Are there other forums who get trolls complaining while they have tens of millions of dollars?
FIRED and depressed
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Are there other forums who get trolls complaining while they have tens of millions of dollars?
NW-Bound
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Dunno. This is the only forum I frequent.
I think that activities that dissolve our sense of self get us out of that funk, and the degree to which we can get out is infinite (though we tend to settle for much less. 
)
As Dogen said:
"To study the way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things. When actualized by myriad things, your body and mind as well as the bodies and minds of others drop away. No trace of realization remains, and this no-trace continues endlessly."
)As Dogen said:
"To study the way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things. When actualized by myriad things, your body and mind as well as the bodies and minds of others drop away. No trace of realization remains, and this no-trace continues endlessly."
Nemo2
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Walked along the beach today, sat in the sunshine and happily watched the wild Monk parakeets......didn't care a rodent's rectum about anything.
I have no idea whether the OP is a troll or not. I would only be guessing. But I do not agree with the notion that anyone who has a lot of money "shouldn't be complaining" and that if they express dissatisfaction with life they are "either a chain yanker or a true mental case." It is nice to have a lot of money, but it is not a panacea. Even people who have a lot of money can be dissatisfied with the quality of their life, question the meaning of their lives, or suffer from depression (an illness that does not care how much money you have).
I can understand how someone who is not very wealthy might look at a very wealthy person and say "if I had your money, I would be entirely happy and would not complain about anything." But then I can equally understand a very wealthy person saying "maybe I thought I would be happy if I only had a lot of money, but now that I have a lot of money I am still not happy."
As I read through this discussion again, it occurs to me that I do not care whether the OP was a troll or not. Either way, he has spurred an interesting discussion.
Amethyst
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+1
....just wanted to get that in, in case the thread gets closed down.
I know a very fine human being who is slowly dying of Lou Gehrig's Disease. But despite barely being able to function, he manages to treat everyone he meets with courtesy and kindness,whereas many healthy people all around him are not quite up to snuff in that regard. I think he has found meaning in life even though few would want to change places with him.
....just wanted to get that in, in case the thread gets closed down.
I know a very fine human being who is slowly dying of Lou Gehrig's Disease. But despite barely being able to function, he manages to treat everyone he meets with courtesy and kindness,whereas many healthy people all around him are not quite up to snuff in that regard. I think he has found meaning in life even though few would want to change places with him.
MuirWannabe
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You say 'helpful' like you think it's not!
Well, I'm not much of a cat lover. So it wouldn't be very helpful for me.
. But I did think about it later and I'm sure for someone else this could be helpful. You never know.
Sorry.
Muir
Exactly! It is never the amount of money that is the issue. It is the meaning and significance that we put behind it that either makes or breaks us. It was this conversation that baited me into this thread. We can't help it but put meaning into things that are inherently meaningless. Money is a biggie. It can mean security, freedom, success, burden, something you trade your life away for, contribution, things, experiences, etc.
In January 2009, German billionaire, Adolf Merckle committed suicide by jumping in front of a train. Why? He was devastated that his financial companies got in trouble during the global crisis, and he made a bad bet on Volkswagen. In 2007, he was worth $12.8 billion, which dropped to $9.2 billion in 2008. I really wonder what money meant to him?
One of the biggest breakthroughs in my life was discovering for myself that life was empty and meaningless. Think of what we put meaning into? So and so did this to me! I grew up this way, because of that, I'm now stuck with......! My dad said this to me, so now I will never.....! Blah, blah, blah. It is all crap. Look at all the upsets in life. It doesn't mean what we made it mean. Relationships broken, friendships ended, communication ended, etc. For what? Because we made up a meaning that someone offended us or slighted us, and what we are not wanting to admit, bruised our ego.
However, we can't help it. We are wired to put meaning into things. Even on this thread, people are putting meaning into it. He's a troll! He hasn't responded back! Well, at least we got good conversation, so it's worth it. And many more....
What I discovered was that when I take responsibility for the meaning I put into things, and question the default meanings that are already programmed through childhood and early adulthood, I become squarely at the source of my own experience instead of being a victim of what anyone else has done to me. It doesn't mean anything anyway.
So what does money mean to you all? Have you engaged in that discussion before?
