People seem to forget, but Notch was miserable well before he sold Mojang. In 2012, it was a breakup [0] followed by the sad story of a father with a history of substance abuse and depression killing himself [1]. Given the ~50% genetic component of depression [2] and the well known fact that large monetary windfalls do not affect baseline mood [3] I think it&#x27;s fair to say that the only surprise here is that anyone is surprised.<p>What I would do? I would stash the money away in low risk vehicles while I take all the time I need to study things I find interesting and&#x2F;or potentially important, and assemble a prioritized list of topics and relevant people. Then, probably many years later, I would finalize a long-range plan to pursue the 1-3 top priorities I&#x27;ve identified, and maybe support a few more further down the list.<p>Yes, this is &quot;to Musk [4]&quot; (behold, Notch gave us a new verb!) and yes, it brings the risk of exposure to assholes. That&#x27;s inevitable if you don&#x27;t want to feel isolated [5], but having a few billion $ at your disposal does bring advantages like the ability to hire a personal assistant or ten to manage those assholes for you.<p>It would also help to stop trolling the interwebs with asshole-bait depicting you as a miserable, hence exploitable, walking wallet.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;notch&#x2F;status&#x2F;235746965823033345" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;notch&#x2F;status&#x2F;235746965823033345</a><p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;notch.tumblr.com&#x2F;post&#x2F;37823268132&#x2F;i-love-you-dad" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;notch.tumblr.com&#x2F;post&#x2F;37823268132&#x2F;i-love-you-dad</a><p>[2] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;depressiongenetics.stanford.edu&#x2F;mddandgenes.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;depressiongenetics.stanford.edu&#x2F;mddandgenes.html</a><p>[3] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Hedonic_treadmill#Major_empirical_findings" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Hedonic_treadmill#Major_empiri...</a><p>[4] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;notch&#x2F;status&#x2F;637565210266570752" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;notch&#x2F;status&#x2F;637565210266570752</a><p>[5] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;notch&#x2F;status&#x2F;637563038258868224" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;notch&#x2F;status&#x2F;637563038258868224</a>