What I gained, lost and learned while working for Microsoft

Re:What I gained, lost and learned while working for Microsoft by AmericanChopper on Sunday May 12, 2019 @05:04AM (#19890888)

I think this is unnecessarily cynical. I’ve been through multiple periods of both success and extreme hardship in my life. I can confidently say that money doesn’t make me happy, because I’ve managed to be happy at my lowest points of financial stability. If losing financial stability robs somebody of all their happiness, then I’d say they should question whether they were really happy to begin with, or just comfortable. But to say that anybody who has financial stability can’t say ‘money doesn’t make me happy’ denies the possibility that they’ve lived experiences that genuinely brought them to that conclusion.

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Re:What I gained, lost and learned while working for Microsoft by specialist on Sunday May 12, 2019 @10:04AM (#19891959)

I've gone long stretches unemployed because of chronic health issues.

Money helps reduce anxiety. Health insurance even more so.

Once you have responsibilities, mouths to feed, it's no longer just about you. Now that I'm an empty nester, I care about money a lot less. I'm practically happy-go-lucky.

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Re:What I gained, lost and learned while working for Microsoft by taneq on Sunday May 12, 2019 @10:11PM (#19895952)

> I can confidently say that money doesn’t make me happy, because I’ve managed to be happy at my lowest points of financial stability.

I'm not saying that being poor makes it impossible to be happy. I'm saying that money can remove many stresses which make it harder to be happy.

Also, there's 'low income' and then there's 'financial instability'. If you get paid $100/week, spend $50/week on rent, and $25/week on enough food to keep you well fed, and have $25/week spare, and you have a reasonably reliable job (or can easily find another one) then you're financially stable.

If you're on $2000/wk but you have $1500/wk in rent/loans/whatever and $450/wk in food and transport costs, your boss is constantly threatening to fire you, and you know you can't get another job if you do get fired, you're going to have a very hard time being happy.

> If losing financial stability robs somebody of all their happiness, then I’d say they should question whether they were really happy to begin with, or just comfortable.

I'd flip that around and say if your happiness levels aren't affected by 'losing financial stability' then you've lost income but not financial stability.

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Re:What I gained, lost and learned while working for Microsoft by logicprog on Sunday May 12, 2019 @10:37AM (#19892132)

That's totally fair, and I think many people can identify with what you're saying, with a caveat. I think you're talking about a different kind of happiness... I'm not you, so I can't say for sure, but it sounds like you have what I would call "joy" no matter what. Where "joy" is a sense of purpose, of maybe self worth and other things that stay with you even when you may not actually be enjoying yourself at any given time, you can even be sad, and still have an overarching sense of "joy".

I think the other posters mean happiness as the more run of the mill enjoying the moment, enjoying life, am happy about X kind of happiness.

Also, when we talk about happiness vs income, we should actually look at what many people actually say about it themselves, in data (pardon the pun :):

1. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/gdp-vs-happiness

2. https://ourworldindata.org/uploads/2017/04/Happiness-by-Inco...

3. https://ourworldindata.org/uploads/2017/04/Happiness-across-...

I mean, it seems like there is a connection between happiness and income up to a certain level.

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