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America’s Professional Elite: Wealthy, Successful and Miserable

nytimes.com

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Re: America’s Professional Elite: Wealthy, Successful and Miserable

#101

Post by tome »

minikites wrote: post #3

>“I feel like I’m wasting my life,” he told me. “When I die, is anyone going to care that I earned an extra percentage point of return? My work feels totally meaningless.” Capitalists are realizing the fundamental emptiness of capitalism. It's hard to have a sense of purpose when your entire life is spent making a number on a spreadsheet into a slightly larger number for the benefit of someone even more elite than yo…

I exist in a capitalist economy. I make a number on a spreadsheet a bit larger and then I go home and live a meaningful life using, in part, the money I've earned doing so. I'd be hard-pressed to do that under any other economic system that's ever been tried.

Re: America’s Professional Elite: Wealthy, Successful and Miserable

#102

Post by akhilcacharya »

> Rather, they had learned from their own setbacks. And often they wound up richer, more powerful and more content than everyone else.

This seems like wish fulfillment to me. Either things change a lot more than I think over 15 years but the so-called "gunners" that I know in their 30's are exceptionally more happy, well adjusted and wealthy than the non-gunners.

Re: America’s Professional Elite: Wealthy, Successful and Miserable

#103

Post by eli_gottlieb »

strikelaserclaw wrote: post #6

- He had received an offer at a start-up, and he would have loved to take it, but it paid half as much, and he felt locked into a lifestyle that made this pay cut impossible. “My wife laughed when I told her about it,” he said. Sounds like a good wife to me, and this "pay cut" is making 500k-600k instead of 1.2 million, what world are these people living in that you can't give up a job that you hate because you can't…

Let me guess: he lives in San Francisco?

Ok, looks like it was actually New York, but under the same principle: golden handcuffs.

Re: America’s Professional Elite: Wealthy, Successful and Miserable

#104

Post by obastani »

fermentation wrote: post #90
QualityReboot wrote: post #64

I just don't understand this at all. If you can earn a million a year, do it for 3-5 years, never have to work again, and pursue your passions in life. I think the problem for most workers is the lifetime of toil, not the meaninglessness of the work. I'd happily dig ditches for 8-12 hours a day for 3 years if I knew I was completely financially independent with millions in the bank that. Actually, I'd rather do that…

Seriously, it was hard to feel much sympathy for the person earning $1.2M/yr when they could very easily retire if they just stopped somehow spending hundreds of thousands of dollars every year.

Perhaps they are earning $1.2M/yr because they never found anything they enjoyed to do with their time outside of work?

Re: America’s Professional Elite: Wealthy, Successful and Miserable

#105

Post by lotsofpulp »

toasterlovin wrote: post #70
strikelaserclaw wrote: post #6

- He had received an offer at a start-up, and he would have loved to take it, but it paid half as much, and he felt locked into a lifestyle that made this pay cut impossible. “My wife laughed when I told her about it,” he said. Sounds like a good wife to me, and this "pay cut" is making 500k-600k instead of 1.2 million, what world are these people living in that you can't give up a job that you hate because you can't…

So this dovetails with what I think is the most fascinating topic in evolution: the demographic transition in humans. If you're not familiar, demographic transition is the term used to describe what has happened to the demography of nations as they become developed. Which is that, rather than producing more children with their material abundance, people in rich nations have less children. This is not, at all, what bi…

> and because advertising constantly shows us higher levels of consumption to aspire to, even people who are, in an absolute sense, raking in obscene amounts of money are surrounded by a peer group that are roughly at their level.

Animals evolved using competition as a mechanism to select the best mates. Advertising is not the cause, it's the nature of all animals to project power. There might be some people here and there who are satisfied or whatnot, but even without advertising, people would be competing.

Re: America’s Professional Elite: Wealthy, Successful and Miserable

#106

Post by entee »

joshuakcockrell wrote: post #41

> We want to feel that we’re making the world better, even if it’s as small a matter as helping a shopper find the right product at the grocery store. My question for HN is do you feel that the content you are working on makes a difference in your career satisfaction? Or do you just need to know that _someone_ out there is being benefited? Is it just as fulfilling to work on a video game that flops (but maybe a few p…

Speaking personally, the things that give me the greatest satisfaction are those where I feel I've done a good job from a perspective of craft. Even if the code itself doesn't do very much or will never really be seen, I get the greatest contentment from feeling I designed and put it together well. If I worked on a video game that didn't get traction but that I loved, was beautifully built and designed, I think I'd be happier than say, an online poker game.

I'd be lying if I didn't care at all, obviously I'd rather the app be used. There's a special feeling of showing something to someone completely outside tech, saying "I built this" and having them "get" it. Hence why I think consumer apps are also more satisfying than a high frequency trading algo.

EDIT: minor grammar/missing words

Re: America’s Professional Elite: Wealthy, Successful and Miserable

#108

Post by pkaler »

>> He had received an offer at a start-up, and he would have loved to take it, but it paid half as much, and he felt locked into a lifestyle that made this pay cut impossible. “My wife laughed when I told her about it,” he said.

Sounds like it's the wife that he needs to cut. Or he needs to do a better job of communicating his happiness to her. This is the type of marriage that ends up in divorce.

I just finished re-reading Drive by Daniel Pink. My book notes here: https://parveenkaler.com/posts/drive-daniel-pink

Using Daniel Pink's model, the characters in this story seem to be lacking 1) Mastery 2) Autonomy 3) Purpose in their work.

Re: America’s Professional Elite: Wealthy, Successful and Miserable

#109

Post by 52-6F-62 »

joshuakcockrell wrote: post #41

> We want to feel that we’re making the world better, even if it’s as small a matter as helping a shopper find the right product at the grocery store. My question for HN is do you feel that the content you are working on makes a difference in your career satisfaction? Or do you just need to know that _someone_ out there is being benefited? Is it just as fulfilling to work on a video game that flops (but maybe a few p…

Good question.

In my personal opinion it does. Without getting into specifics, I've been working recently on a project in which I will be proud of having had a large part to play. It will [potentially] indirectly reach hundreds of thousands to million(s) of people, depending. It is also in a field I have long believed in. I won't be working with it, or the field forever, but I am glad to have done so.

There have been roles I've turned down that, while they may have provided value of some kind to somebody somewhere— I would personally find it rather empty. I've done those projects before. They're ephemeral (not that everything isn't, but I'm not being so extensive in scope...). Those things can depend on the nature of the work, or the people you meet in the process. Sometimes it can work out well, other times it can feel like oblivion for a time.

Re: America’s Professional Elite: Wealthy, Successful and Miserable

#110

Post by JohnFen »

StavrosK wrote: post #9
randomacct3847 wrote: post #2

I think there was a Blind post a few weeks ago where 40% said they were depressed despite most making $300k-$600k/year

I think this is a quintessentially American slash Protestant-work-ethicy sentence. Why is anyone surprised that people who work so much that they don't have a life, meaningful relationships to other people or a vibrant social circle are depressed? If you optimize for making lots of money, that's (hopefully? probably?) what you will achieve. But it's very misguided to think that having a lot of money is how you become…

Money can't buy happiness. It can only rent it.
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