

Lottery Winner Jack Whittaker's Losing Ticket - kitcar
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-12-13/lottery-winner-jack-whittakers-losing-ticket

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marquis
There's a longer story with a lot more about the lottery win and fall of his
family and community that goes more in-depth, from 2005.

[http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-
dyn/A36338-2005Jan25?la...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-
dyn/A36338-2005Jan25?language=printer)

The best advice I ever read if you win the lottery: get an attorney to claim
the money on your behalf and don't tell anyone. I had family friends destroy
their lives after winning a substantial amount and it's not pretty to watch.

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stephengillie
I'm not sure why this article keeps getting upvotes. This is an article about
a person who won their state lottery 10 years ago, then lost all the money
through constant, consistent poor decision-making. The winner was a small
business owner, that's the only connection I can make.

I've heard this story dozens of times, usually from morally-aggressive people
as an anecdote for why money is evil. I've heard it discussed on radio talk
shows, and also by radio DJs. I could swear I've read about it here before,
and I'm sure I've seen it on TV too.

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untog
I think the interesting point is that he already had a lot of money, and was
perfectly capable of handling it. But when the money was handed to him (rather
than earned) he went off the rails.

I'm not qualified to say whether that is a known psychological reaction, but
it would seem relevant to the startup world.

~~~
michaelochurch
My guess: unearned money gives one a sense of social status, and high social
status (like power) corrupts. Most of the destructive things these people do
are related to social status.

It doesn't sound to me like he necessarily has a money-management problem. He
probably still is quite rich. It's the rest of his life that is ruined.

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akeck
It's seems impossible to interact normally with others if the entire world
knows you've become wealthy. The interesting thing about SV is that you can
cash out of a successful start up and still be completely unknown outside of a
smallish circle. You don't necessarily even need to tell your family the scale
of your success. You can just get a bit more generous at Xmas and donate more
substantially to your favorite charities. People with simply appreciate the
extra efforts rather than expecting/demanding access to your new fortune.

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nekojima
Having read too many stories like this, if I do win a lottery, I will spend no
more than 0.1-1% per year for the first five or ten years, with the remainder
locked in a trust account with my financial adviser, with additional safe-
guards so he or his staff can't redeem or abuse the funds. In large part I
could do this and feel happy doing it, because I wouldn't feel the necessity
to spend my way to happiness and $100k would be more than enough for my own &
my family's expenses, including foreign travel, and for "scholarships" for my
closest friends' children (most not going to uni for another ten years
anyway).

~~~
michaelochurch
My uninformed advice for this improbable event: I think that's a good policy
_and_ you want to keep other people from knowing. Once you have a 10m+ lottery
win, keep it out of the press as much as you can.

The interesting thing about the story is that no one knew that he was a
millionaire before the lottery. He worked hard and didn't "look rich" so he
could have a more normal life. Once he was a lottery winner, he got hit with a
bunch of extortions. (Of course, he also did some stupid shit on his own
accord.)

It doesn't sound like he "wasted it all" either. It sounds like he's still
extremely rich, but that his life is completely fucked up.

One of the issues I think is that the appeal of Big Money to a lot of people
is social status. That's what creates the temptations that lead these people
to ruin. What most people don't realize is that the highest of the high in
social status are torn down and eaten for sport because that's human nature.

Honestly, I can relate a lot of his rich/old fucked-up-ness with my
smart/young fucked-up-ness that I had to deal with. When you have something
"big", people fuck with you. Most people don't, because very few are that
insecure and petty, but you get a disproportionate amount of creepy attention
that comes from a very insecure 5% focusing on ~0.5% of the population. In his
case, though, it's <0.00001%.

~~~
nekojima
Simple things like renting a house/apartment in another town to live in for a
week or a month before collecting, registering a new telephone number, perhaps
now even signing up for new dummy email address, for folks to contact you, and
never living there or using those after you win, will help to stay anonymous.

Not sure why people claim the money so quickly. I rarely check tickets I've
bought within a month or two of the purchase date. I guess the thought of
possibly winning is better than knowing that I wasted those few dollars on it,
but also that nothing much would really change (other than a new laptop and
camera).

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thejteam
I was at the grocery store right before the big Powerball drawing and almost
got in line to buy a ticket. Then I realized I wouldn't want to win that much
money and wouldn't have the slightest clue what to do with it. It would be
more stress handling the money than working.

Now, I wouldn't mind starting a business, selling it, and walking away with a
few million or 10, it can give me time to grow into my money. But to win a
public lottery worth 19's or 100's of millions... I'll pass.

~~~
newman314
Won't stop people from coveting what you have.

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michaelochurch
We (meaning CS types who follow startups) are an unusual crowd. We're
introspective and understand human societies and ourselves better than a lot
of people do. Our main motivation for wanting money is (a) autonomy, and (b)
building cool stuff. It's ambition that drives us, and we'd still work after a
huge windfall-- we'd simply work on much better terms, and probably a lot
harder (because such wealth takes out the "had to pay bills" excuse for
typical middle-class underachievement).

The motivation for most (98%) people who want extreme wealth to want it is
social status. That's not always a nasty thing. Sometimes it takes the form of
extreme generosity, or large donations to children.

That's why the sensible path is so rarely followed. These aren't stupid or bad
people. They try to use their money for its only remaining purpose (social
status) to most people at extreme levels, and they get into a self-destructive
loop, because high social status itself impairs judgment and leads to more
recklessness.

~~~
betelnut
I don't disagree with you starting from the third sentence, but those first
two are remarkably self-congratulatory. It's not clear how being a CS type who
follows startups leads you to understand human societies better than anyone
else.

~~~
michaelochurch
You may be right on this one, but I like to believe that, in aggregate terms,
we're more introspective and enlightened than the general population.

Exceptions exist. Give $100 million dollars to any of the idiots on the Bravo
"Silicon Valley" show and you'd have a dead crack whore. [0]

[0]: I have no sexist intent in using "crack whore". This assertion applies
with equal strength to the men.

