The point DHH made was much subtler than that. The words he used was "First, as long as your basic needs are met, the quality of your lived experience is only v

The point DHH made was much subtler than that. The words he used was "First, as long as your basic needs are met, the quality of your lived experience is only vaguely related to the trappings of material success." I did a lot of soul-searching during my twenties and came to the same conclusion. Yes, more money can make a seemingly-large impact on your life. But the relationship is vague. A Lamborghini only makes sense to buy if you can understand the difference between it, a Ferrari, and other similar supercars. A Tesla is only really useful if you have a garage to park it in that has a charge plug. Plenty of people buy things that ultimately reduce the quality of their lives by introducing pains in the neck. They may take pride in these pains in the neck, but then the increase in quality is coming from the pride and not the purchase. One could almost as easily just buy something like Tesla stock if they're not quite up to owning a Tesla. My soul-searching ended when I realized that it was moving through life's phases and stages smoothly and easily that was true joy in life. To take things simply and not go nuts with planning and optimization. DHH's philosophy really appeals to me for that reason, and it's no accident that I really like his web framework too. That other, very long, post in this thread illustrates the vagueness of the money / happiness connection. Making money is almost effortless once you have the requisite social skills. Jobs fall into your lap, when you have a business, people fall over themselves wanting to do business with you. All you have to do is choose how much of it you want. It's not having those skills that will ultimately make you unhappy, not lacking the money. To make the money, you work on those general people skills, not on any one particular vehicle to dollars.