My main point is that not needing money is not an unmitigated blessing. I tend to agree with DVH that external motivation ("hunger") is a useful and possibly even a necessary thing. People who can realize their potential (in useful ways) purely on internal motivation are rare.
I specifically mentioned trust-fund kids to hint at two things. First, their outcomes are not great. I don't have any links handy, but I think they are less successful and less happy than their peer group which is similar in terms of things like IQ and social standing, but doesn't have enough money and actually has to work for a living. In everyday terms, I can't help but notice that housewives are, as a rule, less interesting people than women who work -- again, for comparable IQ and social status (I understand it's possible to argue about the direction of causality here).
Second, a recurring motif in how wealthy people try to bring up their kids is that they explicitly do not want them to have all the money they need just for the asking. The money is there as a safety net, certainly, but the kids are pushed to go out and earn money. The idea is the same -- the lack of external motivation does bad things to people.
I specifically mentioned trust-fund kids to hint at two things. First, their outcomes are not great. I don't have any links handy, but I think they are less successful and less happy than their peer group which is similar in terms of things like IQ and social standing, but doesn't have enough money and actually has to work for a living.
Is that a personal impression or a memory of research that you can't find at the moment?
...Second, a recurring motif in how wealthy people try to bring up their kids is that they explicitly do not want them to have all the
Your job, should you choose to accept it, is to comment on this thread explaining the most awesome thing you've done this month. You may be as blatantly proud of yourself as you feel. You may unabashedly consider yourself the coolest freaking person ever because of that awesome thing you're dying to tell everyone about. This is the place to do just that.
Remember, however, that this isn't any kind of progress thread. Nor is it any kind of proposal thread. This thread is solely for people to talk about the awesome things they have done. Not "will do". Not "are working on". Have already done. This is to cultivate an environment of object level productivity rather than meta-productivity methods.
So, what's the coolest thing you've done this month?