4 ms·

The media keeps telling us over and over again that to be successful financially, you have to be passionate about what you do. This is he biggest lie ever. The

The media keeps telling us over and over again that to be successful financially, you have to be passionate about what you do. This is he biggest lie ever. The reality is that to make money, you have to want money above all else. It's extremely rare to make a lot of money from doing something that you enjoy doing. The vast majority of people are not fortunate enough - Passion is rarely aligned with consumer needs.

Pica_soO 10y ago
I found the best cure of this believe in capitalism is to talk to advertising folks. The pure cynism and hatred for the consumers these "professional" explain and show, when among themselves and what they think about the producers and their employers (both sides who they usually manipulate very skillfully too)and the completely disregard for the product, this is the heart of what capitalism is all about. Its about swinging frozen dogshit-elexiers and be gone from the fair, before the first customer unpacks, and be not found related to yourself, the next time you do it on the same fair.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- otakucode 10y ago
  Once upon a time, when you bought something, you had to buy it from the guy who made it. It was mostly unique and personalization was the default. You didn't have many options, and he didn't have many customers. Both of these were problems of distribution. And distribution was a Hard Problem. Then we built factories and distribution chains. This provided a solution to the problem. It offered more choice, and more customers. There were drawbacks, as with anything. It centralized wealth, which was worrisome. It decoupled the value created from the value the creator received. It made producing identical products easy, and custom products intractable. It built cities, and long commutes. But it was worth it. A couple hundred years passed, and we built computers. We built the Internet. We made solving the Hard Problem so easy children could do it. But we forgot that there were drawbacks we took on. And instead of shrugging them off, we used the tools that could remove those drawbacks to expand those drawbacks.
akytt 10y ago
That statement is based on research or your own cynical mind? I know a lot of people who are doing rather well for themselves and are apparently enjoying themselves. See, experiences differ.
- jondubois 10y ago
  My observation is based on my own experience and that of practically everyone I've ever met. I also know quite a few people who are doing very well for themselves - They also enjoy themselves; they enjoy making money. The people who promote the idea that 'passion pays' like Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, etc... These are not people I've met - They are rare; the lucky ones - One thing that they have in common is that these people never failed financially. Their idea of failure is not my idea of failure - My experience of failure has nothing to do with the glorified descriptions I read about in tech media. I also know this because the less passionate and more cynical I become, the more money I make.
  - anonbanker 10y ago
    Bill Gates' "passion" was essentially "Dad isn't leaving me his money. I have to make my own."
    - unimpressive 10y ago
      I don't see why this is being downvoted. If Bill darn Gates is telling you to make money by following your passion, the kid whose life goal in early childhood was to make a million dollars in early adulthood, he's probably trying to sell you something. Don't get me wrong, he's a cool very-much-real-nerd-like-you, but Bill Gates passion has always been winning, and his passion after that has been making money. To the extent he sacrificed his ability to make money running Microsoft, it was to fuel his primary goal of winning and being smarter than everybody else. Source: Gates: How Microsoft's Media Mogul Reinvented An Industry And Made Himself The Richest Man In America
- swift 10y ago
  My perception of this changed as I grew older. For me, and for most people I know, most of the enjoyment of my job comes from spending time with coworkers I like and respect, and working together on a problem with them. Passion about the specific problem is something that comes and goes; it's the people around you that are more likely to remain consistently motivating over the long term.
dingbat 10y ago
i think Paul Graham has talked about this, when he was doing the passionate starving artist thing in NYC, while he was stapling canvas in a studio, he heard over the radio about the huge amounts of money being made in mutual funds.. he liked the sound of that and figured "hey I could make lots of money too".
z3t4 10y ago
If money is your main goal sure, but most of the time we want money to be more happy, and help us reach other goals. Like I'm spending time on making the next Google, to get enough money to help me build a space rocket. It would however be better to concentrate on building the rocket, instead of getting enough money to be able to build the rocket.
pault 10y ago
I think that it's true that you have to be passionate about what you do. You have to trick yourself into feeling passion for something lucrative that probably wouldn't interest you if you had a trust fund. You can turn anything into a game, and when the reward is cold, hard cash it can become pretty engaging. Just my perspective.

