> No path out of this valley involves traveling alone
In my opinion, this is the big take here
When you have enough money to not work, it becomes very lonely fast
All of a sudden you have tons of time, but no one to share it with. Everyone is busy, mostly with work (also, most people probably can’t afford the same things you can)
If you could coordinate to stop working at the same time as your significant other, and a few friends, then you at least would have a group to plan and do stuff with
One of the biggest meanings we can find in life, is the feeling of belonging
OP seems to be going through a belonging crisis. Trying to figure out what group he wants to belong to
> When you have enough money to not work, it becomes very lonely fast
I haven't made enough to not work but once my US immigration was sorted out (H1B isn't very leisure compatible), I took a year off to rediscover what all passed me by when I was working.
This was a lot of alone time, but not true loneliness.
For example, I would set up lunch with a friend, they would bail due to work emergencies or something but I would go eat there anyway.
Quickly learned to go to a place where multiple people were scheduled anyway, like heading to Berkley for a tech talk on Byzantine block chains or vector search algorithms, hoping something would interest me.
> OP seems to be going through a belonging crisis. Trying to figure out what group he wants to belong to
The first three months were a strange struggle with my Ego, because a large part of my "Get up and do things" was the belief that what I had to do was very important to others and the whole world stops if I stop moving. To get through the waves in life without feeling self pity about it, I honestly felt my work was what made the sun rise and the rain fall.
Suddenly, my self importance was shot to pieces immediately.
I wasn't important anymore, what I did wasn't important to others but only to me. All the years of sacrificing my own wants (not needs) suddenly felt dissonant.
Plus a lot of activities aren't cumulative in the way work is - cooking dinner today does nothing for dinner tomorrow, there's no way to add up that to something.
Work is particularly rewarding because it checks those two boxes for me - it adds up to something, slowly every day, plus what I do is important to others in way where they want you to succeed (unlike say training for the SF marathon, where it's all "I could never" from people who could, but don't want to).
Eventually, I went back to work, but now I drink that workahol in moderation.
I read somewhere there are old money people in Europe faking that they are “working class” - not really to hide the fact that they are rich - to have people to hang out with in general.
If I ever got to the point of having fuck you money, I don't see myself stop hanging out with my friends. We all like movies and dinner and board games. That's all I need in order to hang out. My board game group as it is has a pretty broad spectrum of financial situations.
> Everyone is busy, mostly with work (also, most people probably can’t afford the same things you can)
I would think if one were rich, and you knew who you wanted to spend time with, you could simply buy their time through various means. Pay some bills, get them a more relaxed job with more time, pay for vacations for them to go with you etc.
But he was Sikh (Indian Indian), and arguing his proto-Indo-European ancestry qualified him. He was ‘acquitted’ of being ‘white’, and case thrown out. Really interesting case, actually.
Some pretty nasty stuff in there from the plaintiff about his revulsion too and not wanting to marry the ‘lower castes’ (and some argument regarding Mongoloids) to help quantify him as ‘white’ in case you get too sympathetic.
In my opinion, this is the big take here
When you have enough money to not work, it becomes very lonely fast
All of a sudden you have tons of time, but no one to share it with. Everyone is busy, mostly with work (also, most people probably can’t afford the same things you can)
If you could coordinate to stop working at the same time as your significant other, and a few friends, then you at least would have a group to plan and do stuff with
One of the biggest meanings we can find in life, is the feeling of belonging
OP seems to be going through a belonging crisis. Trying to figure out what group he wants to belong to