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Nur noch denken

Freund Nassim Taleb, Mathematiker an der Wall Street und Autor, schickt gerade seine Begründung dafür, dass er nunmehr nur noch denken möchte ("Project: to do pure thinking") statt weiterhin viele hundert Millionen Dollar zu verwalten:

There is something beyond the mere self-granting of a sabbatical. I have to say that I found it exhilarating to return the funds to their owners for no particular reason, nothing other than this feeling of control (few people have the guts to tear themselves away from something, they wait for events to control their choices). As a Stoic I should accept that the feeling of being in control of one’s environment (i.e. making the random internally more deterministic) does not require such action ( a true Stoic would find it repelling to earn money beyond one’s own subsistence but that’s another discussion); but, as a human being with a hormonal system, I feel elation at exercising my own choices. Walking away from money (albeit temporarily) is far more elevating, and, even in the narrowly hedonic sense, it is far preferable to striving for it –just like inverse greed. Saying “enough for me” gives a different feeling that being told “enough for you”. Someone explained to me that turning down “such free money” is like throwing money in the garbage can, which might be right for a neoclassical economist, but not for someone who knows something about human nature.

09.01.2005, 20:34

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