Do you ever get this soul-crushing feeling inside you that says you haven't achieved enough or you don't make enough money?

For context, I've been a dev for 6 years now and make a lot more money than when I started, which was $1000 USD annually. (Third world country).

I used to think that making more money as I grew with experience would drive this feeling away but it hasn't.

I used to. I was aiming for the ultimate dev role - architect. Then I realized € is not worth my time on this planet. If I keep working just to get more €s, then I live and work for €s, and not the other way around. As long as I have enough income to satisfy my fam's needs and some to save, I can afford enjoying other things in life. Tinkering, building, traveling, moto-touring, redoing my aptmt, etc.

In other words, as long as my salary keeps me warm and my belly full, I can go on and have fun.

So I no longer see the point in chasing after bigger numbers just to have them.

Money is but a tool. To pay for stuff. I wouldn't worry about having too few screwdrivers, hammers or wrenches, so why should I worry about having more of other tools if I already have enough...?

$1k annually? What's a normal monthly salary there? Curious

@netikras Normal salary here is about INR 600,000 annually which is about $8000 USD a year.

I was making $1K annually when I was in Bangalore sharing a 1 bedroom apartment with 2 roommates. I didn't really understand the job market then and was made to believe that I should accept whatever job is offered to me, regardless of salary.

I also thought I'd be a dev forever. I ended up quitting being a dev after 2 years because the stress wasn't worth it for me. I switched careers and learned Linux. Had I remained a dev, I probably wouldn't be earning as much as I'm earning now. My knowledge of programming did help me with my new career. It helped me understand how things work. YMMV.

same as netikras, stopped years ago pursuing the dinero, as long as it brings food and pays the bills any salary is good. And if I can put a few bucks aside for travel and some extra fun is perfect. I value my free time more now and my stress level to be lower than more 0s @ some bank db

@Nanos well, I met my current wife when I was homeless. Crashing on friends' floors. When we first moved in, we slept on a floor - there was nowhere else. There were times when we had <20€ left in our bank accounts.

None of that ever was a problem to either of us...

yep, there are many girls and every one is different, if you want to attract the ones that care more about $ you should spare more, but that's not a rule of thumb or anything like it. it all depends on what girls you wanna attract, what you need from them etc. My GF had a better salary than me as a teacher at one time, but that wasn't a problem. When there is love and attraction having no money is not a problem ( usually, little fights about them are normal in rich families too after all )

I'm from the king of 3rd world countries, Mexico city.

My 1st salary was $3,300usd a year.

I started getting more and more, honestly it was never enough and was only doing it for money, I completely forgot about motivation, trying to have sex with my female coworkers.

One day I met a super highly motivated guy, that reminded me my passion for programming, I started taking bootcamps, diplomas, certifications and other stuff just for the pleasure of being better at what I do.

Eventually(I was not expecting that) more and more job offers started showing up, I started switching and getting involved in the business of every client I had, like, really involved, just because I wanted to know more and more, other case indifference starts showing its head.

Long story short, now I work in USA and getting a 6 figure salary, I even bought an apartment in Mexico.

Moral of the story, dude, find passion on what you do first, money will be a consequence.

feels the same and I wonder usually devs of 6-7 years of experiences have all these feelings. Idk to fade this feeling away I try to build something for myself atleast I can get little peace.

@Nanos maan, reading your thoughts makes me think that you got even less luck than me. I can definitely agree on some points, but for others, since I've seen better I just can't ( all based on my experience so far... having a little problem trusting everything I hear from others, knowing how many times I've been fooled by others intentional or not lies ). In hard times I always chant to myself : "That will pass too", simply b/c it's true, nothing lasts forever, the entropy and the master chaos won't allow it to. Have this song from me and may the source be with you! https://m.youtube.com/watch/...

@Nanos that last few comments sound a bit more optimistic =]. all we can do is share our exp. and thoughts about the topic. One might say that the truth will always be somewhere in the middle. The thing is that there is no universal truth and recipe for living an epic life, nor finding a girl that suits your needs / desires. One has to try not only X & Y, but the whole alphabet, not just that but a few other alphabets + special chars and few doodles in order to find his place sometimes, and others are born at the right place and time...we call it luck... but who knows really ;)

@Nanos that might be true as well

@Nanos that's an interesting story and I'm sure you have more of that or similar, but in the end they are just isolated cases. even if some of them have a lot of common between them, that does not mean every woman / man is like that. the world is too big and there are so many people in it, that you or anyone can conclude that easy how the things are or should be...

@Nanos I completely agree that there r so many params to any given problem, and if not a pretty simple one ( the problem ), you might miss one or many vars ( including a very needed for the right solution ones )

@Nanos the so-called "free will" is a vast and complicated topic... but let say we can kind of simplify it by saying it is dependent on your current capabilities in the way u have trained and your view of the world ( that's important ) + all internal and external forces which may or may not align with your current status. looking from that POV we can say one can barely have something that we can call free will in the purest meaning. you have to be if not immortal at least invincible for any damage and free of any fear + be at your max level so I can say that you do really have a free will...and even then is not 100%

@Nanos yeah, you can say to yourself "I won't eat another cookie" and you can "execute" that will by not eating it, but you don't have that power if you say got sick and your belly tells that you got to puke.

Another simple example may be : if you are say allergic to peanuts, you can't just say "from now on I wont get allergic reaction when I'm eating peanuts". although the example is not perfect, hope you get the idea

And about who you like is completely different story, didn't figure that for myself still. I mean if I don't know the girl ( say I'm seeing her for the 1st time ) I can still say if I like her or not pretty quickly...but not sure all the time why. And there are many more preprogrammed things in us that are so hard for reverse engineer by simply thinking about them...

also there are things you could figure out for yourself, but still can't do much about them, b/c they are in ROM ( DNA ) and some of them you just can't change no matter how strong your will is...

@Nanos I've heard in UK is sort of the same with seen a doc, but for diff reasons, they have months ahead with no free time for you

@Nanos also get better soon :)

@Nanos You can't even be sure you r speaking with a human this days or just chatGPT mediator ;). That said, people are all sort of strange creatures and I still struggle to say if I love them or wanna pretend I'm from diff galaxy. But it's good to be alive, so I'm trying to have some fun while still arround =]