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Honestly, I think it's healthy to not view work as part of yourself - but I think the people who do, know that as well. I've got a job offer for a very nice jo

Honestly, I think it's healthy to not view work as part of yourself - but I think the people who do, know that as well. I've got a job offer for a very nice job, doing software development next month. The pays great, the people, the are great. However, I'm desperately looking for a product design job - because it's 100% my dream. I am fully aware that it's not healthy to tie my self worth to my job, and I should focus on financial stability, and work / life ratio. But i'd just feel so unfulfilled, and at the end of the day, I just can't help it. Being excited to get up in the morning and go to work, also means getting hurt when it goes wrong.

klodolph 9y ago
It's a perfectly valid decision to make, but I have a couple reservations. First, when you say that it's 100% your dream, I can't accept that assertion at face value. Maybe this is cynical on my part, but the fact that your dream lines up so neatly with our cultural definitions of what it means to be successful is too suspicious to be a coincidence. So my cynical take on it would be that much your dream was given to you by other people, and only a small portion of it is truly yours. (There are rabbit holes here, for sure.) My second reservation is that it's meaningless to "accept" that something is unhealthy without a solid understanding of the consequences of unhealthy behavior. I can accept the unhealthy consequences of eating a donut, because they're broadly familiar to me (an expanding waistline, elevated risk of heart disease in my future). I know people who have had heart attacks, I know people who are too heavy to comfortably hike the trails I love. But it's meaningless to accept that pouring yourself into your work is unhealthy unless you understand what the consequences are. I have friends who can barely enjoy being retired, even though they didn't really "enjoy" working, either. I have friends who have been depressed and unable to enjoy life for months after project failures. And I know people who have had panic attacks at school or work, panic attacks bad enough to call an ambulance. There is no definition of free will that everyone can agree on, but in my book, understanding the consequences of our actions, and the ability to change our decisions as our understanding of consequences changes, are requirements for exercising free will.

klodolph 9y ago

It's a perfectly valid decision to make, but I have a couple reservations. First, when you say that it's 100% your dream, I can't accept that assertion at face value. Maybe this is cynical on my part, but the fact that your dream lines up so neatly with our cultural definitions of what it means to be successful is too suspicious to be a coincidence. So my cynical take on it would be that much your dream was given to you by other people, and only a small portion of it is truly yours. (There are rabbit holes here, for sure.) My second reservation is that it's meaningless to "accept" that something is unhealthy without a solid understanding of the consequences of unhealthy behavior. I can accept the unhealthy consequences of eating a donut, because they're broadly familiar to me (an expanding waistline, elevated risk of heart disease in my future). I know people who have had heart attacks, I know people who are too heavy to comfortably hike the trails I love. But it's meaningless to accept that pouring yourself into your work is unhealthy unless you understand what the consequences are. I have friends who can barely enjoy being retired, even though they didn't really "enjoy" working, either. I have friends who have been depressed and unable to enjoy life for months after project failures. And I know people who have had panic attacks at school or work, panic attacks bad enough to call an ambulance. There is no definition of free will that everyone can agree on, but in my book, understanding the consequences of our actions, and the ability to change our decisions as our understanding of consequences changes, are requirements for exercising free will.