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Comment by ece | Hacker News Reader

Bill Gates or Warren Buffet are the exception, not the norm.

Bill Gates was reckless in the 90's when Microsoft was already leader and he was already a billionaire. He left his position as chairman at 60.

Not really such an "early" retirement.

But he's doing charity now, while still having more than 100 billions for himself, so somehow he's a saint.

Compared to his contemporaries? Pretty much xD

Warren Buffet just retired so how is he an exception?

He retired at 94, which is exceptional on several accounts... If you date the "founding" of Berkshire Hathaway as when his fund bought the then textile manufacturer in 1965, he worked at the company he founded for 60 years! (If you consider the company that he founded to be the initial investment fund in his twenties, then he ran the company for over 70 years.) At 94, he's basically run Berkshire his entire life, which is hardly the get-rich-and-play sort. (In fact, he still lives in a small house in Omaha and is not known for spending lots of money.) Furthermore, he's pledged half his fortune to charity in his lifetime, and most of the rest after his death. He may have been responsible for the giving pledge, but if not, I think was instrumental in such success as it's had.

The context was about being power hungry and ambitious to keep making more money, building a bigger business, perhaps fame, prestige, success, accomplishment... vs selling out early if just being a simple billionaire is adequate enough. Buffet worked his entire life as you said, which was my point, and was the richest in the world for a long time. He is not a counterpoint to Zuckerberg.

And all of the billionaires donate money, I don't think that sets him apart from the others all that much.

Buffet is set apart and exceptional because he understood exactly what it takes to trick everyone into thinking he is a good man. (btw that helps his stock too)

Now that he's gonna go soon (and having just a dozen more human gatherings and dinners left).. we can see that he fully doesn't give half an ounce of fuck after having received in full what he was after.

After much show, Buffet's "charity" money got simply inherited by his kids just as it was planned all along! (taxfree too, you plebs!)

The billionaires that care about the world are like Larry Page, tho still so evil.

I think Buffet saw how financial market for 2025 was shaping up and just thought life is too short to waste.

"Exception"? but of course! Those two are the putin-level ones singlehandedly pwning the charts since 1997 after the reign of Getty Oil / Japanese / Walmart.

They are the literal sensei of Zuck the greenhorn and friends. So exceptional that the world thinks they're the exception.

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