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Comment by shoyer | Hacker News Reader

Just because there's a clearly defined path to making a lot of money in a high prestige job doesn't mean it's easy or that everyone can pull it off.

The best way to start an "upper class career" is to be born into the upper class. Good luck getting into finance or consulting if you didn't go to a top tier university. And it's not small matter -- even if you have the right background -- to get that job at McKinsey or into a Harvard MBA. You have to be extremely smart and strategic in your career choices, and not slacking off in college, either. Then, to advance and do well, you have to put in long hours and do very good work.

In this day and age, I think it is hard to argue that there is an easier, faster or more forgiving path to economic success than software engineering and programming. The author of this article wouldn't even have a chance to get started in any the of other lucrative professions you mention with his 2.9 GPA.

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| put in long hours and do very good work

And in addition, you have to have the mental fortitude for this kind of career. Despite not being "well-known" there is an intense amount of competition from a group of the most ambitious people in the world. Being able to compete at that level is insanely hard, much harder than than being a software engineer.

I have had the fortune in my life to attempt both careers. I went to a top-tier undergrad, and got a job as an associate consultant at a strategy firm directly out of college. And guess what? It was terrible. Working every day from 9am-2am 6 days a week, no time for friends, family, hobbies, fun of any kind. After a few years of that life, I went right back to doing software engineering. Would I be richer now had I stayed in it? Probably. But happier? no.

I think it's important to remember in the end that very very few people in the world do work that matters, whether they make "something" or not. I think about this a lot while listening to stories about 14 year old Bangladeshi factory workers making $3 a month to support their families and being padlocked inside factories that are on fire so our clothes are cheaper.

We are all very lucky to be born into a country that gives us the opportunity to do comfortable jobs and complain about them freely. Use work to make enough money do the things you care about outside of work, and for god sakes, travel.

I like the way you think, especially with regards to happiness, and I would love to hear more about this part:

> and for god sakes, travel

I'm very fortunate to have a position where I work exactly 40 hours (some of which is programming). This has allowed me the freedom to pursue other activities, such as meeting and developing an extremely deep relationship with my girlfriend, being an active participant in my church, completing Financial Peace University, joining a local Toastmasters club, and joining CrossFit and getting in the best shape of my life.*

However, I have not yet done any major traveling. Why do you put such high importance on it?

I'm not asking why traveling is generally good, but why _you_ specifically are recommending it so highly.

* [Edit: After reading this, it sounds like bragging but sincerely that was not my goal. I just wanted to say I totally understand and agree about what you said with regards to work and happiness.]

In context it was meant as reference to the story of Bangladesh, meaning you don't know how lucky you are until you travel a bit of the world.

My story however, is pretty typical, I worked through my 20s and didn't take time to travel then even though I had disposable income and more importantly was in charge of only myself. When I got married, got a dog and had kids, traveling increases in complexity at O(an^k) where k is the number of people traveling together and a is the number of people you have to arrange babysitting (or dogsitting) for.

Now travel seems like a giant luxury an I doubt I will truly enjoy it again until the kids are in college. By then we'll be so bogged down with college costs, there will be no money.

I had the opportunity to go to China for work and it really opened my eyes about how little of the world I have seen.

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