You can have a rewarding job and still be unhappy, you can have no job at all and be the happiest person out there. Happiness is not one-dimensional...
I still think it's a fascinating topic, anyone got any better recommendations for reading up on this?
I've just learnt to get happiness and fulfillment in clubs, friends and family, so that some abusive managers don't have the power to make me happy or not. And I've become more minimalist. I should be able to survive, if I change of job.
But work (or at least the money it produces) can deliver types of freedom not otherwise available. Like just deciding to spend a weekend in Paris, or buying a boat, or whatever. Not that everyone can/should want those kinds of freedoms, but money really is a proxy for freedom in this world.
Elon Musk is the happiest person alive.
QED.
but having money can take away some other kinds of freedom.
If you decide to invest instead of spending (mostly in real estate), get successful and well paid on a job, and see money as the only proxy for freedom, you might kill your chances to actually move to Paris, to fulfill yourself in NGOs and clubs, and to build what you want. You will be bound to a city, and to the GDP-making economy. You will only build the legacy that your manager needs, not yourself, and then drive back to your anonymous house.
Also, the wildest stories I've ever heard where from lowkey and remote agricultural villages, or from suburbs, as they go under all the radars. If you have money, you most likely live in a city where you have to keep images.
Having money is double edged, IMO. It's nice to have it, but you still need to feel free, and to be ready to be free to actually be free.
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| 1 godwin point |
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\_/___________________/It’s the biggest lie out there that self-fulfillment comes from working.