3 ms·

I think there's something to be said that if you REALLY enjoy what you're doing you'll immerse yourself into it with infinite willpower, and most importantly, y

• tachyoff 9y ago
  > I think there's something to be said that if you REALLY enjoy what you're doing you'll immerse yourself into it with infinite willpower, and most importantly, you'll be ridiculously happy doing it. There simply aren't enough hours in the day when you're highly engaged in something. Can this trope die already? I spent a while doing email archival, and let me tell you: anyone who says hats exciting is either on heavy sedatives or lying. Most software isn’t sexy. Most problems aren’t fun. More importantly, your employer is not entitled to excited employees, and you owe your job nothing more than what is in your employment contract. > If you find yourself fighting doing what you think you like doing, and get distracted easily then maybe you're not really doing what you should be doing. Or maybe you’re depressed or have attention problems. Or maybe you need a new job, or a way to motivate yourself at your current one. But let’s not insinuate that the only good software developers are the gung-ho excited ones who have a “passion” for archiving emails/administrating databases/fixing DNS errors/etc. > Why didn't I burn out gaming, when mentally it was even more draining than programming? Could be because you are intrinsically motivated to game. You do it for its own sake because it’s fun. Psychology says, though, that once you extrinsically motivate people to do something they used to intrinsically enjoy, their enjoyment of that activity goes down. This is just one possibility, though, and I don’t think it’s fair to jump to the conclusion that if you don’t find something as fun as a video game then clearly you shouldn’t be doing it. I’ll conclude with this. A job is a job. Nobody asks the Kmart cashier if she’s passionate about ringing up items. Nobody asks the dentist if they’re a rockstar tooth ninja. Nobody asks the lawyer if they’re “on fire” for litigating. OP, if you’re drained after work tasks, I understand; I get that way too. Complex thought is mentally taxing, and frankly, if it’s 3:00 PM and I just spent several days dealing with something complicated, I’d probably scroll through Reddit and take a break too. If your work environment let’s you get away with that, I don’t see anything wrong with it. Otherwise at least start a new task somewhat (new git branch, grab the ticket, etc.) to get something going.