Think it was this one"This really cleared the dark clouds hanging over this thread. I'm glad you thought to mention this."
his wife hasn't been in it yet.
Whenever I look for new jobs I'm overwhelmed by self-doubt and a kind of paralysing dread, and I end up never applying for anything.
the lottery
Less exciting I'm afraid - it means on the dole, ie getting a pittance called job seekers allowance while you haven't got a job."on the rock and roll" means playing in bands or something else more exciting?
It's a real shame. I can't even imagine how the journalists among us must feel.
I've been reading this book this week, which is excellent and I'd recommend it to anyone. It looks like a cheesy self-help book but it isn't.
http://www.happinesshypothesis.com/
The dude is a social psychologist who has studied what makes people happy. Surprisingly it isn't piles of dosh. He kind of says a lot of things that we all know or at least pay lip service to, but it's interesting to see them validated by research and experiments. He has lots of interesting things to say about jobs and career as well. Well worth reading, if this thread is making you miserable.
money of course does not make one happy.
It might not buy happiness but it certainly buys something. My father works for a financial group and the president of the company is well into his sixties and worth millions of dollars, has a wife who is a supreme court justice, and refuses to retire. My Dad has described going into his office and seeing an over-worked and choleric man who continues to bear the brunt of the company's foibles and day-in-day-out bullshit for seemingly no other reason other than to continue bearing it.
He suggested that many people who work these kinds of jobs have exerted themselves so hard for so many years to achieve their position that their definition of self becomes entangled within their job. Their kids have all grown up and moved out and so to return home would be to minimize their suzerainty to their front lawn. This brings on existential horrors many of them wish to avoid, preferring the horrors they are more accustomed to.
But it's weird how people equate spending money with fun, I know people who can think of nothing better than to spend money, whether it's on clothes they never wear or food they will throw away when it goes bad.
My (more simplistic) take on this is that the set of people (such as me) who are well equipped to enjoy the fruits of wealth is almost entirely disjoint from the set of people who are well equipped to make wealth. Thus you have all these guys who have made millions but who still drag themselves out of bed at seven every morning to be first in the office."He suggested that many people who work these kinds of jobs have exerted themselves so hard for so many years to achieve their position that their definition of self becomes entangled within their job. Their kids have all grown up and moved out and so to return home would be to minimize their suzerainty to their front lawn. This brings on existential horrors many of them wish to avoid, preferring the horrors they have become more accustomed to."