10 million. 10 years

[lechat]

i've seen this question posed as both a motivational tool and a career adviser and it occurred to me the other day that i really don't have a good enough answer so i'm looking for suggestions.

ok so you rock up to the doctor and he tells you you have a rare form of cancer and will die in exactly 10 years. feeling sorry for you he hands you 10 million dollars and sends you on your way.

so how do you spend said 10 million dollars?

EDIT: seems ppl are missing the point. the idea is to discover what you truly want out of life and what you could do with a large amount of resources

 

[Eddie the head]

Mostly give it away I guess. I am guna die in 10 years. What do I need 10 million dollars for?

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

...hookers and blow?

Seriously though, I think I'd probably share half of it out among a few friends that have kids but not much money. The rest I'd spend on heroin. Some forms of cancer can be very painful I hear.

 

[Nantucket_v1legacy]

1. Buy a Steam Train and drive it up and down the country.
2. Convert said Steam Train into a house.
3. Suddenly realise my dream cost more than I thought & take out a loan to help pay for it.
4. Die before I can pay back the loan.
5. My Steam Train is donated to some wacky museum and I go down as a hero before Railway fanatics.

 

[Spambot 3000]

Use it to fund finding a cure for said cancer.

 

[Able Seacat]

I would quite like a pirate ship. But I would also try to ensure financial stability for my loved ones.

 

[Spambot 3000]

Hell, was that all I had to do to get a quick 10 million? Contract a cancer that only kills me after a good decade? Sign me up.

 

[Colour Scientist]

Travel, travel fucking everywhere.

Use it to fund finding a cure for said cancer.

Or this.

 

[capper42]

Probably travel. You could go everywhere (within reason) with 10 years and $10 million.

 

[Vegosiux]

EDIT: seems ppl are missing the point. the idea is to discover what you truly want out of life and what you could do with a large amount of resources

The problem is, having a set deadline (ye gods, the puns!) means you do not have to take the responsibility for what you do up until then. So in the end any such question results in people saying not what they want out of life and what they could do with a large amount of resources, but just what they'd be doing if they could get away with never having to live with any responsibility.

However it is a deeper question than it seems, because the answer seems to imply that the main reason humanity has ever accomplished anything is because we're subconsciously afraid to die.

 

[Albino Boo]

Hire assassins to kill all my enemies. Then hire some "good" lawyers to keep the police of my back.

 

[Tom_green_day]

Oooh this is like something out of supernatural.
I'd buy an oil rig and make it a countr... dammit, beaten there.
Well I assume funding the cancer research and praying is out of the question, so maybe I'd buy a huge area of land in the desert and put a huge dome over it and make the hunger games IRL
Ooooh oooh oooh or I'd make Skyrim IRL.

 

[Frezzato]

i've seen this question posed as both a motivational tool and a career adviser and it occurred to me the other day that i really don't have a good enough answer so i'm looking for suggestions.

ok so you rock up to the doctor and he tells you you have a rare form of cancer and will die in exactly 10 years. feeling sorry for you he hands you 10 million dollars and sends you on your way.

so how do you spend said 10 million dollars?

EDIT: seems ppl are missing the point. the idea is to discover what you truly want out of life and what you could do with a large amount of resources

-
As mental exercises go, I suspect that mixing death into the formula is going to skew some answers.

The funny thing is, I came up with my version of psychological distance before I even knew what it was. I found it here:
http://www.spring.org.uk/2012/06/psychological-distance-10-fascinating-effects-of-a-simple-mind-hack.php

Their example:

[HEADING=3]2. Generate self-insight[/HEADING]

When things go wrong in life and you're trying to work out why, psychological distance can help:

"...directing people to analyze their feelings surrounding negative autobiographical experiences from a self-distanced perspective (i.e., thinking about oneself from the perspective of a "fly on the wall"), in comparison to a self-immersed perspective (first-person perspective), leads them to experience less emotional and physiological reactivity in the short term, while buffering them against negative outcomes associated with rumination over time." (Ayduk & Kross, 2010) [http://psycnet.apa.org/?&fa=main.doiLanding&doi=10.1037/a0019205]

My version:

Ask yourself if you're unhappy about anything in your life right now. Is it something that you have the power to change? Now, imagine your life ten years from now, only everything is exactly the same. Does that make you unhappy?

If so, imagine you are the future version of you. What would you tell yourself right now to change your life? What would you start doing differently today so that you don't end up the same, unhappy person 10 years from now?

Granted, the point of the $10 million dollar exercise and my exercise aren't the same, but it's all I got.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Get married then go on to buy and collect video games, with a 2 complete copies of Earthbound (one being new SIB) as my wedding gift to myself. I would then play those games online, sort of how the Game Grumps or beardman or other Lets Players do. I would also go around to different conventions and pity my way into some Channel Awesome, Blistered Thumbs and various other sexy, famous internet people videos as a guest. I would basically just want to meet all sorts of Z-list Internet celebrities and hang out in between shooting my own gameplay videos. In my final days I would likely auction off my game collection and whatever valuables I still have (if you can call my crap valuable) and distribute my wealth to various charities. I would want my body compressed into a crystal of some sort so my girlfriend (then wife) will always be have a part of me to keep on hand. This wouldn't likely eat up all $10 million but it's fine; she'll be able to live out the rest of her days in financial comfort which would greatly put my mind at ease. Not that she's poor now...or that I'm a good provider in general...I just wouldn't want to leave her worse off...I kind of hurt now...

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

Live as normal, and save it until just under ten years later, then we find out what ten million dollars worth of LSD looks like.

If I'm gonna die, it's going to an interesting experience.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Finance my first feature length movie and try to recoup enough for a second film and keep the ball rolling. Meanwhile, buy a nice bachelor pad and set up a comfy living HQ while I travel around the world. Oh and leave a sizeable amount to my family, of course.

 

[VeryOddGamer]

10 Years? That's plenty of time. I'd buy the best gaming computer I could find, buy a bunch of games, probably a new TV as well.
I'd probably be able to live those 10 years with the money left over.

Dull, unambitious, and slightly sad? Yes.

 

[Meatspinner]

I'd go globe trekking, See all those places I wanted to see. probably end my tour on top of some big snowy mountain... or on the Antarctic... or even space if i can manage that

EDIT: and by "end" I mean "die there"

 

[Scarim Coral]

Pretty much making my dreams come true and living my life to the fullest. Granted I won't spend it all in those remaining years and I intend to give the rest to my friends and family before I died.
In saying so however, 10 million should be enough to put me into cyrogensis into a deep sleep until a cure is found (but by then everything I know would of been gone, tought decision).