*unless your parents are rich. People always seem to forget there are those with money to burn devoid of any material challenge. If you have practically infinite money, life is difficult. Art is something that transcends money and can help those more fortunate than all of us cope with not having any challenges in life.
> If you have practically infinite money, life is difficult.
Maybe you meant something other than difficult, maybe you meant "easy" instead.
Having enough money to survive on for the rest of your life doesn't mean a life devoid of challenges, but to claim that such a life is difficult is probably a misunderstanding of what difficulty actually is for the vast majority of humans living on the planet.
For a lazy analysis also see: Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
So, when you're deciding between food and rent, that is a different kind of difficulty than whether you have to decide between private and public school for your kids, and all together a different thing compared to whether you have to spend your time flying coach or business class.
As a sidebar, I think it's reprehensible that we (Americans) conflate having sufficient capital to guarantee one's basic needs with having sufficient access to capital to do interesting things (say create a startup) and also with having sufficient personal wealth to slake one's desires/whims.
Those "mere dollars" are the difference between a life of unfortunate circumstance and of fortunate privilege which should not be thrown aside. The theory of which you stated is a life of luxury to live in.
You're demonstrating my point. Wealth is measured by what isn't thought about. I don't think about the life-and-death decisions. I've reached that level of rich.
I guess I notice this because I can still remember planning how to make a $20 note last until payday while not being hungry at bedtime. It mostly involved thinly-spread peanut butter on slices of bread.
Yes, having everything you need may seem easy, but have you ever thought what life is like if you never needed anything? Would you go to college? What would be the point? What about the joy of bringing your family to their first home? That experience is utterly impossible. You don't hang out with cowokers because you never had and never will have coworkers. Almost anything considered a normal life is off limits to you.
I think the author was pretty clear that those lucky enough to have money are not the audience for the article. They're not the ones who will be stuck with a $250k debt.
If you don't have to worry about money then by all means go to art school, or do whatever you want to challenge yourself.
