This article is a confluence of a lot of interesting ideas worth exploring. It’s a long piece but a rewarded read.
Billionaire Villains and the Evolution of Overconfidence [Forking Paths] – “When billionaires first become billionaires, they have a different answer to the question of what they’d do if they reached a billion dollars: “I’d figure out how to make two billion.” This is a trait that pretty much every billionaire has. If they didn’t, they’d give enough of their wealth away to become a mere hundred millionaire.
The billionaire’s answer is what’s known as an infinite regress, in which every answer produces another answer, an ever-higher sum, an endless pursuit of wealth—an unquenchable thirst. At the level of a billionaire, it’s absurd, grotesque even. (If you started spending $5,000 per day, 365 days a year, it would take you just 547 years to exhaust a billion dollars; for perspective, Christopher Columbus landed in America 531 years ago).”