I went through this reckoning when a company I worked for underwent layoffs for poor financial performance. Nothing I could have done since I started the job would have made it avoidable. I had the epiphany that I'd tied up my sense of self, and self-worth, with a status that I actually had very little control over.
Not being a software developer. That's actually generally a net negative, socially. It was all about class.
I've been fairly upwardly mobile. That alone gave me a feeling of success that glossed over any other inadequacies. Being comfortably financially also means - or meant - that I had the luxury of ignoring the reality of daily life for most people I met, however much I thought I hadn't lost touch.
Confronting the idea of how I'd feel about my life without it, and how the people in my life would feel about me, and how I feel about people who don't have the same comfort, is an instrumental part of me developing into a better, happier person.
Not being a software developer. That's actually generally a net negative, socially. It was all about class.
I've been fairly upwardly mobile. That alone gave me a feeling of success that glossed over any other inadequacies. Being comfortably financially also means - or meant - that I had the luxury of ignoring the reality of daily life for most people I met, however much I thought I hadn't lost touch.
Confronting the idea of how I'd feel about my life without it, and how the people in my life would feel about me, and how I feel about people who don't have the same comfort, is an instrumental part of me developing into a better, happier person.