We still see this attitude in HN comments sometimes. People thinking their piddly $500K in RSUs that vests over the next decade somehow qualifies them entry into the Global Elite class. And then they’ll argue against unions and other things that help workers because they see themselves as rubbing elbows with Jeff Bezos. Yea, yea, your handful of stock options make you just like him…
The phrase temporarily embarrassed millionaires is even more true for tech workers than most Americans. Especially for any who have entrepreneurial dreams or who are at start-ups for the stock options. The carrot is right there...
The phrase originally means that the subject is not a millionaire and likely will never be one, whereas many of us in tech are already millionaires or very likely to become one if we work in industry for any amount of time.
It took me about seven years in industry, starting from my first internship, to hit my first million. Non-FAANG and nothing magical happening with appreciating options or stock, just ordinary W-2 work.
It's literally true, even without dreams or stock option bets, that many tech workers are temporarily embarrassed millionaires. The source tweets are by an Amazon VP; an Amazon SWE salary with even moderately responsible spending is enough to retire as a multimillionaire.
I mean, the steinbeck quote is from 1960.. You will need probably ~$30 million dollars at retirement if you are 30yo today to retire as a 1960s millionaire.
The Steinbeck quote from the 1960s said "temporarily embarassed capitalist". Someone who has "entrepreneurial dreams" or is "at start-ups for the stock options", hoping to get wealthy through appreciation of their equity ownership, is unambiguously a capitalist.
"Millionaire" was added in a 2004 misquote by Robert Wright, and $1 million in 2004 dollars is about $1.7 million in 2025 dollars.
