Louie comments on Optimal Employment - Less Wrong
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Comments (267)
I'm glad you brought this up. I actually anticipated this question and wrote up a responses in an earlier draft of this article but it didn't end up making the final cut because it's more my intuitive opinion rather than a well-established fact.
Personally, I'm still hoping to create economic value from new ideas. If that doesn't work, of course I'll need money, and I'll try to remember to be flexible.
You haven't addressed the main issue:
I prefer to work on things that interest me intellectually. This is worth more to me than any wage. Service labor does not interest me. How does this economic disparity aid a rationalist who has desires other than money?
I think his reply actually does address this, claiming that maximizing the interesting things you can do intellectually is best achieved by making a lot of money in a simple and not time-consuming or stressful way, and using the rest of your time to do those other things.
I think this claim might even be valid for some people, but for me (and possibly you) it isn't. See my other post. If neither of those considerations apply, then part-time service labor might actually be the best way to work on things that interest you intellectually.