Self-actualizing work pays well
Documentary filmmaker and writer David Schisgall, and his wife, Vanity Fair writer Evgenia Peretz, purchased a single-family brownstone at 16 Garden Place, at Joralemon Street, for $5.7 million, according to records filed with the city.
Writing stuff sure pays better than computer programming. Obviously Schisgall’s Harvard degree in Philsophy paid off very well.
* * *
And in case you don’t know, Evgenia’s father is Marty Peretz who used to own the The New Republic, and her mother’s stepmother’s mother was the very famous physicist Madame Marie Curie, and her great grandfather was Stephen Carlton Clark who founded the Baseball Hall of Fame, and her great-great-great grandfather was Edward Clark who was a big business tycoon in the 1800s.
Lion of the Blogosphere 
With a combination of luck and skill at least. Though I don’t have statistics, I suspect that for every one person who goes into the film industry and comes out like this fellow, there are many more who aren’t doing so well.
The Reluctant Apostate
January 7, 2013 at 6:59 PM
Self actualizing work is the only work people are passionate enough to really create serious value for. If you hate your job you’ll only do a good enough job, which is what most people put in at corporate jobs. If your really high math ability maybe that is worth low six figures but probably not much more.
Think about it. If you do a job you hate you will only do it enough to get what you want and no more.
Of course it also makes it easier to sell out because there is less competition for being a sell out.
mediocore
January 7, 2013 at 7:44 PM
According to what I understand, the majority of films made are industrial videos, and this is presumably the fated task of the majority of film students.
JayMan
January 7, 2013 at 7:59 PM
You’ve stated yourself just below it these guys were connected to the gills. Self-actualizing work pays if you have the connections to get your stuff out there. Otherwise…
Lion of the SFG
January 7, 2013 at 8:51 PM
Not to mention, there is probably, based on raw numbers, an order of magnitude better chance of making it into professional sports than becoming an ‘elite’ writer/journalist.
anon
January 7, 2013 at 10:18 PM
And in professional sports there are more objective, unbiased measures. In sports, you can get a job if the right person’s your uncle, but you’ll be working in the front office.
Vince, the Lionhearted
January 8, 2013 at 12:00 AM
There are “elite” journalists? That made me laugh.
bjk
January 8, 2013 at 1:50 AM
It is one of the great inefficiencies of the free market today that the most promoted careers are the hardest to get into and often useless. For every 1 who makes it there are 1000 losers.
Nicolai Yezhov
January 8, 2013 at 5:26 AM
Wow, how did no one get the Lion’s sarcasm in this?
He has done this type of story a dozen times in the past.
Lets pick up the pace, people!
Lion of the Turambar
January 8, 2013 at 8:46 AM
I’m almost as disappointed with this post’s comments than I am with those found over at Slate or HuffPo. And there are names I recognize who don’t get it!
What the hell is going on?
Ian
January 8, 2013 at 10:30 AM
I somehow missed the paragraph below the “* * *”, about the couple’s wealthy family.
John
January 8, 2013 at 3:19 PM
Maybe they inherited a lot of money.
melykin
January 8, 2013 at 12:27 AM
It’s the Law of Circulating Elites.
A Harvard Legacy with a degree in Greek History can get a Mega-Job anywhere, provided his family has the connections.
Look at Bush. Look at his degrees.
Firepower
January 8, 2013 at 12:31 AM
“Writing stuff sure pays better than computer programming. Obviously Schisgall’s Harvard degree in Philsophy paid off very well.”
Really, the only ways to become wealthy are:
1. Own equity
2. Work in finance
3. Have a very rare skill
Working at a software startup is the most realistic path to acquiring equity.
Alex
January 8, 2013 at 2:35 AM
You forgot another way to becoming wealthy. #4 – Play the lotto and win millions.
Your no.1 is the most likely, #2 likely, and #3 is the least likely. # 4 is unlikely.
Just Speculating
January 9, 2013 at 12:36 AM
The plural of anecdote is not data.
You’re overgeneralizing again. Come on, you need to work on this!
John
January 8, 2013 at 3:58 AM
David Schisgall makes documentaries. I doubt he made enough making documentaries that no one watches to afford a $6 million dollar mortgage. I suspect that being married to someone who mother is an heiress helps a lot more.
Mr. Schisgall’s wealth through his wife is despite his philosophy degree and not due to it.
superdestroyer
January 8, 2013 at 5:16 AM
Maybe if programming were self-actualizing work for LOB, he’d have made millions with his own co.? How did he ever get into programming in the first place? Wasn’t it a post-30 career change?
Nicolai Yezhov
January 8, 2013 at 5:22 AM
I think law was his post 30 career change but it didn’t work so he went back to programming.
mediocore
January 8, 2013 at 9:27 AM
LotB point is that, once you get to a certain socioeconomic level, the most important thing is to follow the elaborate social norms of upper class people. This will allow you to build connections that you need. Being a productive, useful human being won’t save you if you are a dork. But if you are a sexy, documentary film maker who knows the right things to say then possibilities, like marrying an heiress, open up.
albert magnus
January 8, 2013 at 9:23 AM
Are you presuming
A Schlitz-drinking MBA Grad~Genius
Will be welcomed into the
Harvard Polo Club?
I do admit – I have seen this done
In 80’s John Cusack Movies…
Firepower
January 8, 2013 at 2:03 PM
Luck+Talent
IC
January 8, 2013 at 9:39 AM
Obviously this is her money not his-he doesn’t even have a wikipedia page. I suspect she finances his documentaries, too.
Same thing with Michael Mailer (Norman’s son): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Mailer
He also produces unseen forgettable movies.
Boxthorn
January 8, 2013 at 9:46 AM
I mean, their parents obviously bought it for them, right?
MC
January 8, 2013 at 12:55 PM
It’s not clear to me how much of her great-great-great grandfather’s fortune is left.
Lion of the Blogosphere
January 8, 2013 at 1:51 PM
Obviously there was enough money to buy The New Republic and finance its annual losses
Boxthorn
January 8, 2013 at 3:03 PM
As the original investor in Jim Cramer’s hedge fund, I think Marty Peretz has enough money to buy a dozen of these brownstones.
Tim
January 8, 2013 at 3:56 PM
[…] my previous two posts were about young people with rich parents who work at unpaid internships, and Evegnia Peretz buying a $5.7 million townhouse even though she has a job of “contributing editor” to Vanity Fair that maybe doesn’t pay […]
Only the rich can afford to work « Lion of the Blogosphere
January 8, 2013 at 5:30 PM
I don’t see WHY a documentary maker buying his own mansion is so unbelievable
A film like Bowling for Columbine gets like 20 million in the domestic box office, add in dvd sales, and foreign box offices. And you are easily looking at 50 million for a film that costs less than a million to film.
Bob
January 8, 2013 at 7:20 PM
Not entirely offf topic – in a slightly drug-induced haze, I read the post byline as “Lion of the Bobosphere”.
Anthony
January 8, 2013 at 11:00 PM