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> The reason this comes up so often is that one of the the things the 7 billion people on this planet often are willing to pay your for is to do stuff that they

> The reason this comes up so often is that one of the the things the 7 billion people on this planet often are willing to pay your for is to do stuff that they would really rather not have to, things that are fairly objectively not much fun. If you can find fulfillment in it, all the power too you. If you're evaluating career earning potential based on what other people hate to do, then you're misunderstanding supply and demand. If "how shitty a job is" correlated highly with "total lifetime earnings," then you'd see millionaire sewage maintenance technicians and pizza delivery guys. On the other hand, wealth consistently correlates highly with happiness (up to a plateau point, usually). Further, high lifetime earnings expand opportunity. I'm not even sure why this needs to be stated - to suggest that "money is a tool that constrains the choices you have" is so backwards as to be laughable.

logfromblammo 11y ago
Yeah, the "all jobs are drudge work" theory does not pass muster with me, either. Most jobs are the result of economic specialization. When everyone does the one thing that they are best at, and trade the fruits of their efforts, the whole economy is more productive. The traditional example is a carpenter and electrician building houses. Now, the electrician is a genius, and he can actually frame a house faster than the carpenter. This is how long it takes them for each task, and wiring has to occur after the framing is completely done: Task |Framing|Wiring| -----------+-------+------+ Electrician| 44h | 24h | Carpenter | 48h | 56h | -----------+-------+------+ If the Electrician built his own house, he finishes at 68h. If the Carpenter built his own, he gets done at 104h. If they instead have the Carpenter do all the framing, and the Electrician do all the wiring, the first house is done at 72h, and the second is done at 120h. (If the Electrician helps to frame whenever not wiring, and the Carpenter helps to wire whenever not framing, completion time for each house is shorter at 47h and 75.5h, but that's outside the scope of this example.) The Electrician only had to do 48h of work instead of 68h, a savings of 20h, and the Carpenter only had to do 96h instead of 104h, a savings of 8h. Both benefited from the specialization, even though the Carpenter is actually slower at framing than the Electrician. They have an additional advantage in that they only need one complete set of tools rather than two. The Electrician takes the wiring tools, and the Carpenter takes the framing tools. They are not refusing to do jobs they don't want to do. They are doing the jobs they are best at doing because it makes them more productive. If you want to start or support a family, travel, pursue interesting hobbies, socialize with friends, experience local culture, or bump any of the metrics you may have for personal success, having money makes all of those things easier and less stressful. The stress from the acquisition of that money is usually less in magnitude than the advantage it imparts. Most people stop working harder when doing so would detract from their overall enjoyment of life. Most. As the Dickens quote from David Copperfield goes: Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery. When survival needs are largely commoditized, the more you earn in excess of your baseline, the more opportunity you have to make choices with whatever is left. If you like simple pleasures, low earnings are enough to make you happy. But many people measure success in part by how much they can provide for other people's needs in addition to their own. If you can get all your kids to graduate college without any of them needing loans, I think that's a big success. And you mostly need plain old money to do that. So you specialize in a job and earn money so that you can help everyone else specialize through trade. If you can specialize in a skill in high demand that few other people are any good at (like engineering), you will almost automatically be successful.
- ska 11y ago
  Yeah, the "all jobs are drudge work" theory does not pass muster with me good thing that isn't what I suggested, then.
ska 11y ago
"then you'd see millionaire sewage maintenance technicians and pizza delivery guys" No, not at all - I wasn't suggesting anything quite so simple and I think any charitable reading would realize that. What I'm suggesting is that for any individual skill set and current career X, there are often (almost always, in my experience) more lucrative but similar jobs available X' which are going to be more rewarding monetarily and less rewarding in other ways. Most people reach a point where the latter outweighs the former. You completely mis-parsed "money is a tool that constrains the choices you have" is so backwards as to be laughable." - you are actually agreeing with me. The amount of money you have access to constrains choices you have(or in your words, opportunities). The point is, it is hardly the only such constraint, and if you fail to consider the other ones, you largely miss the point.
- deleted 11y ago
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logfromblammo 11y ago

Yeah, the "all jobs are drudge work" theory does not pass muster with me, either. Most jobs are the result of economic specialization. When everyone does the one thing that they are best at, and trade the fruits of their efforts, the whole economy is more productive. The traditional example is a carpenter and electrician building houses. Now, the electrician is a genius, and he can actually frame a house faster than the carpenter. This is how long it takes them for each task, and wiring has to occur after the framing is completely done: Task |Framing|Wiring| -----------+-------+------+ Electrician| 44h | 24h | Carpenter | 48h | 56h | -----------+-------+------+ If the Electrician built his own house, he finishes at 68h. If the Carpenter built his own, he gets done at 104h. If they instead have the Carpenter do all the framing, and the Electrician do all the wiring, the first house is done at 72h, and the second is done at 120h. (If the Electrician helps to frame whenever not wiring, and the Carpenter helps to wire whenever not framing, completion time for each house is shorter at 47h and 75.5h, but that's outside the scope of this example.) The Electrician only had to do 48h of work instead of 68h, a savings of 20h, and the Carpenter only had to do 96h instead of 104h, a savings of 8h. Both benefited from the specialization, even though the Carpenter is actually slower at framing than the Electrician. They have an additional advantage in that they only need one complete set of tools rather than two. The Electrician takes the wiring tools, and the Carpenter takes the framing tools. They are not refusing to do jobs they don't want to do. They are doing the jobs they are best at doing because it makes them more productive. If you want to start or support a family, travel, pursue interesting hobbies, socialize with friends, experience local culture, or bump any of the metrics you may have for personal success, having money makes all of those things easier and less stressful. The stress from the acquisition of that money is usually less in magnitude than the advantage it imparts. Most people stop working harder when doing so would detract from their overall enjoyment of life. Most. As the Dickens quote from David Copperfield goes: Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery. When survival needs are largely commoditized, the more you earn in excess of your baseline, the more opportunity you have to make choices with whatever is left. If you like simple pleasures, low earnings are enough to make you happy. But many people measure success in part by how much they can provide for other people's needs in addition to their own. If you can get all your kids to graduate college without any of them needing loans, I think that's a big success. And you mostly need plain old money to do that. So you specialize in a job and earn money so that you can help everyone else specialize through trade. If you can specialize in a skill in high demand that few other people are any good at (like engineering), you will almost automatically be successful.

ska 11y ago
Yeah, the "all jobs are drudge work" theory does not pass muster with me good thing that isn't what I suggested, then.

ska 11y ago

"then you'd see millionaire sewage maintenance technicians and pizza delivery guys" No, not at all - I wasn't suggesting anything quite so simple and I think any charitable reading would realize that. What I'm suggesting is that for any individual skill set and current career X, there are often (almost always, in my experience) more lucrative but similar jobs available X' which are going to be more rewarding monetarily and less rewarding in other ways. Most people reach a point where the latter outweighs the former. You completely mis-parsed "money is a tool that constrains the choices you have" is so backwards as to be laughable." - you are actually agreeing with me. The amount of money you have access to constrains choices you have(or in your words, opportunities). The point is, it is hardly the only such constraint, and if you fail to consider the other ones, you largely miss the point.

deleted 11y ago
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