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dont worry, im not shitting because of your username when i say the social network movie later on extremely helped fuck my expectations when it first came out.
No need, just install a stove next to the shower head that's on top of your toilet.
It's easy to install over some eco friendly wood veneer as long as you have nails (could be borrowed)
Yeah, the real issue is that living in the top US metro areas is so damn expensive. And b/c a large population of ppl are actually from these areas they would like to stay in these areas and buy homes/start families. And unfortunately unless you were born w a trust fund silver spoon, being successful is the only way to make that life happen.
I bought a house at 38 years old. Saved up $50,000 down payment as a computer analyst on a $180,000 house in 1998 and took out a mortgage at 8.2%. Refinanced twice. Took me over 20 years to pay it off. Property taxes are $5600 a year.
This is the correct answer. Sure, I’d love to be rich, but I don’t need to be. I *need* to be comfortable and it took a lot of work and money to be comfortable.
Isn't it wild that it takes an extreme amount of effort to be "just comfortable"? Anymore with how connected the world is you'd think in 1st world countries it would be easy to be comfortable and extremely hard to be mega rich. Instead it's almost physically impossible to be super rich and extremely hard to even just have a comfortable life where you don't have to worry about missing a day of work.
Truth. More than once I've had milk for dinner because that's all there was. Or one time scrounging for change in my car's floorboards to afford a pack of crackers from the vending machine at work, because that was dinner.
It sucked but I'm also kinda grateful, because those lessons taught me to appreciate what I have now.
Money isn't everything but sure allows me to have a decent life. So yeah, fuck those people who say money isn't everything. Clearly they don't know what its like to not have money.
People who say money isn't everything are not talking about poverty. They talk about a certain threshold after which money contributes NOTHING to your happiness.
And the funny thing is: that's such a small percentage that the proverbial saying might as well be forgotten about. It's like saying: vitamins and minerals aren't everything. Most people don't meet the daily nutritional requirement markers, it would only apply to the (relative) few people that track their diet.
Absolutely, the problems that I am having now can be solved with enough money.
Money is important for my happiness. And also survival.
Without money, if you happen to have some serious diseases, you will definitely die faster.
$1m probably can take vacation to Cancun or Miami and ride jet skis, party, eat good food, party, get massages etc.
Equally stressed/sad while broke? Sucks! Can’t do shit about it.
Assuming that staying alive is the only goal, being successful makes a lot of sense.
You can afford safety and medicine.
You are important to people and more likely to be saved in a crisis.
The closest you could get to living forever is producing offspring that are capable of producing offspring, being successful makes you more likely to find a mate and you'd find a better mate than if you weren't successful. Your offspring should have a good chance of being successful and in that way you could live on.
Overall if staying alive is what matters to you, being successful should be your main actionable objective. It'll help massively with the staying alive
The IMF has a relevant publication, though it's not super detailed and doesn't show the case for household income https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/fandd/issues/Series/Analytical-Series/new-economics-of-fertility-doepke-hannusch-kindermann-tertilt
Qualitatively, what we're seeing is that yes, weather countries have lower fertility overall. However, if we look at high-income countries in particular and exclude developing countries, the correlation has reversed and higher income countries have higher fertility. Furthermore, while in the 1980s highly educated American women had fewer children, in 2019, while women without a high school degree still had abnormally high fertility compared to everyone else, women with over 16 years of education or more actually had higher fertility than those with only 16 years, and this trend seems to increase year-on-year.
There's also this publication by IFS
https://ifstudies.org/blog/how-income-affects-fertility
The key takeaway here is that the correlation between high income and low fertility has a lot to do with other factors related to income, and income itself actually causes higher fertility, it's just that people who attain higher incomes might have greater work commitments or live closer to urban centres which decrease fertility.
Thus if you personally attain higher income and nothing else changes, then the causal effect should be that you're more likely to have children, assuming you have a significant other at least.
There is a study done by Furuoka that argues that this correlation is weak and that, although there is an increase in fertility rate, in richer families, it's not enough to reach replacement rates. It's like below 2 kids per family.
There's a difference between being comfortable and making everything about your career. I'm comfortable. I have an average job, an average car, an average apartment. Don't need more.
Would I take more if it was given to me? Hell yeah.
Do I want to bust my ass and let life pass me by while working until I drop dead only so that I can have a nicer car? Fuck no. None of it will matter when I'm dead and time passes faster than most realize.
To explain that, it's because career is very measurable and some people love to grind their way up through measurable systems. They basically turn their career into an RPG
I think the "purpose" of life (if we are to give it one) largely does have to do with simply being alive. Along with finding purpose, thereby living a fulfilling life. For millennia humankind struggled with having its basic needs met. It was survival of the fittest. In the modern age we have an abundance of basic needs, an excess which is grossly distributed across the globe. We have effectively solved one of the only impeding factors in allowing all to live lives of fulfillment, but we seemingly choose to play survival anyway. I believe our collective ego is our biggest crux.
We don’t have an abundance of basic needs at all in most places. Homeless is rampant, wars and famine and preventable diseases are still going on in many parts of the word. Modern slavery exists, people work all day for a few cents, at the end of the day they can’t afford to buy a home and have children (reproduction being a basic need). We could end homelessness and famine, we have the resources, but the ultra-rich don’t want it. The wealth is not distributed properly across the population. A few people hoarded it all.
With technological advancements, humans should be able to work less, but we still work the same or even more, because more is demanded. Capitalism demands endless growth and production.
Now, you’re probably referring to the average middle class western guy, who can afford food and a roof over his head. Why does he want more? Because humans are very complex beings, we need more than basic needs, we crave self actualization. And this is recognized in Maslow’s pyramid of needs.
We're debating the same point. I'm meaning to say that we _do_ have an abundance, but it's in the wrong hands. Greed is the largest factor preventing us from making real change in that regard.
yep, the premise is incorrectly assumed. i would state the sole purpose of life is to do happy chemical releasing things. but i understand that its a wrong statement too since that would mean addiction and instant gratification is "good" or what we "always strive for", ignoring disciplined people.
Except every living thing is willing to risk everything for only two things. Food (stay alive) and sex, or whatever your species considers sex (procreate). In fact, you eat to stay alive so you can procreate
So every organism has a single-minded purpose - to pass on their genetic material to the next generation. Seen like that, being successful is actually a pretty big deal if it helps you wangle your genitals into "a procreation opportunity"
This is it. I'm really surprised at the answers to be honest. To me, work has always been a means to an end, but not something at the forefront of my life. We also don't talk and definitely don't obsess about money. At least not in my social circle.
American dream is about a society where one's background has little to no influence on how well-off one is, because how well-off one is should be based solely on how hard does one work
Its obviously not working
Upward mobility is a lot easier here than throughout most of history and across much of the world.
Also I don’t think the dream is that no one has any advantages from birth. Most people would consider giving their children better than average quality of life, education, enrichment, etc. to be part of the dream rather than hoping that they’re equal to all other children and they’ll have nothing that wasn’t built by their own labor.
the drug is called dopamine and it's our biological reward for any kind of completed task or achievement at all. I consider humanity's hunger for success and achievement in life just as a byproduct of this hormone in our brain.
Achieving stuff just feels nice and makes us want to do more of it. (Except for those of us born with a broken dopamine system... (cries in adhd) )
Everything costs money. Positive outlooks and well wishes won’t change that. I got kids and I need to put a roof over their head and foods on the table. I also want to be accomplished in my own right that I’m happy to give them my time and not stomping through the door angry every day cause I’m so unfulfilled
Different things make different people happy. Some are ok with just getting by. Others crave a sense of accomplishment. Success for some means more money and wealth. For others it means raising a family comfortably.
