I would rather be:

- sitting outside watching birds, trees, clouds

- tending the garden

- reading

- going on hikes

- spending time with animals

- cooking

- meeting friends

- beautifing my house

- during bad weather, maybe doing some light mathematics or coding

Unfortunately, of all the stuff listed, only the last one pays :)

BTW there's a position that fits my preferences perfectly - it's called being a pensioner, but it unfortunately requires decades of past experience :)

Unless you enjoy what you're doing to earn said money.

Or rephrased: do what you love

I wrote what I considered a great paper (my professor thought it was average) a few years back modeling people's abilities for generating social, financial and familial utility. People who have a preference for something they don't have an equal ability for creating often are often unhappy and dissonant.

Eg a "wannabe celebrity". They crave social utility, but often aren't good at producing it, and so have to sacrifice social and financial gains for social ones. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

> I wrote what I considered a great paper (my professor thought it was average) a few years back modeling people's abilities for generating social, financial and familial utility. People who have a preference for something they don't have an equal ability for creating often are often unhappy and dissonant.

I thought about it as well - there are certainly people whose interest and temperament don't match their abilities and limitations - for example, someone who sees himself as an adventurer, but gets sick easily and thus is miserable through most of his "adventures". It seems like the wise thing to do is to just accept one's limitations, but the heart wants what the heart wants.