I read an analysis that this might be the reason Nordic countries top the happiness lists - the prevailing feeling is life should be good enough, it will not be extraordinarily amazing for the vast majority, so the focus is on good life now, not amazing in 20 years.

Seems like exactly the opposite to the American hustle culture, where focus seems to be on grind now, hope to reap later.

It would be interesting to see how a comparison between early career end goals look like between those countries look like, the % of people thinking about being at the top of their profession by the time they retire.