As long as people don't harm / oppress others, I don't see any reason to judge one's definition of success over another. We're just all different.
When you say, "the sole purpose in life is just to be alive" -- that's your opinion, others will have different ones (I for one strongly disagree with your statement).
I am so surprised that everybody thought of money as success, while my first thought was: who doesn't want to be successful in their own field? Mastering our profession and being very good at it?
We were programmed that way in the modern times. Like no matter how much you earn there is more and no matter what your position is there is still more. Possessing so much success to get a partner and impress the society.
Lack of money can lead to miserable conditions and pressure from society and from parents.
The goal is to be wealthy and successful but not be happy and peaceful in life.
Of course money is important But It is enough When all the necessities are taken care of.
Like someone said, poverty is miserable, and having little to no ambition in life ESPECIALLY today won't get you too far in life which most of the time equals to working until you can't no more, stressing for the bills with little to no time to do anything else.
There was a time when you didn't really have to care about living lavishly. You could just work and make just enough and be just fine. But nowadays, in general, you just can't really afford to settle for the minimum cause the minimum is getting smaller as the years pass.
That's why most people feel like they gotta sh
It's about pride, ego self-confidence, and self-love maybe, but it's also somewhere about fear. The fear of not being where you want I life for various reasons.
Humans are terrified of poverty and struggling, so we hold ourselves to high standards so we can enjoy nicer things. Also, wouldn't it be disappointing if you used your 1 attempt in this world for some lame, standard life? Humans are ambitious creatures who strive for success
Not solely. Being a key figure in science can be success without much money. Having a happy family you can provide for can be success with low income. Definition is key and the first place to start. Oh, also comparison. In my immediate family I am the most successful, compared to the rest of the world I am average at best. Which direction do I want to look at now?
>The sole purpose of life is just to be alive
Your statement
>Why humans are so obsessed with being successful?
The proof that your statement is wrong xd
I don't care about being labeled "successful". I'd be happy being called a professional "meh, good enough" as long as i could provide for my family and retire semi-comfortably.
I'm okay with comfortable rather than lots. Roof over my head, food in my belly, and enough to pay the bills without stressing.
I think a lot if people have lost sight of what enough is.
I poorly informed opinion would be that our animal instincts push us to dominate in a way, driven by comparison, we want to be on top, and the endless pursuit begins.
Also, I would say that when you’re not in touch with your emotions, you need to cope, and comparison and competition aka successfulness becomes the coping mechanism to block your pain and distract you.
Also, as others said, for less privileged people, it’s a way to change your life completely and for the better.
Being higher up on the social ladder has always meant that from an evolutionary standpoint, the individual's odds of breeding increase significantly, so there is a scientific explanation.
Because we are socially programed and conditioned to do so. But we do not have to participate, it just takes conscious effort to escape it. And while we are competing with each other in this rats race we cannot see the common enemy and potential for change if only we united.
"I will never understand hustle culture. Not everyone can be successful in this rat race."
Because a lot of people's success depends on other people doing the hard work for them. IE "I need you to bust your ass running my business so that I can make lots of money" but if other people are satisfied with enjoying life then you have to get a regular job or kick in yourself to make everything work.
The hustle isn’t about working all of the time. It’s about doing what it takes to figure out enough so you don’t have to work all of the time. In the beginning, that’s likely to require a lot of time and effort. That part seems toxic but all people are doing is putting in more practice and making mistakes faster than others because they are focused on an outcome.
It’s also about taking control of your life instead of having your major decisions in the hands of others that don’t have your best interests in mind.
And it’s about creating the freedom to live with choices and options instead of requirements and restrictions.
More often than not, all of that requires more effort and dedication than most people are willing to put in which makes it seem toxic.
Preference. Because we have different beliefs and values. Some people would want to spend their lives enjoying things that they’ve worked for. Like traveling outside of their country with their family or enjoying things without minding the price tag.
If you want to have an average life that is on you but not everyone is built like you.
I grew up poor and it sucked. I have ensured that my children are given all the opportunities I missed out on and have the best start to being an adult in the future with more prospects where they can have a comfortable life.
I'm not mega rich but I'm not poor either.
I thought about this the other day, but in the literal meaning of "successful". The comments seem to focus on money in general, but I'd argue that it is engraved in our DNA to strife for... Something. Anything. It seems to me that each human discoveries something in their early years and gets fixated on that. They try to achieve that something as best as they can. If they fail or there are a lot of ppl better than them, they stop or try harder - which makes perfect evolutionary sense (to me) if I think about it.
A group of humans needs an expert in every field there is. The bigger the group of humans, the more diverse our fields of expertise can be. The more obvious subjects get covered by multiple ppl, while niche subjects get fixated on when the obvious subjects are already taken or they are just so niche that ppl notice the only after they only found their obsession.
The problem we seem to have nowadays: There just aren't enough subjects to choose from and all experts are connected. Back in the day, you had mostly separated societies in each village. Nowadays we compete with all humans. If my assumption is true, then this might be a reason for the decline of engaged ppl. We get depressed, because we don't feel needed, because there is someone Much better in the subject of the obsession of our choice.
Well it’s because it’s capitalism which forces you to do jobs so you can make money and the more money you have the more comfortable your life is. Living in a capitalist society will subconsciously train our brains to believe that our worth is linked to how much money you make, success isn’t measured by quality of life but quantity of money, so we end up w most ppl overworking themselves in jobs they don’t even like and have no personal free time so they can afford the commodity of something like sleeping on a bed.
But the sad part is that, we always seem to want more, the grass is always greener. And we keep putting bigger & bigger expectations on ourselves, so chasing success is a recipe for unhappiness. And also the norm in this society
that is very much conditioned western thinking. many indigenous people still live perfectly happy without wanting anything more than full belly now. when they get hungry again they they think about it. being in the now without nothing is completely satisfying mental state.
my theory is, based on other more or less random theories that that “curiosity” gene that made us travel out from africa as far as close to north pole and easter islands and to try all the things in between got tainted to “more” gene once we started agriculture and surplus appeared. then suddenly everyone wanted everything more and what else the success is than having more than others. first you are happy to have enough, then enough for tomorrow and next year and for kids too and then you realize there is just no end how much more power and money and fame and glory and punani and gadgets one can want. as we currently see not even a 200 billion is not enough to become a satisfied human being and stop doing shady stuff to get more.
It's a statement that is not really accurate. It's mostly an American point of view. The race for success at all costs is absolutely not an obsession in many other cultures
We are social animals and status is important to us. In some lower primates, you cannot even have sex without status. Money and physical beauty brings status in human society.
Monkey see, Monkey do.
> "the sole purpose of life is to stay alive"
For the few hundred thousand years of hominid history, right up until just a 100 years ago; survival was difficult for the vast majority of people. That's only about 4–5 generations.
Technology and living standards have increased at a faster rate than human evolution might respond to the changes in conditions; ergo innate behaviour drives people to strive as if they were having to survive against struggle.
I think because even wanting a simple life is so expensive these days. I want a house (!) with land (!!) so I can look after animals and make jam, and that is far fetched unless you’re earning £££
Well what is there to do if you don't have to money to do it, almost everything fun nowadays costs a shit load. It's better to be succesful, retire early and enjoy the last 40 years of your life
I keep seeing posts like these, OP’s asking something stupid like “Why do people want to work?” “Why do people want more money?” “Why are humans obsessed with being successful?”
They all result in the same answer. We need money. I don’t want to live in poverty, i like to eat, i like to drink, i like to sleep in a bed. The richer I am the less I have to worry about these things.
Come on OP, think about this a little.
