I make good money because I lucked into some valuable talents and a lot of lucky decisions. I'm under no illusion that I'm responsible for being born smart and engineering-focused. I'm barely even responsible for getting a computer science degree. It was just the obvious thing for me to do. I lucked into a series of high paying jobs through connections from my university that eventually led me to SV. I'm in Seattle now which is also largely random chance because I moved for my wife's job.

If I'd been born less intelligent or if I didn't have an interest in computers or I'd decided to go teach or write or do a dozen other things I might be dependent on my parents. I don't think there's anything shameful about that. Unfortunate perhaps but not shameful.