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>Whenever I got promoted, it felt good for a week, and then it was as over. When I first hit $100K income, I would take a peek at my W2 for a few days admiring
by lkxijlewlf 6y ago
>Whenever I got promoted, it felt good for a week, and then it was as over. When I first hit $100K income, I would take a peek at my W2 for a few days admiring the six digits, but then it wore off. When I hit $200K, $300K, $400K, and $500K, it was the same thing. I would be delusional to think that earning $1M, or $10M would suddenly make it
different. And I feel the same with every other extrinsic reward or material possession. Getting them feels good for a while, but this wears off quickly.
Let's not forget that at the 75K they started at, this person was already far beyond what most earners make.
Good on this person for making use of their skills and turning it into a lot of money. But this story just doesn't sit well given the year most people have had. My bubble includes people who are truly struggling this year and it pains me so much to see it.
- swyx 6y agodo note that this was written in feb 2019 and only randomly submitted by someone else today
- lkxijlewlf 6y agoExcellent point, thank you.
- P_I_Staker 6y agoYou're correct and this is a good thing to point out. It's still somewhat worth keeping in mind how well most of us do here. $75k is considered fantastic pay to a huge percentage of the population. Almost "can't even figure out what to spend all them money on" levels, if you don't have expensive tastes (and obviously only in areas with reasonable COL)
- nicoburns 6y agoIndeed. I think the key not that extrinsic motivation isn't long-lasting, but that excessively large incomes aren't even (or are only weakly) extrinsically motivating for most people. If the job was enabling them to make ends meet vs. not then no doubt they'd continue to be highly motivated.