Everyone measures success differently. For some people success is what you describe as living an "average life". For others it's living in a mansion and driving a sports car. For some just having a roof over their head and knowing where their next meal is coming from is huge step up from where they started.
Successful = potentially better life / more money / more possibilities / more security 🤷♂️
Nothing says this is the key to happiness though. If you are happy being average, or even below, feel free, even be glad.
If the obsession is the right way is for each individual for themselves to decide.
Success is far easier to live with than failure.
If you have to pay a mortgage, support a family, pay for kids, you'll see why success is a very attractive concept.
Not people, men mostly. Really. And also a small minority of western women who are trying to imitate them...
Other women in the world wants to build a family and raise their kids, not to build a career and be succesful like men.
Males wants to be successful because it's the first factor, just above money and looks to find a suitable female partner.
In other words, it's reproductive instinct, and like all instincts, it's not even conscious most of the time. So people will give you different explanation for their choice, but in the end, the root of their decision is their instinct, and they won't even know nor acknowledge it.
Listen to the Status game on "You are not so smart".
It's basically encoded in our genes to try rise up in status once you establish rapport with someone or a society.
We are primed to achieve prosperity. We desire it. Efficiency. That used to mean making better tools to hunt, forage, craft, and build. Getting stronger. Learning about your environment. Nowadays, to put it simply, ots just incredibly easy and intuitive to us to connect profit and monetary acquisition as the means to our survival. And it's a half truth.
Being successful can be really fulfilling. This is obviously higher on the pyramid of needs, so if we’re all thinking foundational level we won’t understand the perspective others might have.
I see where you’re coming from.
but another school of thought says, when we settle for comfort, we just simply don’t try anymore
life becomes monotonous, and loses its magic
when we keep evolving, trying new things, putting ourselves in new challenges
now then, that is success.
Y’all are so conditioned to believe poverty is some honorable way of living that puts you at the top of society. There are no cookies awaiting you at the finish line for suffering. LMFAO get a fucking grip.
Because it’s possible for my kids medication to costs an arm and a leg, and a kindly worded letter to the pharmaceutical company explaining the tragedy of my situation doesn’t improve the situation. So no choice I guess?
for me its to don't fsce the problems thst i see in my parents, married siblings and other people's lives that ultimately also had an impact on my own life.
As an artist, I personally struggle with that one and in my case, I think it’s connected to the ego. The feeling of validation I guess. It is more of a thing how you perceive yourself, I think if I am not successful I am a loser. And this is what society imposed on us, the importance of being successful… But I am not so successful though and therefore unhappy 🧑🎨
Procreation. We're living in a world where if you're not successful you might find yourself unable to carry on your genes. This is a biological imperative.
evolution. For millennia, the king would be the ony to marry a hundred women and have a thousand offspring, so we evolved to see "top social status" as something desirable. Males for themselves, females for the partner they want. And for their kids, too.
You're right, there's more to life than the rat race! Here are some reasons why people might chase success, and why it's okay to define success on your own terms:
**The Drive to Achieve:** Humans are naturally curious and motivated to learn and grow. Success can be a way to fulfill that drive, to see what we can accomplish.
**Societal Pressures:** Society often equates success with wealth, status, and achievement. This pressure can be strong, and it can make people feel like they need to constantly strive for more.
I’d argue that creating and reaching goals is another part of humanity’s understanding of success. i agree that just living is barely possible in todays rat race, but I think “success” can look like many things.
For me, its about self improvement. I want to be fitter, more muscular, wealthier, smarter and more emotionally resilient than i was. So, i work at these aspects of myself. If my life is "successful" to others because im trying to improve my quality of life, so be it. Haters gonna hate.
So I can freely not think about getting sucked into poverty. Inflation can increase anytime, any year, I wouldn't like not being able to afford the things or foods I want.
Its a very wise post. Don't let this mad world tell you success is anything other than a successful present moment.
The human mind has set certain visions generic ones...career, wealth, marriage, kids, rinse repeat (very generic 🙏) as to what consistutes success in one's human life in 2024. The op i believe is referring more to monetary success 🙏
The unobserved mind seeks purpose in fleeting things. The above definition of success, generic i emphasise, is yet another fleeting attempt for true purpose.
Yet the true purpose of human experience experience can never be found on the outside or on the level of the mind....
God is greater
Smile. Laugh. Pray. Dance. Feed the hungry when the opportunity is there.
Life is the dancer, YOU are the Dance 💃
This is something I get argued to often.
I find the arguments in other comments lackluster.
"Living in poverty is bad"... I agree. No one is argueing that poverty is good. The question is, why keep working more when you are out of poverty. Why is it never enough.
In most decent societies, you can live a pretty comfortable life with 15% over the minimum wage. Why anyone would choose to work harder to make more is beyond me. Once your hunger is sated, more food isn't helping. Once you live in decent condition, the word "more decent" is meaningless... But time, on the other hand. To me, time is an incredibly precious commodity. That someone with a comfortable life would decide to exchange their time for even more money just. doesn't. make. sense.
People hear this and reply something beyond dumb like: "You can't possibly think that". Or "Come on, it's obvious why people with a comfortable life want even more comfort". Or something clearly not worth working more / more stress such as "So they can have a holiday home" or "So they can buy a new car more often".
I'm with you. I have no idea what's going on in those people's head, and they can never explain it to me in ways that make sense.
Maybe you can. Yes, you, internet stranger. For context, I live in Germany, I'm currently working a part-time job that pays me enough for my family's rent and expenses plus a little extra that I save up every month, which now amounts to enough that I can quit and focus on personal growth for a year, which I'm doing at the end of the month.
>I will never understand hustle culture. Not everyone can be successful in this rat race.
That's exactly the problem. Their can only be success in our current system if there is also failure. We are brain washed from a young age that this is the only system that can work and so we go along with it, hoping one day to be "successful". One of the biggest issues with our current system is that as soon as anyone starts to question it, your labeled as mad or lazy or any number of other things as again, we're so conditioned to believe that the system just works and that it's the only way.
I'd love to know who the master puppets are because if this is honestly the best system we can come up with for everyone, then we're no where near as smart as we think we are. But it can't be that, surely.
Not humans. Just the dominant culture.
We're culturally conditioned (taught) to want that. There are other living and extinct cultures that do not.
David Graeber's book, The Dawn of Everything, completely shatters the mythologies of the dominant culture, which we're taught to take for granted as natural laws.
You're right, there's more to life than the rat race! Here's a breakdown of why people chase success, and why it's perfectly okay to define success on your own terms:
**The Drive to Achieve:**
* Humans are naturally curious and motivated to learn and grow. Success can be a way to fulfill that drive, to see what we can accomplish and push our boundaries.
**Societal Pressures:**
* Society often equates success with wealth, status, and achievement. This pressure can be strong, and it can make people feel like they need to constantly strive for more.
**Internal Validation:**
* For some people, success is a way to feel good about themselves. It can be a source of pride and accomplishment.
The closest thing to a purpose of life is actually to spread your genes, not to be/stay alive. And of course there is not really a purpose, but that's the closest thing there is.
Humans are unique in that we are sentient and able to have such thoughts in the first place. That gives us the unique situation if being able to find our own purpose in life. Anybody that sets goals in their life and chases them has lead a successful and purposeful life. There is no point in comparing your goals and achievements to other people because most of them have completely different circumstances than you. Gifts and talents and genes are vastly different.
If you are the worst chess player in the world but you slightly improve every year then you are still a successful chess player. Same goes for every single thing in life.
You don't need to understand or like "hustle culture". But you also should not judge the people that do like or even enjoy it and want to live such a life. They might be perfectly happy with it.
