go find an apprenticeship somewhere or something like that.

Comment from cifarelli:
2007-06-05T15:39:15+00:00
I have been meaning to reply to this but haven't found the requisite time and free hands until now.

Since my current job isn't paid, the first question is kinda irrelevant. However, in general, if I were independently wealthy, I would never work a full time job again. If I just needed a little extra to maintain the standard of living to which I am accustomed, I'd get a part-time gig doing something that I didn't find too stressful -- and there are a lot of things that that might be. In my free time (assuming my kid(s) are no longer taking all of it), I'd read books, probably take up WoW again, play other computer games, TRAVEL!!!!, and get my house more organized and kept cleaner (either by hiring a maid or by devoting more time to it myself). If I didn't need the extra money, I'd probably eventually end up volunteering for some cause that interested me, or working part-time doing something I found interesting and fulfilling. A part-time library gig would probably do me just fine. But I suspect I'd take a substantial period of time off first. I also might go back to school and get another bachelor's degree, either in biology or computer science. I really regret screwing up my SE courses freshman year at Rice, and would love to re-take some of that stuff and devote my full ability to it.

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