Stop Chasing Happiness at Work. You’re Not a Child.

I keep seeing tech professionals online talking about optimizing for “happiness” at their jobs. One guy on Reddit proudly announced he quit using AI tools because it made him “happier” to solve problems with his brain. Another new grad at Microsoft is having weekly breakdowns because he “should be happy” but isn’t. Bro, you’re a grown adult with a six-figure salary. Why are you indexing on happiness AT ALL?

Happiness is for children. It’s a sugar rush. You eat the candy, you feel amazing for like fifteen minutes, then you crash and feel like garbage for the next two hours. Chasing that high at work is how you end up job-hopping every eight months looking for the next dopamine hit, blaming each company for failing to make you feel warm and fuzzy.

Contentment is protein. It doesn’t taste as good going down, but it builds something. Meaning, competition, legacy, the satisfaction of shipping something that matters. These things compound over time. Happiness evaporates the second your PR gets a nasty comment.

I’m not saying you should be miserable. Some days work feels great. Most days it should feel like something closer to quiet satisfaction, the sense that you’re moving toward something bigger than today’s standup or even your job progression at your current company. If you’re crying weekly because your Microsoft job is boring, the answer isn’t to find a “happier” job. It’s to stop expecting work to fulfill you emotionally and go find meaning somewhere else: a sport, a relationship, a church, literally anything with other humans in it. Your job is an economic exchange, not a therapist.

The engineers who actually make it long-term figured this out early. They’re not optimizing for happiness. They’re optimizing for leverage, for learning, for building something they can point to and say “I did that. We changed how things were.” The happiness-chasing Neverland residents are still on Reddit five years later, wondering why every job eventually feels the same. Because you are the same man. You’re the common denominator. Stop chasing sugar rushes and go build some muscle.