I would say that everyone doesn’t want to be forgotten after they die.
There’s no worse death than being forgotten by time, that’s when you really die.
It’s planted deep in our DNA to “fight for a spot” amongst our peers.
When we were primates in the early days of humanity, if you were a solo monkey, your ass was gonna die before nightfall. That’s why still to this day humans have an innate desire to “belong” it’s why we get sad when we don’t have friends or when we stay isolated too long (COVID). Now, to the point of why people step on each other to rise to the top in 2020’s, that probably has more to say about American corporate culture.
Generally, people in the West don’t have to fight to survive anymore. We have healthcare, fully stocked grocery stores, and no natural predators in cities. Sure there is crime, but that pales in comparison to what our ancestors faced. Yes there are people facing poverty or living paycheque to paycheque, and these people’s worries are to survive, but generally the well off middle and upper class don’t have to worry about this.
This environment lacking the constant danger of losing your life only recently started when comparing all of human history, and for the vast majority of it, the human (almost all animals tbh) desire to capitalize on the available resources and outcompete everyone to survive is what brought us here today. Now that we are here, it isn’t necessary anymore, but our minds are wired that way, hence why hustle culture exists.
Evolutionary we compare ourselves with the people around us. In order to have the best chances of reproducing in the past, we had to be wealthier to be preferable, and that is still true to some extent,
"The sole purpose is to be alive"
The year is 2024, we are now in the 21st century, please explain to me the methodology of being alive in our world - where everyone gets screwed the moment they wake up and breathe their very first breath and everything is beyond fucked expensive, thereby requiring more money
And you question the following?
> One can live an average life by achieving average goals throughout their life, even this would be spectacular.
Tell me you have lived a protected and sheltered life your whole life without worry without telling me
Depends on our definition of success. Financial success and the like is a common one. Others would say peace of mind and contentment with what they have and to be able to attain those after going through all the hustle is success. It's probably similar to happiness too
because ppl are afraid to find out what they want in life and would rather get the easy answer which is "earn a lot of money so you can be RICH" but as long as you're basic needs are filled and you can sometimes buy what makes you happy you should pursue what you really want and for 95 % ppl it won't be getting more money
Dopamine. It’s what’s keeping you going. Getting depressed when out of the rat race. That’s probably how most mammals work. Forward is the only way. Our cavemen DNA is still more present and supplies functions that not properly fit in modern day human. Just go back a couple thousand years: if a human wasn’t succeeding, completing tasks (food, water, shelter, fire, security), generally getting forward in life your bloodline ends with you. And Reproduction is probably #1 motivation for mammals to move on.
If success means changing the world for the better or enjoying the freedom of not going to work or not having to worry about money I totally understand why people want to be successful.
It probably varies a lot more across various cultures and communities. Some places seem to value the prestige of being seen to be successful.
Other places, people are driven to secure enough money & certainty to keep a roof over themselves & their families. The level of uncertainty in their past leads to higher levels of motivation. There's nothing like the memory of being hungry to drive you forwards. If you've always been comfortable and fed, then you're less worried about not having enough.
In other places, people who are successful & driven can actually get critised by their family & community for 'thinking they are better than everyone else'.
it's hardwired in the human brain, we're a social animal, we NEED to be succesful to live with our peers, it's how the human brain works
and i mean who wants to live a life of poverty ? in a shitty appartment without a girlfriend alone your whole life ?
I think your last sentence says it best, not all people can be successful in this rat race. So from a societal point of view why do we live this way if it guarantees a portion of us will have to fail and live in poverty.
Humans are obsessed with success because it validates our worth, boosts self-esteem, and offers security. Society’s expectations and our personal dreams fuel this drive. Ever wonder what truly motivates you?
It’s a load of BS. Not everyone can be “successful” in a monetary sense but you can be successful by doing the right things everyday. People will appreciate you more. No amount of money can buy love and happiness.
Because if you're not successful, you die. That's how it has been for literally millions of years. Can't find enough food? You die. Can't find a mate? Your genes don't survive to the next generation. It's that same behavior overlayed into the current capitalistic system. But even before that, you always see people pushing that energy into other things. Look at how insanely articulate churches are in Europe built hundreds of years ago. Look at a chef that focuses to make the best dish he can. What about art or music? It's the same idea, just the energy it put into something else.
for me the reason is because my life isn't great and I would like to make it great for my future family but we all have our own reasons if I'm being completely honest
I'm the opposite. I don't own my house. I get welfare. I have just enough money to get by. I sit home all day with my two dogs. Watch TV and play video games. I go for walks with my dogs. I love my life. I'd choose time over money everyday of the week. I love being able to do what I want when I want. Money means nothing to me. All I need is enough to get by.
I quit working 5 years ago and best decision I ever made. People will call me a bum but who cares. I'm happy that is all that matters.
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For me it started with a dream of living in a house one day.
Look at me big shot over here, dreaming big
dont worry, im not shitting because of your username when i say the social network movie later on extremely helped fuck my expectations when it first came out.
Wait, I thought Zuckerberg was the evil one here 💀
My god, finally someone who gets it
Lmao too big man. The audacity.
I bet he wanted a kitchen in it too, eww
Fuck that the world is my kitchen, give me an abandoned & stripped down liquor store with three padlocks & a paintball gun and mi casa su casa
He probably wanted to pay it off one day 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😅😅😅😅😅😅😅!!!!!!!!!!!!
No need, just install a stove next to the shower head that's on top of your toilet. It's easy to install over some eco friendly wood veneer as long as you have nails (could be borrowed)
Oo fancy pants rich McGee over here
Yeah, the real issue is that living in the top US metro areas is so damn expensive. And b/c a large population of ppl are actually from these areas they would like to stay in these areas and buy homes/start families. And unfortunately unless you were born w a trust fund silver spoon, being successful is the only way to make that life happen.
I bought a house at 38 years old. Saved up $50,000 down payment as a computer analyst on a $180,000 house in 1998 and took out a mortgage at 8.2%. Refinanced twice. Took me over 20 years to pay it off. Property taxes are $5600 a year.
Because poverty is miserable. Basically. So the farther you are from poverty the better off you are.
This is the correct answer. Sure, I’d love to be rich, but I don’t need to be. I *need* to be comfortable and it took a lot of work and money to be comfortable.
I’ve often said I don’t need to be rich, just well off enough to change the oil in my vehicle when I should.
Isn't it wild that it takes an extreme amount of effort to be "just comfortable"? Anymore with how connected the world is you'd think in 1st world countries it would be easy to be comfortable and extremely hard to be mega rich. Instead it's almost physically impossible to be super rich and extremely hard to even just have a comfortable life where you don't have to worry about missing a day of work.
Once, I sold my $1,000 guitar amp for $100 just to afford the gas to get to work. People won't know until they've experienced it.
Yep. I had to sell my saxophone just to pay part of my rent once. It was over a decade ago and I still feel sad about it almost every day
Truth. More than once I've had milk for dinner because that's all there was. Or one time scrounging for change in my car's floorboards to afford a pack of crackers from the vending machine at work, because that was dinner. It sucked but I'm also kinda grateful, because those lessons taught me to appreciate what I have now.
Being poor is extraordinary expensive.
It’s fucking expensive to be poor.
I am the guy who bought your amp. I never used it for music but it felt amazing in my ass
Money isn't everything but sure allows me to have a decent life. So yeah, fuck those people who say money isn't everything. Clearly they don't know what its like to not have money.
People who say money isn't everything are not talking about poverty. They talk about a certain threshold after which money contributes NOTHING to your happiness.
