Some time ago it occurred to me that you can't just spend extreme amounts of money. You can only lose it by gambling. In a casino, on investment or on business, it doesn't matter.

Investment or business do also have some gambling factors in it. And both usually cost extreme amounts of money to get started.

However, I found that if the bar of doing business is high enough, "investing" in stock market maybe safer than start a proper business. Because if a business failed, you likely lost a huge amount wealth, including everything you put into the business and maybe more. Whereas if you buy stock responsibly (for example, DCA VOO/&QQQ), there's a high chance you'll eventually bounce back.

Maybe that's one reason the young Koreans invested so much in their stock markets. Their country failed them by restricting them from opportunities, the only way they can save themselves is by gambling.

Indeed, pg has an essay about it: https://paulgraham.com/selfindulgence.html