I like to say, money can't buy happiness, but it can keep at bay a whole lot of the kind of grief and worrying that comes with just scraping by.

Thanks for digging this up!

It's also embarrassment at success, rather than deliberate gatekeeping. It holds a lot of people back, too...

The bit about being promoted - I said that. And then after a couple years I quit and went back to being an individual contributor... management is not for everyone.

EDIT: Maybe I should say, not every promotion is a positive step...

"management isn't really a promotion" from people who went into management and saw their responsibility (and compensation) very quickly outpace the people stayed as corporate code monkeys.