Some might just be personality? I think many hackers have a cultural disconnect with the traditional aspirations of wealth, because many of their/our aspirations are hacking-related rather than wealth-related. What would I do if I could do whatever I want? I'm not personally very excited by the possibility of staying in 5-star hotels, drinking expensive wine, owning a yacht, having a big mansion, etc., so those aren't really goals. I am excited by the possibility of being able to work for extended periods of time on my own projects without worrying about their profitability though. So that's getting-rich aspiration in a sense, in that I want enough money in the bank to bankroll 20+ years of carefree hackery, which is actually quite a bit of money.
I'm not sure if it counts for your question, though. In a sense you could say that I don't aim to "be rich" in a qualitative sense, but to "be middle class for a long time without working". And you may be asking why more people don't aspire to be rich in that qualitative sense? On the other hand, a person who can live a middle-class lifestyle for an extended time without working is objectively pretty rich...
I'm with you - I want to bank roll 20 years of doing whatever I want to do as well but I just can't find the motivation to do the day-to-day for the payoff that would come so late in life. I'm afraid the part of my life that matters (my prime years basically) most will be gone before I'm even ready to relax.
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Some might just be personality? I think many hackers have a cultural disconnect with the traditional aspirations of wealth, because many of their/our aspirations are hacking-related rather than wealth-related. What would I do if I could do whatever I want? I'm not personally very excited by the possibility of staying in 5-star hotels, drinking expensive wine, owning a yacht, having a big mansion, etc., so those aren't really goals. I am excited by the possibility of being able to work for extended periods of time on my own projects without worrying about their profitability though. So that's getting-rich aspiration in a sense, in that I want enough money in the bank to bankroll 20+ years of carefree hackery, which is actually quite a bit of money.
I'm not sure if it counts for your question, though. In a sense you could say that I don't aim to "be rich" in a qualitative sense, but to "be middle class for a long time without working". And you may be asking why more people don't aspire to be rich in that qualitative sense? On the other hand, a person who can live a middle-class lifestyle for an extended time without working is objectively pretty rich...
I'm with you - I want to bank roll 20 years of doing whatever I want to do as well but I just can't find the motivation to do the day-to-day for the payoff that would come so late in life. I'm afraid the part of my life that matters (my prime years basically) most will be gone before I'm even ready to relax.