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Yes, it is a big world
Oh yes. I know. despite all the money my still life isn't perfect
I can dig it. I almost died a few weeks ago. That's true. Good that I had good insurance but I would rather have not been sick at all. I know some peeps here are in awe right now. Saying "AWE!!
My relatives say that a lot
As someone on this very forum said some years back: Happiness is a Do- it-yourself project but there's no Home Depot to go to
All of the above has little if anything to do with the OP
The vibe I got from the OP was A) Stirring up a little of whatever the heck it is people like to stir up on forums. I do not think that way so I do not understand it. Or B) Put the g/d violin back in the case and get a life. The same reaction Young people would knee-jerckedly get from most middle aged people if they express some sort of frustration or dissatisfaction in life regardless of their actual problems or bank accounts.
As I get older I am more and more sympathetic to people's real problems and far less so to their self-inflicted or metaphysical problems
Have a nice rest of the weekend
NW-Bound
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And the deep cause of some people's real problems is self-inflicted. I see this all the time, just by watching people I know. No amount of money can solve that.
Fermion
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As a sort of tangent to this thread, it is also a bit silly to *worry* so much about running out of money at age 90 when you very well may get cancer in your 50s and die. I try to stress that quite a bit but it is hard to get people to hear over the OMY and 100%Firecalc crowd.
Life is eventually going to slap you upside the head no matter how well you plan. Don't spend up your whole life planning.
Life is eventually going to slap you upside the head no matter how well you plan. Don't spend up your whole life planning.
NW-Bound
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The screen names differ. The stories and circumstances are very similar.
OK, I concede that young people making easy money and having mental crises may be more common than I thought. Perhaps doing the first leads to the second.
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timo2
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I tried that plan, (plan A?) and had a nasty heart attack at 51. Thanks to modern medicine I'm still here, so I might as plan for 90 (plan B?)
The screen names differ. The stories and circumstances are very similar.
OK, I concede that young people making easy money and having mental crises may be more common than I thought. Perhaps doing the first leads to the second.
If REWahoo can resurrect an edited post to its original form, then I'm pretty sure the moderators are able to check IP addresses and can tell where the posts are coming from.
But I get it, one of people's biggest fears is being duped and be made to look dumb. That is a meaning people cling to.
Just consider, contribution can come from anywhere, but contribution can be made often when it is accepted. You may refuse of choose to not take anything I say as real because of your fear, but I'm pretty sure lots of other people have gotten something from my posts. So I could just go away and allow you to bully me away from this thread, or I can make you out as just a suspicious guy trying to protect your friends. I could make up far worse meanings about you, but, I choose not to. Either way, you don't bother me. I'm in control of my circumstances, and not you.
Sojourner
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Whether the OP really does or not, I almost think someone having "10s of millions" in net worth might feel the mental and emotional anguish of the perceived meaninglessness of life more than others with less money. Having that much financial security and freedom really could make you fret over how you spend every single minute of your life, since time would become far, far more valuable than money in that situation. You might become obsessed over trying to imbue every single moment with meaning and purpose, since there would be so few day-to-day practical concerns that couldn't easily be remedied with money. Basically, being that wealthy would free up the mind to confront the most difficult existential questions about the meaning of life and the true nature of happiness. So I don't think one can just assume the very wealthy are any fundamentally happier on a deep philosophical level. My two cents.
NW-Bound
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It is not hard to have multiple IP addresses.
But whether one believes the story of this thread or not, let us ask, what difference does it really make?
Many posters who are dubious of this thread stated that they do not want to invest the time or the emotion to get involved because they do not think it is real.
Now, I myself stated in many previous posts, perhaps not explicitly, that whether it is real or not we can still entertain the thinking process of how to help. It's not like ennui doesn't happen to us all, once in a while and in various degrees (even though we do not have tens of million). And participating in this thread keeps the ennui away, and that is helpful to everybody.
And I used to think about the chain of turtles, metaphorically and not in a physical sense, which has to end somewhere (or maybe not). But I have not thought about this recently, having concluded that there are things in life to which one can never find the answers, and we just have to accept that.
Now, do identity of posters fall into the same class of unanswerable questions or not? This question itself, I do not know the answer to, even though it is technical and not metaphysical.
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NW-Bound
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Here's a bit of diversion for y'all.