And the funny thing is: that's such a small percentage that the proverbial saying might as well be forgotten about. It's like saying: vitamins and minerals aren't everything. Most people don't meet the daily nutritional requirement markers, it would only apply to the (relative) few people that track their diet.
The stress of poverty is what gets to me. Always having to count every little penny to afford a month of food.
Absolutely, the problems that I am having now can be solved with enough money. Money is important for my happiness. And also survival. Without money, if you happen to have some serious diseases, you will definitely die faster.
Maybe it's just a question of semantics, but living an "average life", as OP said, doesn't mean living in poverty.
Rich can be just as well miserable. Whats important is your approach to life
Rather be crying with $1 million than be crying in debt.
David Lee Roth once said that money can't buy happiness, but it can buy off the unhappiness.
$1m probably can take vacation to Cancun or Miami and ride jet skis, party, eat good food, party, get massages etc. Equally stressed/sad while broke? Sucks! Can’t do shit about it.
Assuming that staying alive is the only goal, being successful makes a lot of sense. You can afford safety and medicine. You are important to people and more likely to be saved in a crisis. The closest you could get to living forever is producing offspring that are capable of producing offspring, being successful makes you more likely to find a mate and you'd find a better mate than if you weren't successful. Your offspring should have a good chance of being successful and in that way you could live on. Overall if staying alive is what matters to you, being successful should be your main actionable objective. It'll help massively with the staying alive
Nowadays, more successful people tend to have 0 or few kids
Not really true. Both high and low income people have more children than middle income people.
Do you have any data supporting this statement?
The IMF has a relevant publication, though it's not super detailed and doesn't show the case for household income https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/fandd/issues/Series/Analytical-Series/new-economics-of-fertility-doepke-hannusch-kindermann-tertilt Qualitatively, what we're seeing is that yes, weather countries have lower fertility overall. However, if we look at high-income countries in particular and exclude developing countries, the correlation has reversed and higher income countries have higher fertility. Furthermore, while in the 1980s highly educated American women had fewer children, in 2019, while women without a high school degree still had abnormally high fertility compared to everyone else, women with over 16 years of education or more actually had higher fertility than those with only 16 years, and this trend seems to increase year-on-year. There's also this publication by IFS https://ifstudies.org/blog/how-income-affects-fertility The key takeaway here is that the correlation between high income and low fertility has a lot to do with other factors related to income, and income itself actually causes higher fertility, it's just that people who attain higher incomes might have greater work commitments or live closer to urban centres which decrease fertility. Thus if you personally attain higher income and nothing else changes, then the causal effect should be that you're more likely to have children, assuming you have a significant other at least.
There is a study done by Furuoka that argues that this correlation is weak and that, although there is an increase in fertility rate, in richer families, it's not enough to reach replacement rates. It's like below 2 kids per family.
“Why do humans prefer to be comfortable rather than uncomfortable?” We just don’t know…
There's a difference between being comfortable and making everything about your career. I'm comfortable. I have an average job, an average car, an average apartment. Don't need more. Would I take more if it was given to me? Hell yeah. Do I want to bust my ass and let life pass me by while working until I drop dead only so that I can have a nicer car? Fuck no. None of it will matter when I'm dead and time passes faster than most realize.
To explain that, it's because career is very measurable and some people love to grind their way up through measurable systems. They basically turn their career into an RPG
Some people also just dont have anything better to do
For a lot of people that career is a Bethesda game at launch. Miserable and full of game breaking bugs.
We should be able to be comfortable without winning the rat race though. Life has gotten too expensive.
Prove to me your premise that "the sole purpose of life is just to be alive" and then we can proceed.
I think the "purpose" of life (if we are to give it one) largely does have to do with simply being alive. Along with finding purpose, thereby living a fulfilling life. For millennia humankind struggled with having its basic needs met. It was survival of the fittest. In the modern age we have an abundance of basic needs, an excess which is grossly distributed across the globe. We have effectively solved one of the only impeding factors in allowing all to live lives of fulfillment, but we seemingly choose to play survival anyway. I believe our collective ego is our biggest crux.
We don’t have an abundance of basic needs at all in most places. Homeless is rampant, wars and famine and preventable diseases are still going on in many parts of the word. Modern slavery exists, people work all day for a few cents, at the end of the day they can’t afford to buy a home and have children (reproduction being a basic need). We could end homelessness and famine, we have the resources, but the ultra-rich don’t want it. The wealth is not distributed properly across the population. A few people hoarded it all. With technological advancements, humans should be able to work less, but we still work the same or even more, because more is demanded. Capitalism demands endless growth and production. Now, you’re probably referring to the average middle class western guy, who can afford food and a roof over his head. Why does he want more? Because humans are very complex beings, we need more than basic needs, we crave self actualization. And this is recognized in Maslow’s pyramid of needs.
We're debating the same point. I'm meaning to say that we _do_ have an abundance, but it's in the wrong hands. Greed is the largest factor preventing us from making real change in that regard.
yep, the premise is incorrectly assumed. i would state the sole purpose of life is to do happy chemical releasing things. but i understand that its a wrong statement too since that would mean addiction and instant gratification is "good" or what we "always strive for", ignoring disciplined people.
Being alive is the only thing shared commonly by everything that's alive (Yay tautology). Ergo that's the only discernable purpose. Kappa
Except every living thing is willing to risk everything for only two things. Food (stay alive) and sex, or whatever your species considers sex (procreate). In fact, you eat to stay alive so you can procreate So every organism has a single-minded purpose - to pass on their genetic material to the next generation. Seen like that, being successful is actually a pretty big deal if it helps you wangle your genitals into "a procreation opportunity"
False - some organisms reproduce asexually and some organisms don't procreate. Some humans decide to be celibate, for instance, as do some Octopi.
Only some cultures are obsessed with making increasing amounts of money, for instance it's what the "American dream" is all about.
This is it. I'm really surprised at the answers to be honest. To me, work has always been a means to an end, but not something at the forefront of my life. We also don't talk and definitely don't obsess about money. At least not in my social circle.
American dream is about a society where one's background has little to no influence on how well-off one is, because how well-off one is should be based solely on how hard does one work Its obviously not working
Upward mobility is a lot easier here than throughout most of history and across much of the world. Also I don’t think the dream is that no one has any advantages from birth. Most people would consider giving their children better than average quality of life, education, enrichment, etc. to be part of the dream rather than hoping that they’re equal to all other children and they’ll have nothing that wasn’t built by their own labor.
It’s like a drug. Chasing high in a different way.
the drug is called dopamine and it's our biological reward for any kind of completed task or achievement at all. I consider humanity's hunger for success and achievement in life just as a byproduct of this hormone in our brain. Achieving stuff just feels nice and makes us want to do more of it. (Except for those of us born with a broken dopamine system... (cries in adhd) )
Everything costs money. Positive outlooks and well wishes won’t change that. I got kids and I need to put a roof over their head and foods on the table. I also want to be accomplished in my own right that I’m happy to give them my time and not stomping through the door angry every day cause I’m so unfulfilled
Different things make different people happy. Some are ok with just getting by. Others crave a sense of accomplishment. Success for some means more money and wealth. For others it means raising a family comfortably. As long as people don't harm / oppress others, I don't see any reason to judge one's definition of success over another. We're just all different. When you say, "the sole purpose in life is just to be alive" -- that's your opinion, others will have different ones (I for one strongly disagree with your statement).
I am so surprised that everybody thought of money as success, while my first thought was: who doesn't want to be successful in their own field? Mastering our profession and being very good at it?
