I feel there's more to this. I've suffered from chronic depression throughout my entire life. The last bout caused me to quit my job and move back to our family home.

Early in my life when I hadn't experienced failure, I used to aspire a lot and actually did achieve quite a bit despite my shortcomings. Programming whilst depressed isn't an easy task. I've been actively trying to get back into the rat race and trying to pursue something achievable yet worth doing.

So while we cut back, we define our limitations and make further goals achievable (rather than moonshots). I'm not going to be the president or a CEO of a $100BN company anytime soon, but it's not like I couldn't cut it as a dev at a decent company.

In failing we realise our limits and rediscover humility.