I disagree - I could easily be unhappy in that scenario and I think I’m pretty normal*. I get that normal is subjective, but I’m not like on medication, or in treatment for anything.
I think I would immediately be really insecure about having to buy sex and how the only reason people love me is my money and I’m incapable of intimacy from a genuine place. I think I would immediately feel shame at having purchased a Ferrari while not knowing anything about cars. I think I would feel guilty having a big house to live in all by myself, and probably would never buy it to begin with.
That isn’t to say I couldn’t make myself happy with money -I could give a fuckton of it away to worthy causes and basically feel good about myself immediately despite not really working very hard or personally accomplishing much. That feels like a cheat code to me. “Yeah, I didn’t lose twenty pounds this year like I wanted or write my novel despite having tons of free time, but I gave away a Billion Dollars to cancer research and another Billion to RAICES and another Billion to the ACLU and another Billion to the Trevor Project. So basically, I’m fucking awesome.” But even then, I think over like a decade or similar, the lack of personal involvement would eventually make me embarrassed.
I think that’s why hiring sycophants (or now building them from AI) is such a popular remedy for the obscenely wealthy. A chorus of voices to drown out your own insecurity about how you didn’t earn it, didn’t use to better yourself, didn’t find real happiness. And why reality checks drive these people nuts.
I disagree - I could easily be unhappy in that scenario and I think I’m pretty normal*. I get that normal is subjective, but I’m not like on medication, or in treatment for anything.
I think I would immediately be really insecure about having to buy sex and how the only reason people love me is my money and I’m incapable of intimacy from a genuine place. I think I would immediately feel shame at having purchased a Ferrari while not knowing anything about cars. I think I would feel guilty having a big house to live in all by myself, and probably would never buy it to begin with.
That isn’t to say I couldn’t make myself happy with money -I could give a fuckton of it away to worthy causes and basically feel good about myself immediately despite not really working very hard or personally accomplishing much. That feels like a cheat code to me. “Yeah, I didn’t lose twenty pounds this year like I wanted or write my novel despite having tons of free time, but I gave away a Billion Dollars to cancer research and another Billion to RAICES and another Billion to the ACLU and another Billion to the Trevor Project. So basically, I’m fucking awesome.” But even then, I think over like a decade or similar, the lack of personal involvement would eventually make me embarrassed.
I think that’s why hiring sycophants (or now building them from AI) is such a popular remedy for the obscenely wealthy. A chorus of voices to drown out your own insecurity about how you didn’t earn it, didn’t use to better yourself, didn’t find real happiness. And why reality checks drive these people nuts.