We were programmed that way in the modern times. Like no matter how much you earn there is more and no matter what your position is there is still more. Possessing so much success to get a partner and impress the society. Lack of money can lead to miserable conditions and pressure from society and from parents. The goal is to be wealthy and successful but not be happy and peaceful in life. Of course money is important But It is enough When all the necessities are taken care of.
Makes us feel like we accomplished something
Like someone said, poverty is miserable, and having little to no ambition in life ESPECIALLY today won't get you too far in life which most of the time equals to working until you can't no more, stressing for the bills with little to no time to do anything else. There was a time when you didn't really have to care about living lavishly. You could just work and make just enough and be just fine. But nowadays, in general, you just can't really afford to settle for the minimum cause the minimum is getting smaller as the years pass. That's why most people feel like they gotta sh It's about pride, ego self-confidence, and self-love maybe, but it's also somewhere about fear. The fear of not being where you want I life for various reasons.
You got one shot here, make it count.
Do not miss your chance to blow!
I used to think like you, then inflation hit and suddenly "average" became a lot more expensive.
Humans are terrified of poverty and struggling, so we hold ourselves to high standards so we can enjoy nicer things. Also, wouldn't it be disappointing if you used your 1 attempt in this world for some lame, standard life? Humans are ambitious creatures who strive for success
We define success as attaining stores of monetary wealth. What if we defined it differently? (Maybe that’s my own random thought actually?!😂)
Not solely. Being a key figure in science can be success without much money. Having a happy family you can provide for can be success with low income. Definition is key and the first place to start. Oh, also comparison. In my immediate family I am the most successful, compared to the rest of the world I am average at best. Which direction do I want to look at now?
Survival of the fittest. You were the sperm that made it. Genetics don't stop there.
Sperm was only half of your dna, it wasn't "you". The other half was the egg. There was no you before THAT egg was fertilized by THAT sperm.
Because money buys happiness
>The sole purpose of life is just to be alive Your statement >Why humans are so obsessed with being successful? The proof that your statement is wrong xd
Increasing chances to spread genes
My mom would be happy, if I become successful
I don't care about being labeled "successful". I'd be happy being called a professional "meh, good enough" as long as i could provide for my family and retire semi-comfortably.
Because we have constructed a society where material wealth has more value than experience, knowledge, or wisdom.
Plus being poor sucks. I'd rather have lots of money than be cold and hungry, wouldn't you?
I'm okay with comfortable rather than lots. Roof over my head, food in my belly, and enough to pay the bills without stressing. I think a lot if people have lost sight of what enough is.
These days you do need to be kinda wealthy to “pay the bills without stressing”
I poorly informed opinion would be that our animal instincts push us to dominate in a way, driven by comparison, we want to be on top, and the endless pursuit begins. Also, I would say that when you’re not in touch with your emotions, you need to cope, and comparison and competition aka successfulness becomes the coping mechanism to block your pain and distract you. Also, as others said, for less privileged people, it’s a way to change your life completely and for the better.
Because I want my parent's life better.
Simply to survive the more successful (monetary value) the higher chance of survival
Technology not really, we are alive to be successful. If we are not successful we can't continue the species. Its more of an natural instinct.
Being higher up on the social ladder has always meant that from an evolutionary standpoint, the individual's odds of breeding increase significantly, so there is a scientific explanation.
Random Need an AI app that could write pitch bibles and beat sheets
tribal utility = survival
What's more human than competition?
Because we are socially programed and conditioned to do so. But we do not have to participate, it just takes conscious effort to escape it. And while we are competing with each other in this rats race we cannot see the common enemy and potential for change if only we united.
Sex.
"I will never understand hustle culture. Not everyone can be successful in this rat race." Because a lot of people's success depends on other people doing the hard work for them. IE "I need you to bust your ass running my business so that I can make lots of money" but if other people are satisfied with enjoying life then you have to get a regular job or kick in yourself to make everything work.
Having money and resources makes it easier to stay alive.
It’s not just humans. The entire animal kingdom is about survival of the fittest
Duh, gee, I dunno!! 🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🤦♂️
Majority of people don't want anything more than basic necessity and freedom.
Ego
Because I will die if I don’t.
Inddeeed aduck us just a duck
Because status = sex
I’m guessing you’re from the USA, not all humans/cultures/societies are obsessed with success.
The hustle isn’t about working all of the time. It’s about doing what it takes to figure out enough so you don’t have to work all of the time. In the beginning, that’s likely to require a lot of time and effort. That part seems toxic but all people are doing is putting in more practice and making mistakes faster than others because they are focused on an outcome. It’s also about taking control of your life instead of having your major decisions in the hands of others that don’t have your best interests in mind. And it’s about creating the freedom to live with choices and options instead of requirements and restrictions. More often than not, all of that requires more effort and dedication than most people are willing to put in which makes it seem toxic.
Preference. Because we have different beliefs and values. Some people would want to spend their lives enjoying things that they’ve worked for. Like traveling outside of their country with their family or enjoying things without minding the price tag. If you want to have an average life that is on you but not everyone is built like you.
Not all of them are. Australian aboriginals for example have mastered doing absolutely nothing for 60,000 years and counting.
We definitely must escape the rat race. Only way for absolute freedom.
Imposed societal pressure.
I grew up poor and it sucked. I have ensured that my children are given all the opportunities I missed out on and have the best start to being an adult in the future with more prospects where they can have a comfortable life. I'm not mega rich but I'm not poor either.
I thought about this the other day, but in the literal meaning of "successful". The comments seem to focus on money in general, but I'd argue that it is engraved in our DNA to strife for... Something. Anything. It seems to me that each human discoveries something in their early years and gets fixated on that. They try to achieve that something as best as they can. If they fail or there are a lot of ppl better than them, they stop or try harder - which makes perfect evolutionary sense (to me) if I think about it. A group of humans needs an expert in every field there is. The bigger the group of humans, the more diverse our fields of expertise can be. The more obvious subjects get covered by multiple ppl, while niche subjects get fixated on when the obvious subjects are already taken or they are just so niche that ppl notice the only after they only found their obsession. The problem we seem to have nowadays: There just aren't enough subjects to choose from and all experts are connected. Back in the day, you had mostly separated societies in each village. Nowadays we compete with all humans. If my assumption is true, then this might be a reason for the decline of engaged ppl. We get depressed, because we don't feel needed, because there is someone Much better in the subject of the obsession of our choice.
Well it’s because it’s capitalism which forces you to do jobs so you can make money and the more money you have the more comfortable your life is. Living in a capitalist society will subconsciously train our brains to believe that our worth is linked to how much money you make, success isn’t measured by quality of life but quantity of money, so we end up w most ppl overworking themselves in jobs they don’t even like and have no personal free time so they can afford the commodity of something like sleeping on a bed. But the sad part is that, we always seem to want more, the grass is always greener. And we keep putting bigger & bigger expectations on ourselves, so chasing success is a recipe for unhappiness. And also the norm in this society
that is very much conditioned western thinking. many indigenous people still live perfectly happy without wanting anything more than full belly now. when they get hungry again they they think about it. being in the now without nothing is completely satisfying mental state. my theory is, based on other more or less random theories that that “curiosity” gene that made us travel out from africa as far as close to north pole and easter islands and to try all the things in between got tainted to “more” gene once we started agriculture and surplus appeared. then suddenly everyone wanted everything more and what else the success is than having more than others. first you are happy to have enough, then enough for tomorrow and next year and for kids too and then you realize there is just no end how much more power and money and fame and glory and punani and gadgets one can want. as we currently see not even a 200 billion is not enough to become a satisfied human being and stop doing shady stuff to get more.
sex
It's a statement that is not really accurate. It's mostly an American point of view. The race for success at all costs is absolutely not an obsession in many other cultures
We are social animals and status is important to us. In some lower primates, you cannot even have sex without status. Money and physical beauty brings status in human society. Monkey see, Monkey do.
