Why don't you move abroad?

it’s amazing how much of the story mirrors my own.

Autodidacticism and tech were also my combination of escaping generational poverty, and I had to be the first person in 2 generations to leave the country at all in order to do it. It hopefully strikes at a hint of irony that I am british.

However, unlike the author, I did not have a strong familial connection.

I miss my homeland but I have no wish to return, the living conditions for the lower classes or even the middle classes is so low that I see no way of living a comfortable life. I do still get bouts of homesickness- even after 10 years of living abroad.

It takes a lot of strength to really identify what is important to you, I’m quite sure that the author is content to understand that he is a success to all those around him and in the wider world- and that confidence will be something that he carries for the rest of his life. Fair play to him.

I also have a lot of things in common with the person in the article, as a Brazilian living and working in Sweden I can relate a lot to the things he is saying.

However I feel the main thing that made me move away from Brazil was not status, income or "success". It was the realization that no matter how "successful" I was my life was still going to suck.

Working in IT in Brazil means living in São Paulo and that is like living in SF, except all the bad parts are 10 times worse and a bunch of extra bad things on top (mainly crazy high air pollution levels and traffic). On top of that work culture in Brazil is terrible.

Even if I am "well off" (but not well off enough to stop working) I would still need to live in a cage in a São Paulo high rise enduring 2 hours of traffic every day and going every where by car. No amount of maid service, take-home delivery or stay-at-home wife (things you can get if you have a good job in Brazil) is going to make up for that.

I moved to Sweden in 2016, so things have changed a lot (remote work now being more common, work culture in the new wave of Brazilian startups is a lot better from what I hear). But now I have grown roots in Sweden and have no plans to leave. I don't have a car, 80% of my trips are done by bicycle.

I recently got an offer to work in Sao Paulo, 3 days from home, 2 in office. FAANG-like company. Can't seem to make myself accept, the city is almost Gotham nowadays.

I live in the UK now. Incredibly safe city in the countryside. Just can't imagine myself looking over my shoulder all the time, or wanting that. Even though I'd be "well off", by our standards, which frankly are not that high.

Brazil, without being actually rich, is a major decrease in quality of life.