This is just a personal observation that probably isn't universally true, but what I've noticed is that people who live on the extremes tend to be extremely unh

This is just a personal observation that probably isn't universally true, but what I've noticed is that people who live on the extremes tend to be extremely unhappy - particularly entrepreneurs (yes, even the successful ones). "Get rich and live the life you want" is a myth. Being rich doesn't make you happy. And that ruthless process of eliminating the unnecessary, laser focus, dogged pursuit of one goal, changes you as a person and often not for the better. In PG's essay "How to Make Wealth" he wrote "you can think of a startup as a way to compress your whole working life into a few years. Instead of working at a low intensity for forty years, you work as hard as you possibly can for four." [1] But the reality I've observed (and experienced myself) is that this period of working intensely for four years changes you deeply. Rather than working for four years intensely, you'll either burn out entirely in that time span or spend the entirety of your life working intensely - you become a workaholic, hanging out for the next start-up, next opportunity, etc. and constantly feeling like shit because you never made the big break. Or perhaps you did make the break, so instead you'll feel like shit because it wasn't big enough. Or maybe you did make it big in the past but _right now_ you're not so you feel like a one trick wonder, etc. I'm confident that a random sampling of HN regulars will show most are depressed, even if they've been successful. [1] http://paulgraham.com/wealth.html http://paulgraham.com/wealth.html