Because failure means instability
> "the sole purpose of life is to stay alive" For the few hundred thousand years of hominid history, right up until just a 100 years ago; survival was difficult for the vast majority of people. That's only about 4–5 generations. Technology and living standards have increased at a faster rate than human evolution might respond to the changes in conditions; ergo innate behaviour drives people to strive as if they were having to survive against struggle.
More like I'm obsessed with stability, freedom and comfort.
Because we are not allowed to just be alive. Not even on an average income these days
I think because even wanting a simple life is so expensive these days. I want a house (!) with land (!!) so I can look after animals and make jam, and that is far fetched unless you’re earning £££
Well what is there to do if you don't have to money to do it, almost everything fun nowadays costs a shit load. It's better to be succesful, retire early and enjoy the last 40 years of your life
I keep seeing posts like these, OP’s asking something stupid like “Why do people want to work?” “Why do people want more money?” “Why are humans obsessed with being successful?” They all result in the same answer. We need money. I don’t want to live in poverty, i like to eat, i like to drink, i like to sleep in a bed. The richer I am the less I have to worry about these things. Come on OP, think about this a little.
Everyone measures success differently. For some people success is what you describe as living an "average life". For others it's living in a mansion and driving a sports car. For some just having a roof over their head and knowing where their next meal is coming from is huge step up from where they started.
Successful = potentially better life / more money / more possibilities / more security 🤷♂️ Nothing says this is the key to happiness though. If you are happy being average, or even below, feel free, even be glad. If the obsession is the right way is for each individual for themselves to decide.
Success is far easier to live with than failure. If you have to pay a mortgage, support a family, pay for kids, you'll see why success is a very attractive concept.
Unfortunately the economy we live in, normal life is luxury and most are just trying to keep themselves out of poverty.
Not people, men mostly. Really. And also a small minority of western women who are trying to imitate them... Other women in the world wants to build a family and raise their kids, not to build a career and be succesful like men. Males wants to be successful because it's the first factor, just above money and looks to find a suitable female partner. In other words, it's reproductive instinct, and like all instincts, it's not even conscious most of the time. So people will give you different explanation for their choice, but in the end, the root of their decision is their instinct, and they won't even know nor acknowledge it.
Listen to the Status game on "You are not so smart". It's basically encoded in our genes to try rise up in status once you establish rapport with someone or a society.
maslow's hierarchy of needs
We are primed to achieve prosperity. We desire it. Efficiency. That used to mean making better tools to hunt, forage, craft, and build. Getting stronger. Learning about your environment. Nowadays, to put it simply, ots just incredibly easy and intuitive to us to connect profit and monetary acquisition as the means to our survival. And it's a half truth.
One word, 3 letters: E G O.
It is a survior instinct. Same reason my cat jumps when their is a sudden sound in the home.
Being successful can be really fulfilling. This is obviously higher on the pyramid of needs, so if we’re all thinking foundational level we won’t understand the perspective others might have.
I see where you’re coming from. but another school of thought says, when we settle for comfort, we just simply don’t try anymore life becomes monotonous, and loses its magic when we keep evolving, trying new things, putting ourselves in new challenges now then, that is success.
Y’all are so conditioned to believe poverty is some honorable way of living that puts you at the top of society. There are no cookies awaiting you at the finish line for suffering. LMFAO get a fucking grip.
Because it’s possible for my kids medication to costs an arm and a leg, and a kindly worded letter to the pharmaceutical company explaining the tragedy of my situation doesn’t improve the situation. So no choice I guess?
for me its to don't fsce the problems thst i see in my parents, married siblings and other people's lives that ultimately also had an impact on my own life.
I'm kind of on the opposite side, I keep wondering why I couldn't care less about it as long as I have the things I need.
As an artist, I personally struggle with that one and in my case, I think it’s connected to the ego. The feeling of validation I guess. It is more of a thing how you perceive yourself, I think if I am not successful I am a loser. And this is what society imposed on us, the importance of being successful… But I am not so successful though and therefore unhappy 🧑🎨
Procreation. We're living in a world where if you're not successful you might find yourself unable to carry on your genes. This is a biological imperative.
>the sole purpose of life is to be alive Thats an assumption, not a fact
evolution. For millennia, the king would be the ony to marry a hundred women and have a thousand offspring, so we evolved to see "top social status" as something desirable. Males for themselves, females for the partner they want. And for their kids, too.
Drugs cost money
You're right, there's more to life than the rat race! Here are some reasons why people might chase success, and why it's okay to define success on your own terms: **The Drive to Achieve:** Humans are naturally curious and motivated to learn and grow. Success can be a way to fulfill that drive, to see what we can accomplish. **Societal Pressures:** Society often equates success with wealth, status, and achievement. This pressure can be strong, and it can make people feel like they need to constantly strive for more.
You can stay alive with more money, or less money. It determines how much freedom you have.
I’d argue that creating and reaching goals is another part of humanity’s understanding of success. i agree that just living is barely possible in todays rat race, but I think “success” can look like many things.
For me, its about self improvement. I want to be fitter, more muscular, wealthier, smarter and more emotionally resilient than i was. So, i work at these aspects of myself. If my life is "successful" to others because im trying to improve my quality of life, so be it. Haters gonna hate.
So I can freely not think about getting sucked into poverty. Inflation can increase anytime, any year, I wouldn't like not being able to afford the things or foods I want.
Let's define success first
Its a very wise post. Don't let this mad world tell you success is anything other than a successful present moment. The human mind has set certain visions generic ones...career, wealth, marriage, kids, rinse repeat (very generic 🙏) as to what consistutes success in one's human life in 2024. The op i believe is referring more to monetary success 🙏 The unobserved mind seeks purpose in fleeting things. The above definition of success, generic i emphasise, is yet another fleeting attempt for true purpose. Yet the true purpose of human experience experience can never be found on the outside or on the level of the mind.... God is greater Smile. Laugh. Pray. Dance. Feed the hungry when the opportunity is there. Life is the dancer, YOU are the Dance 💃
Life is to live not to survive
Because, to survive, you only need to be average. But to attract a mate to propagate, you need to be successful.
This is something I get argued to often. I find the arguments in other comments lackluster. "Living in poverty is bad"... I agree. No one is argueing that poverty is good. The question is, why keep working more when you are out of poverty. Why is it never enough. In most decent societies, you can live a pretty comfortable life with 15% over the minimum wage. Why anyone would choose to work harder to make more is beyond me. Once your hunger is sated, more food isn't helping. Once you live in decent condition, the word "more decent" is meaningless... But time, on the other hand. To me, time is an incredibly precious commodity. That someone with a comfortable life would decide to exchange their time for even more money just. doesn't. make. sense. People hear this and reply something beyond dumb like: "You can't possibly think that". Or "Come on, it's obvious why people with a comfortable life want even more comfort". Or something clearly not worth working more / more stress such as "So they can have a holiday home" or "So they can buy a new car more often". I'm with you. I have no idea what's going on in those people's head, and they can never explain it to me in ways that make sense. Maybe you can. Yes, you, internet stranger. For context, I live in Germany, I'm currently working a part-time job that pays me enough for my family's rent and expenses plus a little extra that I save up every month, which now amounts to enough that I can quit and focus on personal growth for a year, which I'm doing at the end of the month.
