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Comment by mprev | Hacker News Reader

The tl;dr is that when someone is paying you $500k a year then the work itself might not be all that motivating. However, within time, the money isn't enough to motivate you either.

You gotta wonder, though, what the rest of the world would think if they stumbled across this kind of blog post.

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Author here. Agree. But I bet most of the audience here is already earning enough. Once you cover the basics, the returns of additional income diminish quickly. I chose to say how much I was earning just to emphasize that everything was really going well at my job, including compensation.

Not to mention paying 37% taxes, plus whatever state tax quickly turns $500k a year into around $300k take home.

Have you ever thought that the amount of motivation for money is the issue? In other words, what if the main factor that motivated you to work hard was not money? What if you kept the job but you shifted your motivation on producing impact for other people instead of yourself? To add to your point, even if you do build a successful business, you'll get to a place where you will have this same problem correct of diminishing motivation correct? In summary, I think it is necessary for us to sit down and ask ourselves what are living for?

What I found is that there are some motivators that don't diminish. I'm pursing earning a living fueled by those intrinsic motivators instead of by money, fame, promotions, etc.

No offense, but there are people all over the world reading HN. We’re not all living in a country that can pay SW engineers such large salaries. Good for you and all the best, but please try to think of us living with 15k€ per year. The reason you’re getting a lot of negativity and envy is because we’re living in different environments and we can’t relate to what you’re describing. Anyhow, I hope your decision plays out and you finally find what you’re looking for, even if I don’t agree with you.

None taken. I grew up and worked in Europe in a country with a median household income of $20K. I understand and been through different circumstances. However this happened to be my situation and I’m describing it as it happened. I think my general point still stands though, that motivation through rewards wears off quickly after clearing a certain level of necessities.

In addition, the problems he now chooses to work on may not prove to be so important, as the very same motivation he lost at Amazon will remain missing until near the end of his runway.

Thus I can foresee an abstract quality to problem-selection, rather than a "damn this needs to be fixed as it's bringing me down on a daily basis" drive to build great things.

I hope to be wrong of course, good for him.

I hate seeing negative numbers accumulate in my bank account. I hope that will be enough extrinsic motivation to get me to do something profitable ASAP :)

Yea, probably a lot of people would ... for that kind of money. I guess it really depends on the person. Some crave money even if they are super rich. Some just want to have a happy life (no matter what money) - whatever that means for a person - focusing on a hobby, helping others, reading, etc.

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