> I don't have a problem making more money now that I made myself valuable. That could be part of our differences in outlook. I don't feel I've really "made my

> I don't have a problem making more money now that I made myself valuable. That could be part of our differences in outlook. I don't feel I've really "made myself" valuable, I just have skills and interests that happened to be valuable. I've liked computers since I was a kid, and am reasonably adept with them. When I grew up, somewhat to my surprise, I found out people paid quite a bit of money for that kind of thing. It feels sort of like playing careers on easy-mode; even if I were to totally wash out into a low-end programming position, I could still easily make high 5 figures slinging web templates or Ruby or PHP or something. Other people who're harder-working and more talented than me make less, because they happened to be adept in the wrong thing (art or carpentry instead of coding, say). Were the era different, it could be the other way around, so I have a bit of a "there but for the grace of god go I" outlook: there are times when engineering was a poorly paid blue-collar occupation and skilled painters were highly rewarded. In that economy, I'd be poorer and some of my friends would be richer, through no change in our own skills...