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Comment by shekispeaks | Hacker News Reader

Getting very rich allows me to do cook less, do less chores and build up my skill further (get better) or to pursue passions that do not pay well.

I calculated moving to Europe as a SWE would lead to a drastic lifestyle change for me—even with retirement, healthcare and children's education considered (with 2 children, Europe wins at 3 hands down).

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Reminds me of something I read a few weeks ago. An old lady who lives in a cabin in the woods is being interviewed. The interviewer asks: "isn't it incredibly inconvenient that you need to gather firewood and light a fire every time you want to drink some tea?"

"Isn't it inconvenient that you have to work for someone else for 8 hours every day, only so you don't need to start a fire?"

I'm positive you can do all of those things with an average salary, at least in northern europe. There is little to worry about once you have a roof over your head. You may not have that Tesla though.

I recently learned, people worked less when we were hunter/gatherer, had more leisure time.

I don't want to skip on modern medicine and shit, but it does make you think...

[*] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yocja_N5s1I

Most hunting species are only active a few hours, because most prey species are only active a few hours a day, because there isn't exactly an excess of food or personal security in nature.

Gathering also doesn't make sense as a full time occupation, as most plant species only fruit / produce edibles infrequently, and even then you are competing with wild animals (birds eat far more from the local wild raspberry plants than I do, even when i think to try picking some).

Farmers, conversely, often work from before sunup to after sunset. Whether it is sowing, harvesting, animal husbandry, or maintenance of buildings, fences, equipment, there is no shortage to be done.

All this is to say, hunter / gatherers didn't have some secret to a life of leisure, they minimized energy output to deal with food insecurity and general difficulty actually hunting amd gathering.

The guy in the video says people played, made art and fucked. Humans are not predators, we're opportunists by evolutionary trait turning hunters rather recently.

And you too can go live in the bush and do all those things until you get a toothache, parasites and lose a few kids to infant mortality.

Depending upon where one is in the world, even in large wilderness areas, the volume of game has decreased significantly from the pre-agricultural era. Still wouldn't trade a more-abundant bush with modernity, but it is interesting to consider the relative conditions that would make it easier historically.

It's true, hunter gatherer societies have a way of getting out competed.

I imagine the quality of the leisure time as hunter/gatherer was much lower than what you have now. What are you going to do with your leisure time? Count how many of your children have survived winter?

I tell you a secret: When you are getting older and still solving the same issues because you are not John Carmack, you might release that cooking is actually quite great.

Its stress reducing in itself and versatile.

Nonetheless i also think its a better strategy to become rich enough fast and then retire earlier to have more time for myself and to cook more and do other normal things myself more often again.

As long as i don't have a realistic chance of getting so rich, that i can buy an island, or/and travel for 20 years firstclass, my life will not change anymore in any significant way with me earning more money.

> I calculated moving to Europe as a SWE would lead to a drastic lifestyle change for me—even with retirement, healthcare and children's education considered (with 2 children, Europe wins at 3 hands down).

Curious - Can you explain your calculations and did they include a difference between price vs value?

However, higher SWE salaries don't lead to less cooking or less chores needing to be done. So that is not an argument why a society should strive to optimize for that.

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