Sergey Brin's Unretirement

Posted by iancmceachern 1/1/2026

Google co-founder Sergey Brin on leaving retirement to work on AI - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37226292 - Aug 2023 (25 comments)

Back at Google Again, Cofounder Sergey Brin Just Filed His First Code Request - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34645311 - Feb 2023 (16 comments)

377 points | 463 commentspage 6

h1fra 4 days ago|

The hard truth is most people don't have hobbies. It's even more true with billionaires that dedicated their whole life to their job

kenty 4 days ago||

It is clear that Alphabet is his baby and neither he not Larry ever fully left. He is still in his 50s so maybe just too young to play golf and chill on superyachts all day. While him being a billionaire makes any lesson derived have to have an asterisk him enjoying technical work even after long having won the rat race is a pretty cool role model.

paganel 4 days ago||

PR-piece for the Epstein thing, isn't it? Just in time. Brin also likes them young, the nounce that he is, and no legal entity in the US is going to do shit about it.

bflesch 4 days ago|

It is definitely a well-timed story. It's notable that even though they are billionaires they care what people think about them so much that they have to do this PR nonsense.

As no governmental authority is actively investigating the allegations, Sergey Brin might never have the opportunity to clear his name from the Epstein child abuse allegations in the court of public opinion. If there would be an investigation and/or court case, Sergey Brin's lawyers would at least be able to legally clear his name. As long as evidence is being withheld, any association between Microsoft and Google leadership and Jeffrey Epstein will bring up rumors about their involvement in the child abuse, even though they might have been "only" clients of the JP Morgan private banking services for high net worth individual which was managed by Jeffrey Epstein.

laughingcow 4 days ago||

It has been my observation that those that retire without solid plans to keep busy 15-20 hours a week really do struggle. You have to be missed by people when you are sick or out of town. You have to have a reason to get out of bed. I think your choice of activity tells a lot about you since the 'pay the bills and save for retirement" argument no longer applies. Some volunteer to better the world. Some continue their life work to take wealth from those with less power.

alansaber 4 days ago|

You're saying he should have gone the Gates path and formed an NGO? Fair enough but I imagine nothing else matches the thrill and stress of running the C suite at Google

FatalLogic 4 days ago||

I wish he'd brought back "Don't Be Evil" to Google, as well as himself.

rl3 4 days ago|

>"Don't Be Evil"

That ship sailed a long time ago. It then proceeded to sink, ending up a haunted wreck that we might see in a new Pirates of the Caribbean film.

Problem is, Captain Jack Sparrow these days isn't what he used to be either.

plesn 4 days ago||

No wonder he returned: he can focus on meaningful work without direct financial pressure, with full access to people, decisions, and resources.

If only we all had a time in life to do what we love, get paid, and face no paywalls. I call that "liberated work". If only at least retirement was like that.

lionkor 4 days ago||

Do you think he can still spend time on his $450 million yacht or is he too busy writing prompts?

Snark aside, good for him. Absolute non-news though, as is any extraordinary individual action during and contributing to a bubble. It'll be interesting to see what stays when, or if, the bubble ever pops.

jll29 4 days ago||

You can very well write that prompt from the top deck or from one of the office cabins on said yacht (no, not speaking from experience).

I'm not envious of anyone's big yacht, but I wouldn't waste my money that way (you can probably rent one for special occasions) - as long as there are still children hungry or without schooling.

lionkor 4 days ago||

I'm definitely envious of the yacht. Like, come on, how awesome is that! It's HUGE! I've been invited on tiny yachts with "only" a couple staff onboard and that was already fantastic to just be on for a day.

That said I don't think I could ever justify spending THAT kind of money on it.

lanthissa 4 days ago||

i never really understood the billionaire yacht hate.

Once you buy a yacht 450 million dollars of ownership in a company you had goes to people who built a beautiful thing that exists in the real world and you're on the hook for employing a lot of people to maintain it.

I take a lot more issue with accumulation and hoarding of wealth than the spending of it.

ncruces 4 days ago|||

An economy that wasted resources building mega yachts for billionaires is more unequal than one that builds cruise ships that high income families can go on an holiday.

https://scottsumner.substack.com/p/imagine-130000000-washing...

matwood 4 days ago||||

> i never really understood the billionaire yacht hate.

Once someone reaches that level of fame and fortune it's almost a requirement if they want to travel or have some sort of 'vacation'. Don't get me wrong, it's definitely a great problem to have, but it's one of the only ways to find privacy at that level of wealth.

If I'm ever super wealthy, I hope I can also stay somewhat anonymous so that I can walk down the street like any other person.

stinkbeetle 4 days ago|||

Holding shares in a company (or dollar bills) is not depriving others of something. The fisherman will go catch fish tomorrow, the wheat in the fields will keep growing, the builder will build a house.

If someone starts paying the fisherman, farmer, builder, more to stop doing what they are doing and start building mega yachts, then there will be less fish, bread, and houses for others.

That said, I assume it's much simpler than that and it's just about the hypocrisy of the climate change billionaires to be bellowing out carbon while demanding the selfish greedy commoners cut our emissions.

brador 4 days ago||

Imagine if they locked Serg out of the protected quantum research he loved reading as it was department employees only and the only way he could continue his access was returning to work at a senior enough level to cross read. Imagine.

cryptica 4 days ago|

I was kind of retired, earning passive crypto income for several years after 2019 throughout COVID. Best time of my life. I was living on a Mediterranean island, splitting my time between snorkeling and open source work.

Then I got cheated out of my position in the crypto project. Literally scammed by the project founder with the full support of government regulators who are supposed to be preventing this stuff and lost all my income overnight. The regulators literally facilitated fraud instead of preventing it... And I had the pleasure of being gaslit about it while also being gaslit about COVID by a different set of regulators. I became a conspiracy theorist during this time! Now I'm forced to work again...

It's especially infuriating in this age of perma-bailouts where the system is basically bailing out everyone with assets.

I figured out that the system is a scam. I can prove it to anyone in excruciating detail, with citations. If anyone should be bailed out, it should be me. I shouldn't be forced back in the hamster wheel. It's hard to compete against others who think the system works a certain way and don't realize how the hamster wheel works. I shouldn't have to compete with delusional fools who think that their effort spent on the hamster wheel is going to yield any rewards.

Anyway it drives me nuts how the only people who can afford to retire, choose not to... And those who are desperate to retire, can't! This is so pervasive, it feels like a psyop.

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