Boom!
Sauna and life are good! Anyway, I was today days old when I found out I’m grossly underpaid.
Or, I mean, in comparison to other countries. I think my pay is just about right! But compared to elsewhere… it’s "meh" at best.
Academic faculty salaries in Finland are not that good. You’ll have a good life and a ton of fun (hey, most of this is up to you, not your salary) but it’s just a statistical fact.
It is what it is.
And now I find myself thinking how earlier this week I accidentally found out that someone big in the affiliate space, who I used to envy so much when I was building my first websites online, died earlier this year.
Yeah. Dead.
Insert skull emoji here.
And it hit me somehow surprisingly hard, given that I’d never even met the guy.
And then. To think that long ago I would have probably given everything to swap places with someone who "had it all," great life, making gigaton of money, everything the Young Simo could dream of.
Can’t believe how dumb I was.
Great life? Judging by what? Whatever thin sliver of "life" you can really capture by looking at someone’s "online presence" and pure guesswork.
We simply don’t see what we don’t see.
(See, the great philosopher Simo at it again…)
Anyway. I didn’t see what I didn’t see. You don’t see what you don’t see.
I’m sure the same holds true with the salary equation.
And do you ever find yourself jealous of that colleague’s grant wins? Or, yeah, THAT ONE’S h-index… the lab where they work and have everything better and easier than what you have?
I bet you do.
If not, well, you’re better than I am.
Because I do.
And it’s so silly.
Fun fact: footage from the 1992 Olympics showed bronze medallists looking happier than silver medallists. Silver compares itself with gold, and bronze is just glad to be on the podium.
That’s how rational we are. To what direction do you compare?
So. On those moments, when you find yourself being jealous…. it’s worth it to remind that it’s absurd be jealous of a mere slice of someone’s life. You’re not a slice yourself! You can’t get one slice. Would you be willing to take the risk of getting ALL of the dear target of your jealousy?
That’s a gamble if anything. You don’t know the problems they have. You don’t know how soon they might even be gone. Sick. Or even dead.
Health, enjoying the time we’re given (in life and academia), and most of all measuring backward to yourself only. Do better than you a month or year ago.
That’s really where it’s at.
Simo