Stats for nerds
2recommend
4mentions
2people
2016–2024years
100% recommend
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- I think it might be a bit of a post-scarcity thing. A bit like how we don't cope well with the easy availability of lots of macronutrient-dense foods that exists in many developing nations, and our physical health may be suffering for it.
Similarly, once upon a time people needed to work whenever work was available so that they could secure the resources they'd need for times when it wasn't. That may still be the case in some industries. But in tech it's not like that. If anything it's the opposite. Extra work tends to just create even more extra work, which won't necessarily be compensated because you're salaried. Sure, you might get a raise or promotion, but that's not guaranteed. The reward mechanism uses gachapon mechanics. Which works out great for the company's owners in exactly the same way that loot crates are more profitable than more honest forms of game design. Whenever I see people sharing anecdotes of that one acquaintance of theirs who was a tech workaholic and was handsomely rewarded for all that extra work, it puts me in mind of a billboard for my state's lottery that says, "Only players win." Or the motivational dreck that MLM companies like Herbalife feed to their members. People seem to have trouble recognizing a scam when there are some token people for whom it actually worked out well.
And no, it's not healthy. The High Price of Materialism by Tim Kasser is about 20, 25 years old now, but summarizes a lot of the research on this sort of thing as of that time. Long story short, you get caught up in chasing the dragon.
- If you'd like a fairly short book, The High Price of Materialism by Tim Kasser isn't focused specifically on early childhood, but, if I recall correctly, it does touch on the subject.
It's all correlational, of course, so it's not like this is a scientific certainty. But still, interesting to see.
- The High Price of Materialism by Tim Kasser is a good read. It's a popular work that goes through a lot of research on how focusing on material definitions of success can ultimately run counter to your emotional well-being. The pleasure of a big new acquisition is fleeing, so you get stuck forever chasing bigger and better highs.
- This book is worth a read:
https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/high-price-materialism Tim Kasser, The High Price of Materialism
It discusses studies on how materialistic desires relate to one's emotional well-being (all correlative, as I recall), and then goes from there into a thoughtful analysis of how materialism alters a person's priorities in a variety not-so-healthy ways. I found it to be a pretty good reality check.
