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Comment by BLanen | Hacker News Reader

> That stuff can't be faked, even with a high salary. Before you say, "it's easy to say when you're getting paid $240K a year." Nah. A person needs challenge; a purpose. Lots of FANG ICs making $500K+ who hate their job. Why? No challenge or palpable purpose.

Something only someone with a high income would say. Contrary to all data and research and evidence.

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Not sure if you’re discrediting the parent comment or pointing out the reality of it.

But yes this is something only someone with a high income would say. And yes, it’s true.

Beyond a certain income, the wrong job can be soul sucking and depressing. And it takes achieving that level of income to fully appreciate that reality.

It's been described as another way to hit rock bottom, because you realize that even after "making it" it doesn't make you happy. So NOW what do you do?

Making 500-700k at a FAANG right now.

Money certainly makes me worry less, not complaining.

I still feel like a cog in a machine.

If anything, it further isolated all the problems in my life that money could never really solve.

Meaningful friendships, dating, self-control and discipline, self-esteem.

Before, I could go by telling myself the story that "if only I had X amount of income, I'd be happy".

Now, I don't have that excuse any more.

I stare at the mirror, still see the same person, and realize that no amount of money will help.

A nice problem to have I guess, but problems that have plagued me my entire life.

"You don't seem to realize that a poor person who is unhappy is in a better position than a rich person who is unhappy. Because the poor person has hope. He thinks money would help."

-Jean Kerr

Complete anti-scientific hogwash only rich people would repeat, again.

There are more than a few studies behind it. Is that "scientific"? Remember that viral story about the guy who made the min salary in his company $70K? What did he base that number on, do you think?

Separately, if someone said that your take is "complete anti-scientific hogwash only poor people would repeat," would you think their opinion valid?

… maybe cite them? While I could see a study that says being vastly wealthy doesn't lead to happiness, the kinda wealth gap being discussed here is "cannot easily afford a home" ($70k/y; max $1.7k/mo affordable) and "can trivially afford a home" ($500k/y–$700k/y; max $17.5k/mo affordable). (For reference, homes in my area are currently ~$4.8k/mo.)

If happiness = owning a home, certainly.

Here is the study by the late great Kahneman:

Kahneman, D. & Deaton, A. (2010). High income improves evaluation of life but not emotional well-being. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1011492107

And a 2021 follow-up that addresses criticisms of the original (TLDR: if you were already happy, you get more happy > 75K. If you were unhappy, you don't get more happy > 75K.)

Killingsworth, Kahneman, M.A. (2021). Experienced well-being rises with income, even above $75,000 per year. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2016976118

And the HN thread when the study first dropped: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1381927

The Daniel Kahneman? I didn't realize he was so prolific.

> anti-scientific

What the hell does science have to do with this? Please stop conflating regression analysis of the results of a questionnaire with "science".

There are plenty of studies showing a diminishing return in happiness / general satisfaction after a certain income threshold. You can look themselves up yourself.

I agree with and appreciate that saying, while not being rich.

I don't care about your singular experience.

I could send you paper and paper that wealth/income and stability increases happiness aggregated.

I could send you papers that would show that sending people scientific proof doesn't convince people and that wouldn't convince you.

> I could send you paper and paper that wealth/income and stability increases happiness aggregated

Nobody disputed that. You made a statement about "something only someone with a high income would say." That's drawing the generality to a specific. It would be like concluding from the fact that most dogs are black, brown and white, that every dog is black, brown or white.

In this case, it could absolutely be the case that the factors that cause money to turn into happiness are not present among FAANG employees to a greater degree than population.

Is the plan then to retire fairly early and focus on people stuff and hobbies?

If they leave you fulfilled via purpose...

Make a change, it's never too late. And you certainly have the means

I have a close friend who was making about 1M in TC and hated every moment of it.

I’m not the friend but I’ve quit a 7 figure job.

I hated it and put my money where my mouth was. I took another job for a massive pay cut.

Money isn’t everything. I started comparing my everyday life to prison. “How much money would I take to live in prison?” Realized it was gonna have to be a lot more than what I was getting.

I hate my job. I've never been close to 7 figures. I'd love to have a job I'd hate and make 7 figures for a year or two.

Yes, please. I think a lot of HN people have lost all sense of proportion. A 7 figure job is $1M plus--a year. That's financially life-changing, no matter how much you hate the content of the work. Grin and bear it for a couple of years, and then... do anything you like for the rest of your life. Maybe 0.1% of the population gets an opportunity like that.

Would you take it if it means a marriage breakup and illness?

Sure, those things are common in many jobs that pay much less. Many marriages can survive a year or two of hardship. If they can't, then perhaps it's not a good marriage and it will fall apart anyways at the next major event. Illnesses happen all the time, but I assume you mean stress-related. But there are many stressful jobs that pay much less and result in injury or disability.

"A healthy man wants a thousand things, a sick man only wants one."

AirPods.

I think if a marriage breaks up after 2 years of one partner working 80+ hours a week to make enough money to have reasonable financial stability for the rest of their lives, the marriage probably had other issues.

Illness, well, that's a tougher call.

Of course 2 years of stress can lead to otherwise-good marriages breaking up. Didn't you know happy couples who divorced during COVID lockdowns? It was common.

Sure. I’m just arguing that “Here’s an opportunity to sacrifice for 2 years and put ourselves on a solid financial footing” is different from “the world is collapsing and we have to make the best of it”.

To me, those seem like fragile marriages. If it wasn't covid, then it'd be an illness or disability. If covid unearthed ideological differences, then it's likely that would have surfaced during other poticial events. If it was the financial hardship, that may have struck at another time. It's not that 2 years of stress can't destroy a marriage, it's just that it tends to destroy the weak ones.

I also didn't know any couples to divorce during lockdown.

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