If rich people have more say in what they do, why are they working instead of things that might be more "fun"? If rich people have far more leverage in their hourly earnings, why not work far fewer hours?
I'm not sure the article really solved it, either. It's a curiosity to me as someone who has determined the quality of life I desire and want to "work" the bare minimum to achieve that.
I run my own business, and as a result I have a very highly correlated effort-to-earnings relationship. The more I work, the more I make.
I could spend my time doing "leisurely" activities away from work and I'd still make more than enough to live on, but instead I spend the better part of my work days (and oftentimes weekends) grinding away, trying to make this my highest earning September yet.
I don't do this in the pursuit of some end goal. I have fairly modest tastes, and 90% of the money I earn goes into a bank account or brokerage where it sits forever.
All I can say is that earning money gives me the most concrete measure of achievement I've found. When I was a kid I played World of Warcraft relentlessly, and gaining another level in that game gave me the same sense of forward progress. Money feels like the grown-up version of that.
You make money when you generate value for someone. It's OK to tie it to a sense of achievement, but at the end of the day you also have to remember to generate value for yourself.
I'd been brought up with a strong influence from my father who believed the pursuit of wealth for wealthy sake was pointless. It mattered what you did as a person than what you earned. My ideal job would be to become a scientist.
My friend told me that he wanted to earn money, not because he wanted to be rich, but because he liked seeing that number go up. He knew that it was a straight up numeric increment for him.
Now that's a relatively deep insight for a teen, which applies to everything from gaming to work. It's obvious and direct behavioral reinforcement.
Oddly it doesn't explain why he grew up to be a scientist (bio-analytics/genomics) and I ended up wading into finance and business.
Maybe self awareness is the pre requisite to being more comfortable with less than comfortable choices.
The money is part of the feedback loop of motivating you, you get your level ding in WOW, you get a cold beverage after mowing the lawn, you get your paycheck after expressing yourself for two weeks. A CEO isn't going to be a good CEO if he has the same amount of job satisfaction as a germaphobe janitor who has a graduate degree in Literature no matter who much you pay the CEO.
Not making simply money. It's working on something that satisfies you.
Many successful people are less happey in retirement because that don't get a social circle playing up the importance of what they are doing. Sitting on a beach is simply less rewarding than landing a major contract. Thus, these people are not checking email on vacation because of dedication they are chasing a reward cycle.
There's probably a correlation between being rich and being more inclined to spend time on activities which return money.
In that, ceteris paribus, having less of that inclination will reduce your probability of becoming rich.
a poor or lower middle class person would probably disagree if they saw my income and business bank accounts, but hey, everything is relative.
anyway. here are some reasons that may or may not apply to myself and my group of peers (all business owners end up hanging out with a bunch of other business owners or sales-type people, it just happens).
1. they like working. they may deny it, but they do. they like making things happen, making things in general, etc.
2. they feel like if they stop working, the money will disappear, or be taken somehow. this may or may not be rational.
3. they are compelled to do it, it is simply an inner drive they can't overcome. i.e. that's how the money was made to begin with.
4. they like having a high level of disposable income to spend on nice things/experiences/influence. this is the polar opposite of how a lot of people on HN think, who seem to constantly trying to humble-brag about their rankings in the frugality olympics.
i definitely fall into #4, the others maybe, maybe not. i like nice shit, so i work hard. if i wanted to not spend money, i'd just be poor and not work much. i did it for 4 years in college, i could do it for the rest of my life if i wanted to. it's not hard to do nothing and spend nothing. it's literally the easiest thing in the world, you just don't do anything, all day long.
sorry for being snarky.
I get paid a lot => I'm an important part of the world => if I stop then the world will fail (in some [tiny] way).
You see a corollary of this in retirees, their occupation defined them. Pre-retirement they say "hi, I'm Joe, I'm a professor" - a professor isn't a professor when they're relaxing and enjoying themselves (the thought process goes) so in order to be a professor I must work long hours at teaching students.
1. Because the mindset of work > leisure is rewarded in the U.S., so wealthier people aren't choosing work because they're wealthier, they're wealthier because they choose work.
2. Because they have more leverage not only in how much they work, but in what work they do. If you draw a stark line between your job and what you enjoy, naturally you'll want to minimize that work and maximize your leisure. But if you actually enjoy your job...
It's not so much doing the work, it's having to do the work, and not having control over my time, that gets under my collar.