Comment by jasonhong

I was in a somewhat similar position as the OP, having had a successful exit many years ago and trying to figure things out. I was lucky that I still had a faculty position at a top university, young kids, and a good family to help ground me and guide me.

My general take on things is this: money is one of the closest things we have to a superpower in this world. With enough money, you can build new things, make steps toward solving hard problems, and influence people and organizations to do things you want.

Given all this, what kind of world would you want to live in? And with your newfound superpower, what kind of steps can you take that might get us closer to that world?

Now, of course, this path is fraught with many challenges and dangers (especially as evidenced by so many superpowered billionaires around the world that want us to live in an oligarchy, but that's a rant for another day). Instead, I'll end by sharing a few things that have helped shape my thinking about how I spend my time and what kind of positive impact I want to make on the world:

- https://whorulesamerica.ucsc.edu/power/wealth.html

- John Rawls on the Veil of Ignorance and the original position https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_position

- Prof. Michael Sandel (Harvard) on Justice: What's the Right Thing to do? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBdfcR-8hEY&list=PL30C13C91C...

- Prof. Robert Reich's course on Wealth and Poverty (former US Sec of Labor) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1f2blKai7HA&list=PLOLArO56vj...

There's also an interview with a sci-fi author (Ted Chiang I believe, but I can't find it to confirm), that also posed an interesting question: what is your ideal world, and what steps are you taking to help us get closer to that world? For me, it's Star Trek, not the space exploration part (though that's cool), but the idea that Earth has become a planet where things like war, poverty, hunger, racism, and xenophobia are things in the far past, and every person can achieve their full potential. I know cynics will scoff, but that's a world I'd like to live in, and one I'm trying to use my superpowers to get to.