Comment by anal_reactor
9 hours ago
I would retire.
If you have two million euros lying around, that would be life-changing money for me. I'd put everything into VWCE and then live off interest. I think I'd spend a year in Japan just to see what it's like, then travel around a few other countries, and finally settle somewhere back in Europe - buy a small house in the middle of nowhere, renovate it, and then smoke weed and play video games until the end of my days.
Don't you think sitting alone at home smoking weed and playing games might get a little bit lonely? Humans need human contact. Might as well pick up a night shift at the convenience store so you can talk to people.
At which point the plan becomes something you can put into action tomorrow, if you wanted. It's like the parable of the Mexican fisherman: https://www.thekinnardhomestead.com/the-parable-of-the-mexic...
Stoner WoW addicts working dead-end jobs live better than kings did in previous centuries, and we're too status-obsessed to notice this.
Why can't you just play games with other people? Do you really need _work_ to not feel lonely?
Gaming communities can be very toxic
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That's something I have at the back of my mind. My company is completely dysfunctional so 90% of my job is literally doing nothing, which is amazing. The problem is the fear of losing this position.
You could spend some of that 90% time building skills for hobbies / a hypothetical future job search.
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Is your company hiring?
> and then smoke weed and play video games until the end of my days.
This might be less fun than you imagine.
> I'd spend a year in Japan just to see what it's like
There's laws and shit about that. You can't just immigrate to a country illegally.
You can however signup for a long-stay tourist visa, which lets you spend a year in Japan
with enough money, anything is possible
2m isn't going to make Japan allow more than 6 months of stay in a year on a tourist visa. It might be enough to hide yourself from deportation, though who knows what happens when you try to leave. It might be enough to convince a local to get into a sham marriage for spouse visa sponsorship.
That's such a cynical take. If everyone does what you're describing, we will never make progress as a society.
I can think of lots of people that would make society better if they would do that instead of what they are doing now.
Nah, it's just a small-scale form of wealth redistribution. The poster takes themselves out of the job market (making way for someone else), and then goes and spends their IPO money at a favourable exchange rate overseas. Literally everyone wins (versus the poster hoarding money and holding a lucrative job).
You're not less cynical here
Progress towards what? Do you think "progress" as conceived by sillicon valley billionaires aligns with the type of life you would like?
There's a non-trivial chance "working hard" as defined by the modern ethos is doing more damage than good.
It’s not cynical, but it is overly consumerist.
I cannot imagine having untold amounts of money only to do nothing afterwards except consume the stuff put in front of you.
€2M isn't "unfold amounts of money"
It's enough for a modest retirement.
Sure. If everyone became software engineers then we'd have 8 billion IT staff and zero food production, which would lead to the extinction of human race by mass hunger.
I'm not sure what's exactly your point besides "if everyone does exactly the same thing, then society collapses".
I believe Apple had a TV series lately which proffered a solution to this.