Restoring Sinecures for Oddball Geniuses Whom Society Otherwise Doesn't Tolerate

Some feller named John Duda askes a curious question (here, https://www.linkedin.com/posts/johndudavt_business-college-retire-ugcPost-6874704010268479489-d9ZY) 

You are 18 years old and have $1 Million. 💸

What would you do?  

These kinds of thought experiments (not to mention, probes into people's psyche's, aspirations, values, etc.) really are among the actually-amusing posts people can make online vs. their always-smiles event pictures and snaps of cats or other amusements that are, while great to elevate the day, mostly noise that steals time and attention when, you know from behind-the-scenes, they and so many others are struggling immensely and perhaps ought to focus more hardcore on learning or accomplishing something... 

My Answer: 

I would work to restore "the sinecures occupied by curious/creative thinkers" station [caveat: the video/creator linked to calls himself "jolly heretic for good reason]

in the world. Because it is very intelligent/creative/unusual people, who came into positions that functioned as sinecures, who invented/elevated so much of our lives. (And, generally speaking, few know of or are aware of this, or why it is we have so little "real" (Thiel's "world of atoms" vs. the "world of bits") creativity/invention/discovery anymore.) Because "grant" culture through bureaucracies simply cannot do this for us and won't. 

This would be a multi-step process:

(1) "Travel" somewhere 

(a) stable enough but wildly different: it's known that the effect on the brain is immense in terms of neurogenesis and making new connections; having done this a little bit, this has also been my experience: travel is immensely stimulating and beneficial to your brain and cognition;

(b) economically vibrant with "value" prices;

(c) with people who are outgoing (enough, at least with effort);

(2) Rent (remember "value" prices) and "hunker down": 

Day-to-day consisting of effortful work that is ignored because "too hard" or "too long-shot" etc. to anyone capital-conscious (35 yr-old middle managers watching budgets for higher-ups and with a car+house payment + child expenses etc.) but which needs to get done:

particular interest being areas almost entirely ignored (hard to market/monetize traditionally) that are exceptionally interesting to the vast majority of people. 

(The field of options is limitless and not hard: talk/go be those people/get into those people's situations and shoes...like moving-in next door...) 

First step is to generate a large list of things, then order them via priority for mapping values (the higher the value, the higher the motivation, the higher the likelihood they get done). 

Second step is to arrange them via overlap/interlinks--perhaps various problems are dependent on solving others, so one can take the "stairway to heaven" (so to speak) to something in the top of your priorities by moving through the "lower" (perhaps more foundational) layers. In this way the motivation can be leveraged to apply to a broad range of problems. 

Third step is to get cracking: the interesting part being a $1000000 in this context goes pretty far since problems like these tend to be more of a "think deeply and try cheap experiments" kind of issue and, once you've actually solved them, either you surprise people (willing to poney-up ca$h when they're things nobody else thought of/would have dared try because you wouldn't think you could) or you get a lot of people's support (in the internet age with Patreon, communities, et cetera) given (as mentioned) they're broadly appealing to many.

If your money is a pool like this, it'll fuel you being capable of focusing/staying dedicated/undistracted for a long time. (Real experience with this in opposite land: I've learned to code in several languages multiple times, only to be dragged away from those efforts due to immense demand at work that lasts for 3-4 months.) 

Once you've found and solved at least one or two problems, monetize at least one / get support, and build some tooling for your own needs. Turn around and use the time saved to pick someone else with a very similar mindset/set of values who the world could use just being liberated from busy-work and the usual demands, and set them up with continuous revenue to do similarly--work on things nobody else is paying any attention/for which there is no direct, immediate perceptible incentive for others to work on. Stipulate as part of their support that in a few years, after they have solved a thing or two, they shall do the same with someone else (or three).


Notably, I haven't actually said "start a business": that's not the ultimate priority--the world ultimately suffered immensely when we lost a bunch of overly-wealed curious guys in the gentry, aristocracies, or sinecures of the old empires who occupied their gluttonous immensity of free time pursuing oddities like "why do apples fall" or "maybe I can apply the mathematics I've conjured for predicting Christ's return to describe motion in space" and so on... a $1000000 used well puts you into that same sort of care-free stratosphere, and directed by cares regarding the people and needs around you, means you can live a far more interesting and useful life provided you do not burn through the hoard. Starting businesses might be required, but should be offshoots of the labors--things you have in mind for when the times are right for insurance for building-up means to support others. 

As an aside, I helped a Maker Space for a while (before the pandemic killed it) for a similar reason--those places actually encourage people to "just come in and explore through projects and interacting with other people building/trying stuff, don't sweat it!" and "level up" those participants through time in marvelous ways. The problem however being (as the linked video gets at), most people simply do not have all that much time to really pursue things deeply. And you don't get many Newtons, even if you have 1000s of candidates, if they're constantly in need of work and their options for that are corps and business that are "as usual" in our day and age.

(Though let's also be real: mostly, people like Newton--who was known as a crazy in some ways--are likely on the streets rather than doing serious work. In fact, I've met a few--one, a former colleague with people the likes of Stephen Hawking, was a former regular at a Starbucks in a Barnes & Noble where he traded lessons and tutoring in physics, mathematics, or the history of either or of any human symbole you wan't to know about, for coffee, confections, and books. 

Similarly, if you read about the life/character of the man behind "Chaos [Theory]", you know that he would never be tolerated in any business or institution these days--he likewise would be on the streets. That man, however, is why we have advanced thinking in physics, optical and wireless electronics, and accurate physical modeling, among many other fruits of his labors. Today, men like him would immediately be seen as "unprofessional" and "crazy" rather than "he stinks a little and he's astoundingly intelligent...better give him a salary and just ask him to report on results.")