An interesting post I read online recently (I don't recall where) suggested that most of our career ambition and pride is really just the Protestant work ethic

An interesting post I read online recently (I don't recall where) suggested that most of our career ambition and pride is really just the Protestant work ethic wrapped in a personal story we can feel ok about. His suggestion was that all work is really just "something you like to do for money." Although it's cold, that's probably true. I'm not exempting myself from this delusion at all. In fact, it was eye-opening to hear it called out. I've spent vast swaths of my 3-decade career hoping or believing that I was doing something purposeful -- or that my company or customers were. In retrospect, what we probably did is help a few already rich people get richer and provide for our own livelihoods during some part of the process. Just working to care for yourself and your family doesn't sound particularly ennobling, but it does seem realistic. Since work is varied and so are the measurements of success, it's easy for anyone to map "success" or "failure" onto their own results, or someone else's. It's also easy to think that one person's work is more heroic or more important than another's, when really we're all just monkeys with typewriters trying to survive.