All of this stuff, in the end, grounds out in what you think matters. There is no escaping the question, and if you don't explicitly answer it, you discover you've been performing an implicit answer. Safety, status, shits and giggles, domination. Something.

I'm sure of that. I'm unsure to what degree the answers we arrive at are a matter of choice.

I liked this:

A very important statement in there is that you like your current job. We carve up life into tidy categories, like career and retirement, that don't have to be so cleanly distinct from each other.

If you stop enjoying your job, to me, that's the time to ditch it and pursue the creative projects you also love.

Another thing that I noticed here is our cultural fixation on pursuing exactly what we value highest. That might not be your current job, but your job is also a social venture that's undertaken with other people and adding value to others still. It's fine for that to outweigh what you would choose in isolation.

Very thoughtful writeup. Personally I hope to instill in my children a perspective that's in between. Have enough drive to make effective use of your talents and bless other people with it, but have enough perspective to be content with the simpler things in life, and not be constantly chasing material milestones.

Great article! The examples you mentioned is very much comparable with my own personal experiences. Although I think poverty is a state of mind and having a happy life is what I believe matters the most.

Very good food for thought!