She loves her job, even though it doesn't pay well enough to cover all her basic needs and would rather stay at her present job than find a relatively better-paying one that solves for the necessity of financial stability.
I used to think that survival is purely instinctual, in that there's no room for rationality or optionality and when push comes to shove, we automatically choose what keeps us alive.
Diving a bit into the scientific realm, evolutionary psychology tells about our survival instincts are hardwired into the oldest parts of our brain, which drives toward immediate threats and basic needs like food, shelter, and safety.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs also suggests one can't truly pursue higher-order goals like self-actualization until their physiological and safety needs are met.
From these perspective, choosing passion over financial security seems almost biologically counterintuitive.
Now, after hearing of this person who wouldn't follow the economically rational path, I'm not so sure about the validity of these frameworks as absolute predictors of human behavior.
A bit curious here on what mechanism(s) are at play to bring about such a choice that seemingly defies our survival programming.
In my own view, I think 1) reality will eventually catch up with her to solve for this discrepancy via either forcing a career change or creating unsustainable stress, lest her life turns into a cycle of financial atrophy, or 2) she could get lucky and via loving what she does, manage to cruise through with unexpected opportunities, side income, support systems that make the passion sustainable despite the lower pay, etc.
You know this saying that "love doesn't pay the bills," which has become quite popular as has been generally observed and experienced more recently with rising costs of living, stagnant wages, and the growing gap between passion-driven careers and financially viable ones.
I think it applies here on a more personal and immediate level.
I also wonder what subset of the general population find themselves in such a position between finding what you love doing for work and not having this work be able to sustain a basic standard of living.
Teachers, social workers, artists, nonprofit workers, early childhood educators, etc. Entire sectors are arguably built on this contradiction and mostly rely on people's sense of purpose to subsidize society's unwillingness to properly compensate essential but undervalued work.
Work itself has been through a transformation before our modern eyes. For one, for a relatively long period of time, work was considered as something one has to do, like a duty of sorts to serve people or, by extension, contribute to society.
With this framework, there's at least something a bit deeper at play that keeps one going such as a sense of meaning coming from communal obligation that transcended individual satisfaction or financial reward.
But nowadays, we're leaning more towards viewing work as transactional, individualized, and increasingly precarious.
Or rather we can stare at the horizon and see that work is being disintegrated and reintegrated partly into gig economies, passion projects, side hustles, and portfolio careers where meaning and income are increasingly decoupled.
The other part, well, is open for automation, obsolescence, or reimagination entirely as we grapple with what work even means in an age of AI and shifting values around productivity.
For me, the idea of meaningful work sits at the intersection of doing work that you love, that contributes to society, and that pays you at least enough to cover the cost of living without constant financial anxiety.
I know it's idealistic. The reality of this is quite messy, as the above-mentioned person's situation demonstrates, and all those having similar experiences can attest.
It could be, in the long arc of a life, the regret of a path not taken tends to be a greater threat to our survival than the struggle to pay the bills.
This seems like a plausible theory, but you'll never know until you live through a whole lifetime and then look back at your choices.
Thanks for reading!! Share your thoughts below on the comments.