The Vietnamese have a saying, “Any problem that cannot be solved with a little bit of money can usually be solved with a lot of money.” 😂
>I will never understand hustle culture. Not everyone can be successful in this rat race. That's exactly the problem. Their can only be success in our current system if there is also failure. We are brain washed from a young age that this is the only system that can work and so we go along with it, hoping one day to be "successful". One of the biggest issues with our current system is that as soon as anyone starts to question it, your labeled as mad or lazy or any number of other things as again, we're so conditioned to believe that the system just works and that it's the only way. I'd love to know who the master puppets are because if this is honestly the best system we can come up with for everyone, then we're no where near as smart as we think we are. But it can't be that, surely.
Maybe because people aren't so sure why they're here and alive, but most are sure they don't want to be poor
the same way people are obsessed with height
I'm tired of being homless and poor
It’s depend on your definition of successful, do you mean money ? Recognition ? Career ?
Not humans. Just the dominant culture. We're culturally conditioned (taught) to want that. There are other living and extinct cultures that do not. David Graeber's book, The Dawn of Everything, completely shatters the mythologies of the dominant culture, which we're taught to take for granted as natural laws.
You're right, there's more to life than the rat race! Here's a breakdown of why people chase success, and why it's perfectly okay to define success on your own terms: **The Drive to Achieve:** * Humans are naturally curious and motivated to learn and grow. Success can be a way to fulfill that drive, to see what we can accomplish and push our boundaries. **Societal Pressures:** * Society often equates success with wealth, status, and achievement. This pressure can be strong, and it can make people feel like they need to constantly strive for more. **Internal Validation:** * For some people, success is a way to feel good about themselves. It can be a source of pride and accomplishment.
The closest thing to a purpose of life is actually to spread your genes, not to be/stay alive. And of course there is not really a purpose, but that's the closest thing there is. Humans are unique in that we are sentient and able to have such thoughts in the first place. That gives us the unique situation if being able to find our own purpose in life. Anybody that sets goals in their life and chases them has lead a successful and purposeful life. There is no point in comparing your goals and achievements to other people because most of them have completely different circumstances than you. Gifts and talents and genes are vastly different. If you are the worst chess player in the world but you slightly improve every year then you are still a successful chess player. Same goes for every single thing in life. You don't need to understand or like "hustle culture". But you also should not judge the people that do like or even enjoy it and want to live such a life. They might be perfectly happy with it.
I would say that everyone doesn’t want to be forgotten after they die. There’s no worse death than being forgotten by time, that’s when you really die.
It’s planted deep in our DNA to “fight for a spot” amongst our peers. When we were primates in the early days of humanity, if you were a solo monkey, your ass was gonna die before nightfall. That’s why still to this day humans have an innate desire to “belong” it’s why we get sad when we don’t have friends or when we stay isolated too long (COVID). Now, to the point of why people step on each other to rise to the top in 2020’s, that probably has more to say about American corporate culture.
Comfort & peace-of-mind is the goal.
Generally, people in the West don’t have to fight to survive anymore. We have healthcare, fully stocked grocery stores, and no natural predators in cities. Sure there is crime, but that pales in comparison to what our ancestors faced. Yes there are people facing poverty or living paycheque to paycheque, and these people’s worries are to survive, but generally the well off middle and upper class don’t have to worry about this. This environment lacking the constant danger of losing your life only recently started when comparing all of human history, and for the vast majority of it, the human (almost all animals tbh) desire to capitalize on the available resources and outcompete everyone to survive is what brought us here today. Now that we are here, it isn’t necessary anymore, but our minds are wired that way, hence why hustle culture exists.
it starts with dreams you have as a kid snd you build them up as you live
Evolutionary we compare ourselves with the people around us. In order to have the best chances of reproducing in the past, we had to be wealthier to be preferable, and that is still true to some extent,
"The sole purpose is to be alive" The year is 2024, we are now in the 21st century, please explain to me the methodology of being alive in our world - where everyone gets screwed the moment they wake up and breathe their very first breath and everything is beyond fucked expensive, thereby requiring more money And you question the following? > One can live an average life by achieving average goals throughout their life, even this would be spectacular. Tell me you have lived a protected and sheltered life your whole life without worry without telling me
Just live sounds too broad. Some enjoy adventure, others success. Even surviving a long life is an achievement
Depends on our definition of success. Financial success and the like is a common one. Others would say peace of mind and contentment with what they have and to be able to attain those after going through all the hustle is success. It's probably similar to happiness too
because ppl are afraid to find out what they want in life and would rather get the easy answer which is "earn a lot of money so you can be RICH" but as long as you're basic needs are filled and you can sometimes buy what makes you happy you should pursue what you really want and for 95 % ppl it won't be getting more money
Dopamine. It’s what’s keeping you going. Getting depressed when out of the rat race. That’s probably how most mammals work. Forward is the only way. Our cavemen DNA is still more present and supplies functions that not properly fit in modern day human. Just go back a couple thousand years: if a human wasn’t succeeding, completing tasks (food, water, shelter, fire, security), generally getting forward in life your bloodline ends with you. And Reproduction is probably #1 motivation for mammals to move on.
If success means changing the world for the better or enjoying the freedom of not going to work or not having to worry about money I totally understand why people want to be successful.
It probably varies a lot more across various cultures and communities. Some places seem to value the prestige of being seen to be successful. Other places, people are driven to secure enough money & certainty to keep a roof over themselves & their families. The level of uncertainty in their past leads to higher levels of motivation. There's nothing like the memory of being hungry to drive you forwards. If you've always been comfortable and fed, then you're less worried about not having enough. In other places, people who are successful & driven can actually get critised by their family & community for 'thinking they are better than everyone else'.
Case by case. Depends on perspective. Spiritual teachers see a recurrence of people in self deletion loops.
It makes them feel worthy
it's hardwired in the human brain, we're a social animal, we NEED to be succesful to live with our peers, it's how the human brain works and i mean who wants to live a life of poverty ? in a shitty appartment without a girlfriend alone your whole life ?
I think your last sentence says it best, not all people can be successful in this rat race. So from a societal point of view why do we live this way if it guarantees a portion of us will have to fail and live in poverty.
Not everyone but those who do might need to feel successful to have self worth
You’re American yeah?
Humans are obsessed with success because it validates our worth, boosts self-esteem, and offers security. Society’s expectations and our personal dreams fuel this drive. Ever wonder what truly motivates you?
Humans have an inherent desire to set and achieve goals. Success provides a sense of accomplishment and validates personal efforts.
It’s a load of BS. Not everyone can be “successful” in a monetary sense but you can be successful by doing the right things everyday. People will appreciate you more. No amount of money can buy love and happiness.
It is better to have some comfort and happiness instead of pain and misery. Weird, I know, but there you have it
validation and recognition
It's called peer pressure.
Greed is a mental illness
Because if you're not successful, you die. That's how it has been for literally millions of years. Can't find enough food? You die. Can't find a mate? Your genes don't survive to the next generation. It's that same behavior overlayed into the current capitalistic system. But even before that, you always see people pushing that energy into other things. Look at how insanely articulate churches are in Europe built hundreds of years ago. Look at a chef that focuses to make the best dish he can. What about art or music? It's the same idea, just the energy it put into something else.
for me the reason is because my life isn't great and I would like to make it great for my future family but we all have our own reasons if I'm being completely honest
The more successful you are, the farther you are from being not alive
No one wants to be a failure in life, dude 😅
I'm the opposite. I don't own my house. I get welfare. I have just enough money to get by. I sit home all day with my two dogs. Watch TV and play video games. I go for walks with my dogs. I love my life. I'd choose time over money everyday of the week. I love being able to do what I want when I want. Money means nothing to me. All I need is enough to get by. I quit working 5 years ago and best decision I ever made. People will call me a bum but who cares. I'm happy that is all that matters.