IQ is only a minor factor in success
I&#x27;m probably decently smart, but I&#x27;m not rich at all. In fact I&#x27;m quite poor by most people&#x27;s standards.<p>I&#x27;m also really happy and work fewer hours per week than anyone I know.<p>If there&#x27;s one thing I worry about it&#x27;s that I <i>should</i> be trying to be rich because I probably have the means to make that happen. I might be making 200k&#x2F;yr if I worked full time. I might be able to start a successful company if I put my mind to it. I&#x27;ve never been able to convince myself that it&#x27;s worth it.<p>Money just doesn&#x27;t seem that useful to me. I don&#x27;t need a car, I&#x27;d actually prefer a smaller studio for less money if I could find one. My bills add up to maybe $1400&#x2F;month. It&#x27;s trivial to make that much money. I have a fulfilling part time job which I could sleep through and still cover my expenses. Every dollar I earn writing software is a bonus. It constantly surprises me how much money my peers are capable of spending.<p>Fixing things is also really fun. I have $300 dollar headphones, they cost me $0 because I pulled them out of the trash and spent a couple hours overhauling them. The biggest material source of joy in my life is a $280 bicycle, my laptop cost the same, both off craigslist. Going out for a night on the town can cost hundreds of dollars, if I want to indulge in a vice I can buy enough weed to last me 3 months for the same amount of money. I&#x27;m always free to spend time with friends doing cool things.<p>The skills I have that I use to earn money are all learned from spending free time messing around doing small projects just for the hell of it. I wouldn&#x27;t have these skills if I didn&#x27;t have so much free time to explore whatever strikes my fancy.<p>It really seems like the point at which working harder to earn money hits diminishing returns comes much much earlier that most people think.