Seeing this sharing in the friend circle is quite emotional; it is the most real portrayal of the current situation. This generation, which follows the rules, seems powerless to escape this cage, ultimately becoming passive bearers of the risks of the era!

Many people, when they collapse in middle age, are forced to repeatedly reflect on a question: "Did I do something wrong?"

The harsher truth is: he did nothing wrong; he simply executed an already outdated worldview too seriously.

Every time I see this kind of situation, I can only say that I feel very sympathetic, but I am powerless. To break free from it, one cannot follow the "standard success template" for this life, cannot live in the shadow of others, and cannot bind oneself according to traditional values and rules.

Respecting the rules, respecting the heart, respecting wealth, is very difficult!

Because their underlying code has already been hardcoded, to break through, one must first break through the underlying beliefs they previously held.

I just saw what @zutaoMin said: The biggest misconception of student thinking is believing that the world is linear, predictable, and fair: that there will be returns for effort, that hard work will be recognized, and that as long as the rules are followed, one can climb up; the evaluation system is singular: grades, performance, and positions are a clean straight line upwards.

The real world has never operated like this.

The reality is a multi-dimensional game: being "needed" is always more important than being "excellent"; ability is just a tool, while the chips in your hand—resources, information, position, relationships, and scarcity—determine whether you have the qualification to stay at the table. Those without chips, no matter how disciplined, responsible, or non-speculative they are, often become more vulnerable.

The irony is that:

Children from ordinary families are taught to follow rules, endure, and delay gratification; while children from resourceful families learn to understand rules, utilize them, and even rewrite them.

This early information asymmetry is masked during a period of rapid growth, but once the cycle reverses, it will lead to concentrated liquidation, becoming the middle-aged person in the following picture. It is no longer his own choice, but rather the most rule-abiding individuals who are the first to be abandoned by the system.

So his fall is not due to a lack of ability, not a moral failure, and certainly not "deserved". Rather, it is the result of a linear effort-maker being backfired by the era in a nonlinear world.

Specifically, this is not a personal issue; it is a structural squeeze. It is not that his life has collapsed, but that the rules have changed, and he did not have time to retreat.