What’s the point of making a million bucks if I’m miserable doing it?
OK, this one is easy. When you make the million bucks, you stop working and start enjoying life. If you get the million soon enough, you may get on average a lot of fun!
It's simply "work first, fun later" on a larger scale.
I guess the better question would be "If I start following a track that makes me feel miserable but could potentially bring me a million bucks, how likely am I to endure the hardship and reach the payout phase?"
It's simply "work first, fun later" on a larger scale.
It is possible that you are leaving out an important piece of the equation?
Debt first, work second, fun much later if, and only if, you are able to avoid the hedonic inflation that so often infects those who pursue careers for prestige.
Viliam, good point about the general principle of a million bucks, although it would probably be more in the modern world.
However - and this is something I chose not to go into in the article due to word constrictions - people who go into medicine don't have that mentality. They generally have a mentality of working as a doctor throughout their life until they retire. It's really hard to choose a Schelling point to stop working in that sort of profession - doctor, lawyer, etc. It's much easier for entrepreneurs who have a natural out when their business gets bought out. Doctors etc. often association their source of meaning and purpose with their professional activities.
Thanks for the submission /u/fruitheart, but unfortunately your thread title is long and ugly. Thank you regardless for thinking of our sharing your link with the community as well as being part of it! Hope your year is going well.
Here's my article in Lifehack, one of the most prominent self-improvement websites, bringing rationality-style ideas to a broad audience, specifically long-term orientation, mere-exposure effect, consider-the-alternative, and agency :-)
P.S. Based on feedback from the LessWrong community, I made sure to avoid mentioning LessWrong or rationality in the article.