&gt; It&#x27;s just so hard to believe the abundance view! I wish I could. Our economy simply does not reward people for being good or ok at things. You have to be amazing.<p>That&#x27;s the zero sum trap in itself!  What a painful place to be, I&#x27;m sorry.<p>It&#x27;s a big ocean and we can all swim in it without having to push someone else down to accomplish it.<p>Sadly There are certainly a huge of people trying to convince you otherwise; consider the words of that famous London School of Economics student who (along with Richards) wrote:<p><pre><code>  He&#x27;s tellin&#x27; me more and more
  About some useless information
  Supposed to drive my imagination
  [..]
  And a man comes on and tells me
  How white my shirts can be
  But he can&#x27;t be a man &#x27;cause he doesn&#x27;t smoke
  The same cigarrettes as me
</code></pre>
All about &quot;amazing&quot; status via a combination of attainable and aspirational goods.  I am sure most of those people are unhappy too.<p>But of all the dimensions of amazing (and there are gazillions, not just coding or money collecting but parenting, spousing, woodworking, piano playing) there are also gazillions of local &quot;amazing&quot; thresholds.  I&#x27;m not a great piano player but I really have a good time playing, and playing music with my friends.<p>Plus you may be a &quot;superstar&quot; without realizing it.  A couple of weeks ago I was at a party and someone I consider quite accomplished, more than me, said to my kid (presumably not realizing I could hear): &quot;now, we can&#x27;t all be superstars like your Dad, but at least I have managed....&quot;