Mathematics is called the "Queen of All Sciences". It's because of its exactitude. Something is either black or white, meaning a mathematical statement is either true or false. There's no gray. We may not know the answer to something, but it is out there. If we do not know, we'll just have to keep looking. That was taken for granted. But is it true?
It was Gödel's incompleteness theorems that devastated all mathematicians, when he showed that there are statements that we can never proved right or wrong!
Worse, given a mathematical statement that we do not yet know if it is true or false, we cannot know whether it belongs to the class of unanswerable questions or not.
So, we can keep trying to prove something true or false, but when people fail after centuries of searching, we still don't know if it is because we are not smart enough, or it's because the statement is unprovable.
Think about that!
Mathematics is called the "Queen of All Sciences". It's because of its exactitude. Something is either black or white, meaning a mathematical statement is either true or false. There's no gray. We may not know the answer to something, but it is out there. If we do not know, we'll just have to keep looking. That was taken for granted. But is it true?
It was Gödel's incompleteness theorems that devastated all mathematicians, when he showed that there are statements that we can never proved right or wrong!
Worse, given a mathematical statement that we do not yet know if it is true or false, we cannot know whether it belongs to the class of unanswerable questions or not.
So, we can keep trying to prove something true or false, but when people fail after centuries of searching, we still don't know if it is because we are not smart enough, or it's because the statement is unprovable.
Think about that!
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We can talk and talk more about OP but his post is clearly points out on a midlife crisis. Most people have it between early 40s and as late as mid 60s. Main indicator of this very common condition is that a person is not happy at work yet when he/ she reach into FI and retire, they are not happy same way. Nothing interest or excite. I wish the OP to overcome it on his own or with a medical help but there is no other options but to face whatever health / mental condition you have.
ERD50
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Thanks for the reminder!
From 2016...
http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f32/original-poster-80478.html
and entering the way-back machine, from 2013!
http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f32/original-poster-67633.html
-ERD50
This has been an interesting discussion! As someone who will FIRE in maybe 2 years, I have no fear at all of lack of meaning. I have that NOW, in a steady job for which I am everlastingly thankful, but which feels often rather meaningless. Some of my optimism for the future has to do with finding a new role for money. All my life I have worried about money, and have been a timid person (I know, horrible admission
) because of those fears. But now, it looks as though I will be financially independent - sweet words - upon retirement. Money will not be a source of anxiety, but a support for new adventures and endeavors. I know everyone says it is impossible to change, but I feel I will be shedding a few layers of timidity and turning into a swan in this 3rd act! (Laugh if you will!)
Amethyst
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I understand why people don't like "trolls," who needlessly stir up rancor on an Internet forum for their own malicious pleasure (which doesn't seem to be the case with this thread at all). Our moderators do a good job of nipping such trolls in the bud. By contrast, I have never really understood the horror some people have about someone who uses different handles on Internet forums. It's all fake names anyway, innit? as one of my Brit pals would say.
The city-data people go absolutely bonkers, triumphantly "outing" the person as "Your posts sound just like these from 2007!!" While I sit there thinking, "Well, I never saw those earlier posts, and anyway, who cares?" This "outing" behavior, along with a lot of odious "queen-bee" posturing that I don't see on the ER forum, is why I stopped visiting citydata.com.
The city-data people go absolutely bonkers, triumphantly "outing" the person as "Your posts sound just like these from 2007!!" While I sit there thinking, "Well, I never saw those earlier posts, and anyway, who cares?" This "outing" behavior, along with a lot of odious "queen-bee" posturing that I don't see on the ER forum, is why I stopped visiting citydata.com.
REWahoo
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I suspect the OP is not a typical troll, but a slightly different breed. He (and it is almost always a he) uses a "hit and run" strategy, posting only once, never logging in again, then watching the after-effects as a lurker.
Another example of a hit and run troll - maybe the same person: http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/hiding-wealth-from-your-wife-77462.html
A relatively harmless mental illness...
Another example of a hit and run troll - maybe the same person: http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/hiding-wealth-from-your-wife-77462.html
A relatively harmless mental illness...
NW-Bound
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I missed the above thread. It grew to 98 posts long, about the same as this current one. I guess people are eager to help.
About the observation that it tends to be male, watch out for future similar threads to come from "females".
About the observation that it tends to be male, watch out for future similar threads to come from "females".
Moemg
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