[2019ideas]

>when you value things that are based on things outside your control e.g. social validation, financial success, you will struggle to be happy.

These are outside our control? I found both were achieved by choosing to be an engineer and going above and beyond.

[paganel]

Yes, they are outside of your control but you just don’t realize it yet. The “financial success” aspect can become a thing of the past pretty quickly if a dot-com crash were to happen again or if the next recession were to bring the FANGs back into “normal companies” territory when it comes to their total valuation, and I assume the “social validation” aspect will become a thing of the past for most computer programmers pretty soon, especially if AI will end up consuming even more existing jobs among other the general populace.

[claudiulodro]

I think you probably have a lower bar for social/financial success than what OP is talking about. You are neither famous nor rich, and people want to be famous and/or rich.

Mad props to you if you are 100% satisfied with you social status & financial success, though. I wish that I were. :)