

Is it OK to Want to Make Money? - bensummers
http://swombat.com/2010/12/7/ok-to-want-to-make-money

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wccrawford
"Wanting to make money" = "wanting to thrive".

Of course you do. Anyone who doesn't is a fool. It's not only 'okay' to want
to make money, it's the only sane way to be.

Don't get me wrong. I've always said 'I don't work for money. I love doing my
job.' but if they didn't pay me, I'd go elsewhere and do my job. Money is a
vital component of living today and it's very hard to move forward (as a
person or business) without it.

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hnal943
An excellent book on this topic is _Thou Shall Prosper_ by Rabbi Daniel Lapin.
He examines why the Jewish culture is disproportionately wealthy and much of
the reason lies in their positive attitude about business.

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dbingham
Of course you should want to make money. But money should always be the means
to the end, never the end. As soon as money becomes the end to someone, that
person has lost sight of what's really important in the world.

From that point on that person isn't living life any more, they're just
playing WOW with better graphics. "Must farm more gold..."

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hammock
Western capitalist society was built on the very idea that it is OK to want to
make money and to innovate (it was a new idea at the time). To think otherwise
places you either back before 1800 or in Sweden.

If you would like to learn more I recommend the book "Bourgeois Dignity: A
Revolution in Rhetoric" by Deirdre McCloskey.

~~~
pchristensen
"or in Sweden"

Really? Volvo, Ericsson, Saab, Husqvarna, IKEA, Skype, MySQL, just to name a
few. It would have been hard to pick a worse example country to make your
point.

Believing in a robust social safety net is orthogonal to wanting to make money
and innovate.

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droz
I want people on my team that want to make money, who know how to make money
and won't get to a certain point and say, "well we made 100m let's all go sit
on the beach!".

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revorad
_Money should not be the ultimate objective_

Why not?

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rorymarinich
Well, if you're poor enough that having that money means an important change
in your lifestyle, then sure: In the short term, making money is a sound goal.

But once you've got money — not even "fuck you" money, necessarily, maybe just
enough to go day to day without money being a central worry – then suddenly
money becomes a really shallow final goal. What are you going to do with it
that you can't possibly do with the money you've got? What is that money
really doing for you? Why bother hoarding when what you have is enough?

Especially if you're an entrepreneur, used to turning your ideas into profit.
A desire for more money can ruin a sound, integral idea. Some businesses kill
themselves because even though they've _got_ money they need _more_. Others
don't necessarily die, but they're given a chance to do really cool things and
pass up on them because they'd rather stack onto the money machine.

Out of all the things in the world I could be reaching for, I can't imagine
many things more boring and unnecessary to reach for than money.

~~~
revorad
Well, I doubt anyone whose motive is money is passionate about green ink on
paper. So, it's redundant to say money should not be the ultimate motive.

The point is that more money brings more opportunities. You know like starting
your own space exploration companies. Worked out well for Bezos, Branson and
Musk. You don't make so much money without it being a motive.

“Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.” -
Oscar Wilde

~~~
swombat
I agree that money brings opportunities, but then the opportunities are the
interesting thing, not the money. So, if your ambition is to start some
fabulously expensive ventures, then you will no doubt need to pursue money
with the greatest energy... but even so, the money is only there to serve your
ambition.

To quote a story from my father's Nasrudin story site:

 _How much_

 _In overseeing your possessions it helps to have a long term view. Not too
long though. This reminds me of a story:_

 _Every child can imagine the cavern of Ali Baba. But who on earth could have
been able to picture the treasuries of Tamerlane? What is robbing a caravan
compared with plundering twenty-seven kingdoms? For instance, eight hundred
camels were insufficient to carry the gold pillaged only from Damascus. Nobody
ever counted the wealth ravished from India… Rivers of gold and silver poured
over the gravel of diamond and pearls at the feet of the Master. It was said
that the loot gathered by Genghis Khan’s hordes ended up in Timur’s hands too.
In Samarkand, like all over the empire, endless numbers of palaces, gardens
and treasury chambers belonged all to one man – the Emir. Everything belonged
to him._

 _Then, one cold winter day, on his way to conquering China, the old tyrant
drunk too much arak and died. Unexpectedly, for the Iron Emir seemed immortal.
After this event, Nasreddin hastened back to Horto, his childhood village.
Even there, the death of the emperor was on people’s lips. Everybody wondered
what wealth was bequeathed to his heirs by the great Tamerlane, richest man on
earth._

 _“Hodja,” asked Camal the barber,” you lived at Tamerlane’s court, spent your
day in his presence and luxury, saw his possessions. You must know. How much
did he leave?”_

 _Nasreddin, closed his eyes in concentration and counted for a while in his
mind. At last he opened his eyes and said:_

 _“Everything!”_

see <http://tenner.thinkhost.com/stories/index.php>

~~~
revorad
That's a nice fable. But it also reminded me another thing we could use a lot
of money for is to make such fables meaningless.

Like by funding cryonics and friendly AI research -
<http://lesswrong.com/tag/cryonics/>

<http://singinst.org/>

~~~
hackerblues
If you want to live forever you will certainly need to solve the problems
which normally come with aging. You will also need to deal with the problem of
the sun burning out in X billion years and the heat death of the universe.

I hope you have a lot of money.

~~~
revorad
Like they love saying around here about scaling, _that will be a nice problem
to have_.

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Dylanlacey
Um... Duh. Seriously. I want to make money, I want to make enough money to
stop thinking about wanting to make money.