Pica_soO 10y ago

I found the best cure of this believe in capitalism is to talk to advertising folks. The pure cynism and hatred for the consumers these "professional" explain and show, when among themselves and what they think about the producers and their employers (both sides who they usually manipulate very skillfully too)and the completely disregard for the product, this is the heart of what capitalism is all about. Its about swinging frozen dogshit-elexiers and be gone from the fair, before the first customer unpacks, and be not found related to yourself, the next time you do it on the same fair.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
otakucode 10y ago
Once upon a time, when you bought something, you had to buy it from the guy who made it. It was mostly unique and personalization was the default. You didn't have many options, and he didn't have many customers. Both of these were problems of distribution. And distribution was a Hard Problem. Then we built factories and distribution chains. This provided a solution to the problem. It offered more choice, and more customers. There were drawbacks, as with anything. It centralized wealth, which was worrisome. It decoupled the value created from the value the creator received. It made producing identical products easy, and custom products intractable. It built cities, and long commutes. But it was worth it. A couple hundred years passed, and we built computers. We built the Internet. We made solving the Hard Problem so easy children could do it. But we forgot that there were drawbacks we took on. And instead of shrugging them off, we used the tools that could remove those drawbacks to expand those drawbacks.

akytt 10y ago

That statement is based on research or your own cynical mind? I know a lot of people who are doing rather well for themselves and are apparently enjoying themselves. See, experiences differ.

jondubois 10y ago
My observation is based on my own experience and that of practically everyone I've ever met. I also know quite a few people who are doing very well for themselves - They also enjoy themselves; they enjoy making money. The people who promote the idea that 'passion pays' like Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, etc... These are not people I've met - They are rare; the lucky ones - One thing that they have in common is that these people never failed financially. Their idea of failure is not my idea of failure - My experience of failure has nothing to do with the glorified descriptions I read about in tech media. I also know this because the less passionate and more cynical I become, the more money I make.
- anonbanker 10y ago
  Bill Gates' "passion" was essentially "Dad isn't leaving me his money. I have to make my own."
  - unimpressive 10y ago
    I don't see why this is being downvoted. If Bill darn Gates is telling you to make money by following your passion, the kid whose life goal in early childhood was to make a million dollars in early adulthood, he's probably trying to sell you something. Don't get me wrong, he's a cool very-much-real-nerd-like-you, but Bill Gates passion has always been winning, and his passion after that has been making money. To the extent he sacrificed his ability to make money running Microsoft, it was to fuel his primary goal of winning and being smarter than everybody else. Source: Gates: How Microsoft's Media Mogul Reinvented An Industry And Made Himself The Richest Man In America
swift 10y ago
My perception of this changed as I grew older. For me, and for most people I know, most of the enjoyment of my job comes from spending time with coworkers I like and respect, and working together on a problem with them. Passion about the specific problem is something that comes and goes; it's the people around you that are more likely to remain consistently motivating over the long term.

dingbat 10y ago

i think Paul Graham has talked about this, when he was doing the passionate starving artist thing in NYC, while he was stapling canvas in a studio, he heard over the radio about the huge amounts of money being made in mutual funds.. he liked the sound of that and figured "hey I could make lots of money too".

z3t4 10y ago

If money is your main goal sure, but most of the time we want money to be more happy, and help us reach other goals. Like I'm spending time on making the next Google, to get enough money to help me build a space rocket. It would however be better to concentrate on building the rocket, instead of getting enough money to be able to build the rocket.

pault 10y ago

I think that it's true that you have to be passionate about what you do. You have to trick yourself into feeling passion for something lucrative that probably wouldn't interest you if you had a trust fund. You can turn anything into a game, and when the reward is cold, hard cash it can become pretty engaging. Just my perspective.