I think I am sympathetic to your point-of-view, but I'm not sure, because it seems (to me) that you are maybe conflating a couple of different costs. Let's sta

I think I am sympathetic to your point-of-view, but I'm not sure, because it seems (to me) that you are maybe conflating a couple of different costs. Let's start at the numerator - you appear to be calculating life "happiness" (according to some internal metric) vs ... cost. You appear to be calculating costs as being: - Not making more money because the degree did not lend it to making more money - Social approbation for not making more money - Missed revenue (income) because time spent with family/childcare - Social approbation for not taking the higher-ranked (and labeled as such) gig - Missed economic opportunity (income) for work-social reasons or work-enjoyment reasons Is that right? I'm not sure what social approbation (or that of your SO) means to you, but this seems (generally) to be a pretty clear trade-off of doing what you want vs. making more money by doing what society is willing to pay you for? I mean - I'm a fan of doing what you like - but surely you don't expect society to pay you to watch Jerry Springer and smoke week all day at home munching down on pizza, right? How is this different? Am I missing something?