(keeps sarcasm sign lifted): Yeah, well, you can’t win all the time right? If you happen to be curious not in general, but about the very few things that actually help you make money, then maybe, if you are lucky, over the long run, this may end up helping you make some money. Now think about the things you are curious when you are 15, or things you’d be curious even if you had 13 million dollars… Most people would take no interest in the things that would provide money to them if they didn’t have the 13 million. If you are one of the exceptions, as maybe Buffet (a notable exceptional human being in general) try to focus on the other things, and you’ll be able to not make money in no time!
Finally consider this basic argument against making money, which may help you in your quest: For things that enough people know about and want to do badly enough (going to waterfalls, bikeriding, reading great fiction, taking the subway) there is no incentive to pay people to do it. Money is invested to make sure people are coerced into doing something they would not have done otherwise. Wages are the way in which we coerce people to do things that not enough others were willing to do, but need being done by someone. Because humans share much of their historic, cultural and genetic profiles, and thus interests, it is very likely that the sort of thing people would pay John Smith to do does not coincide with the sort of thing John Smith would be doing without the finantial coercion.
If there was a twin earth in which this trend is reversed, where I would be paid to read intellectually stimulating stuff like LessWrong, date the most incredible people, design the coolest projects and have others implement them, hike to waterfalls where the sun is perfect and the water fresh. If such place existed, then maybe I’d be writing a “how to make money” internet blog post, like is everyone else in this universe. But who’d find the irony there?
Most people are primarily interested in things that won’t go very far in making money, and basically everyone likes to do a lot of things they won’t ever get paid for; both are undeniable. “Be interested only in things that do nothing to increase your ability to earn money” is a very good way, indeed just about the best way, to not make money.
I can only speak for myself. Unlike most people, I don’t “work” at all, in the sense of doing anything with the conscious goal of making money. All I do is think about what interests me, and discuss the results of that thinking with other people. As long as governments (and philanthropists like Mike Lazaridis) are willing to pay me for my non-work, I’m happy to take their money. If they ever stop paying me, I guess I’ll have to find some other source of income.
(keeps sarcasm sign lifted): Yeah, well, you can’t win all the time right? If you happen to be curious not in general, but about the very few things that actually help you make money, then maybe, if you are lucky, over the long run, this may end up helping you make some money. Now think about the things you are curious when you are 15, or things you’d be curious even if you had 13 million dollars… Most people would take no interest in the things that would provide money to them if they didn’t have the 13 million. If you are one of the exceptions, as maybe Buffet (a notable exceptional human being in general) try to focus on the other things, and you’ll be able to not make money in no time! Finally consider this basic argument against making money, which may help you in your quest: For things that enough people know about and want to do badly enough (going to waterfalls, bikeriding, reading great fiction, taking the subway) there is no incentive to pay people to do it. Money is invested to make sure people are coerced into doing something they would not have done otherwise. Wages are the way in which we coerce people to do things that not enough others were willing to do, but need being done by someone. Because humans share much of their historic, cultural and genetic profiles, and thus interests, it is very likely that the sort of thing people would pay John Smith to do does not coincide with the sort of thing John Smith would be doing without the finantial coercion. If there was a twin earth in which this trend is reversed, where I would be paid to read intellectually stimulating stuff like LessWrong, date the most incredible people, design the coolest projects and have others implement them, hike to waterfalls where the sun is perfect and the water fresh. If such place existed, then maybe I’d be writing a “how to make money” internet blog post, like is everyone else in this universe. But who’d find the irony there?
Most people are primarily interested in things that won’t go very far in making money, and basically everyone likes to do a lot of things they won’t ever get paid for; both are undeniable. “Be interested only in things that do nothing to increase your ability to earn money” is a very good way, indeed just about the best way, to not make money.
Your sarcasm is appreciated :-)
I’d guess a sizeable fraction of LWers are interested in things other than those with the largest markets, though.
And here I quote this for the n-th time...
-- Scott Aaronson