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> The reason for climbing corporate ladders is to enrich your own life and give you more wealth, which can make your life far more comfortable and gain you respect and recognition amongst peers...

But that's the thing- I don't actually need any of those things. My upper-middle class life is already comfortable. My peers already respect me. Sure, there could always be more money and respect, but that would always be the case, no matter how high I climb. There will always be someone with more money and respect than I have. There is no "Final Boss". Even Elon Musk (currently the world's richest person) probably compares himself with historical figures whose wealth would put his to shame (Alexander The Great, Mansa Musa, Marcus Licinius Crassus, etc.).

It's like the old (and probably apocryphal) story of the conversation between Joseph Heller and Kurt Vonnegut [1]. I have something the ladder climbers will never have- enough. I can either continue deferring happiness until I reach the next rung of the ladder (and there's always another rung), or I can decline to climb at all and choose happiness today, right now.

1. https://alearningaday.blog/2019/06/04/joseph-heller-and-enou...

> My upper-middle class life is already comfortable.

That’s pretty typical. One says that money or status doesn’t matter. Then you prod them and it specifically doesn’t matter to get more of it—to the person that already has more of it than most people.

Yesterday I drove out into the Arizona desert and gazed upon the stars. I didn’t think about my non-mortgage debt (because I have none); I didn’t worry about my interpersonal relationships at my job (because I have so much seniority now that I don’t have to worry about my boss being a complete asshole); I didn’t worry about what people might think of me (because I have a large social network and in fact I am meeting some friends for dinner right after this stargazing session); I didn’t worry about comparing myself to my peers (because they already respect me and my accomplishments/family/prestige). Then I stayed there for a good fifteen minutes, gazing at the stars, thinking about the vastness of the cosmos and conflated me having satisfied all my material needs, my close relationship needs, and my peer-respect needs with having gotten insight into the meaning of life.

In that moment I was enlightened.

This is great.

I'm struggling to decide whether or not this is sarcasm, because...

>Not so fast there buddy.

... I feel the urge to tell you the same.

>The reason for climbing corporate ladders is to enrich your own life and give you more wealth, which can make your life far more comfortable and gain you respect and recognition amongst peers when it is most valuable: while you are alive.

It sounds like "respect and recognition amongst peers" is more important to you (which is fine btw, no judgement) than it is to OP, but most of your post seems to suggest that that's where OP should be placing their importance. In point of fact, it sounds like they have already determined what is important to them, have worked to achieve it and are happy with where they're at.

>If you are not careful, you could just end up as a wage slave contributing to the rise of someone else’s awesome life.

... so? I don't mean to speak for OP with the comment I'm about to make, but for me, I don't care. As long as I can pay my bills, and then have enough money for my creative and extracurricular endeavors, then I'm perfectly happy. I don't care if that means that my position somewhere on the career ladder means that someone else is having a more "awesome" life than me somewhere else, because they're truly not. Their life is theirs, mine is mine, and I'm happy with mine. Hell, I'd even call mine "awesome".

>And then you can experience the pain of being forgotten when it hurts the most: while you are still alive. You won’t have to wait till the heat death of the universe to finally be forgotten, people can just stop giving a shit about you right now. Keep climbing.

But see for me (and maybe OP? who knows?), I don't care about being recognized by my professional peers. I care about my family, my friends, and the people involved in my creative (non-work) pursuits. And those are people who I know will never give a shit where I've climbed on a corporate ladder.

Speaking as the OP, I'd agree with what you've said.

I'd also argue that @xwdv's comment implies that I'm destined to be a wage slave whether I climb the ladder or not.

Whenever someone says money doesn't matter, ask them to take them up on their offer. They always refuse. These high minded principles sound great in theory, but don't work in practice or just words. Even if existence is small and fleeting, having stuff, status, and wealth still feels good.

> Whenever someone says money doesn't matter...

Are you claiming that's what I said? Because I'm searching my posts for the phrase "money doesn't matter" and am coming up empty.

I was replying to "xwdv" not you

It's strange and slightly ironic to see this topic be discussed between someone with "richies" and another with "pauper" in their name.

Thanks for the lol, have my upvote.

It did not seem like that was the message? More just identifying a point where needs are met?

The reason for climbing corporate ladders is to [... and] gain you respect and recognition amongst peers when it is most valuable: while you are alive.

"Peers", maybe but that just means "other people who value climbing corporate ladders" - who tend to be quite superficial people.

Hah. Some decades in now, the people I remember most have been anything but climbers. They were just here near me and the others they cared about. If being remembered is your motivation, you don't need to go anywhere.

In fact, you're probably climbing away from the people who already recognize and respect you best already.