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Being passionate about something for a long time (not just a couple of hours or weeks) seems to be a rare quality. Too bad for those who lack it, as it seems to

by kharak 6y ago

Being passionate about something for a long time (not just a couple of hours or weeks) seems to be a rare quality. Too bad for those who lack it, as it seems to be a requirement for success in everything. There are so many posts that try to tell you how to get the most out of your passion, I haven't seen one that explains the origin of passion or whether it is possible to become passionate.

analyst74 6y ago
Opposite of passion is contentment, which is also very desirable for many. You just can't have both, because with a burning passion, comes a sense of imperfection and constant struggle to get better but never enough, or worse, fear of decay and irrelevance, an inevitable outcome as one ages.
- nicbou 6y ago
  You can be passionate and content. There are plenty of passionate artists, athletes and engineers who don't care about going pro, getting famous or changing the world. For example, I'm passionate about software development, but I make simple things that don't matter. I'm passionate about cooking, but only for myself and the occasional guest. I'm also passionate about the website I live from, but I don't worry much about its growth. I like to build stuff, but I don't want an audience or its recognition. I don't want users nor money. I just do it because it's nice.
  - Judgmentality 6y ago
    I think this is just a simple semantics distinction. I believe what you mean by passion is interest, and what OP means by passion is drive. I think you're discussing slightly different things. I don't believe it is possible to be driven and satisfied at the same time. But I believe it is possible to be interested and content simultaneously.
    - nicbou 6y ago
      But I am driven. I wake up in the morning, make coffee and code all day, for fun. I go to special grocers to find the right ingredients. I'm just not driven by the desire to be successful. I'm content with home-cooked meals and their software equivalent.
mettamage 6y ago
What also isn't talked about: __Burnout and Passions__ Here's a comparison: I once build a computer graphics engine in 2 weeks and a few years prior I played WoW for 2 weeks. In both cases I spent between 16 to 20 hours per day on it. I got ill, had an angry girlfriend (in the computer graphics timeline), and I did everything I wanted to do (it was done). __Passions and Interests__ I have a genuine interest in security. Once every year I become super passionate about hacking/red teaming for 2 months. I'm like a cat in heat or something, but then with security. I play hackthebox, I follow security courses and clock 12 to 16 hours per day on it, 7 days per week. Converted to working days, that is around 5 months of working days. Yet, people mistake this as me having a passion for it. I can assure you, if the article is technical and I'm in the other 10 months, I'd need to apply quite some self-control and discipline to be able to read it. __It's not always the subject__ I have this weird trait. Whatever my friends are interested in, can become a passion of mine. One requirement: I need to do it with them. If I do and I'm having a positive interaction with my friend, then I'm passionate about it. However, I know it's not the subject, it's simply being with that friend. I figured it out by first noticing this in video games. It turns out I don't care about video games, I simply care playing them with friends. It turns out, it's true for all activities I have an interest in. __Passions and linking to other topics__ I love imagining music. It's a compulsion I had since I was 4. Because of this, I quite like making music as well. However, I also like not being poor. I've seen quite a few poor musicians, so I've never focused too much on my music creation and I think that's quite a sad fact about my life. But! It turns out, that (web) app development for things that I find cool or useful scratches exactly the same itch. So that means that passions are wider than your interest alone. It turns out that passions might be able to transfer to other passions if they have the same properties. Unfortunately, I don't feel passionate about (web) app development for corporations. This is mostly because a lot of the creative freedom isn't there, but when you make your own stuff it is there. --- My 2 cents.
- asimjalis 6y ago
  I found your introspection valuable. I work as a presales engineer. When a customer has a problem and is stuck on something I become obsessed with it. But as soon as we have a fix or a workaround I lose interest in the area. This makes it hard to generalize the solution or publish it as a blog post.
m463 6y ago
"stop starting and start finishing" On the other hand, we have so little time here. Who's to say whether narrow and deep is always more rewarding than broad and shallow? You know, be mindful of doing the wrong thing well instead of the right thing poorly. So learn to forgive ourselves for pursuing things that fizzle out or lose our interest. Leave space to preserve passion to the benefit of our health and happiness. More interests might also mean more opportunities to align shared passions with others.
- renjimen 6y ago
  Exactly! Few people espouse the downsides of being very passionate about something. It can often lead to missed opportunities and a narrow view of life. Not to say it can't be balanced, but a lot of very passionate people I've met are difficult to arrange things with or have neglected other parts of their life, such as learning to be organised or social skills.
pototo666 6y ago
I haven't seen one that explains the origin of passion or whether it is possible to become passionate. --- As Bezos said, you can't choose your passion, your passion chooses you.
- etrautmann 6y ago
  I disagree - passion can emerge after you’re much deeper into something. I liked building things but wasn’t passionate about engineering until my last year in undergrad. It took 3-4 years of grinding away uncertainly until I had enough skill to make it really fun and interesting. That knowledge snowballs. Plenty of people are passionate about work which appears arcane. Few of them started with that.
  - pototo666 6y ago
    Agree with what you said. Liking is also a great signal for passion. If we like something, we are more likely to do it for years and then have the passion. I don't think we can choose what we like. There are of couses cases when children are forced to do something early and later fall in love with it.
  - jlevers 6y ago
    Cal Newport has a book that discusses this this called So Good They Can't Ignore You, which I found really interesting. His thesis is basically that the people who are most satisfied with their work are those who stuck with something until they got really good at it, regardless of whether it was the topic they were "most passionate" about (passion can be fickle, IMO).
    - plutonic 6y ago
      Does this not imply that they are satisfied with their work for largely social, extrinsic reasons (as opposed to intrinsic ones)? Cal seems to argue that people can only be most satisfied if they are better than everyone else at some niche task. I wonder how this is any different than winning at the "rat race" that so many people seem to harp against? Is Cal then in support of the "rat race" ?
vincentmarle 6y ago
> Being passionate about something for a long time ... seems to be a requirement for success in everything. There’s a book that attempts to debunk this myth by making the case that generalists are typically more successful: https://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Range https://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Range
- mojoe 6y ago
  There's a difference between being passionate about a skillset and passionate about a field. For instance, I can be passionate about renewable energy and still be a generalist in terms of my day-to-day work.
EGreg 6y ago
Here is a comment: Passion is a direct result of three things: 1. Awareness of a major problem that affects a lot of people 2. Becoming convinced of a certain solution that is currently not being implemented 3. Having your needs met for a long time, also known as financial freedom To the extent you find people with 1 and 3, you can recruit them with 2.
abdullahkhalids 6y ago
I think you are switching the order of things. Passion often comes after doing something for a long time. The trick is that you have to mindfully analyze what parts you enjoy about the thing, and how you can enjoy or tolerate the parts you don't like.
alexashka 6y ago
> Too bad for those who lack it, as it seems to be a requirement for success in everything. There is no shortage of evidence to the contrary. Passion talk is out there because it works in fooling people who don't have what it takes to be 0.001%, into believing they might, long enough to buy self improvement seminars/tapes/programs/etc. Here is an easy way to get success - define success to mean something realistic and that would work for you. For most people, that's working a stable job, finding a husband/wife, having a couple of children and living in a safe neighbourhood. That's completely attainable for most people and it doesn't require any passion - a little planning and perseverance will do just fine.
christiansakai 6y ago
Jack of all trades here. I'm fine not being rich because of doing jack of all trades.

by kharak 6y ago

analyst74 6y ago

Opposite of passion is contentment, which is also very desirable for many. You just can't have both, because with a burning passion, comes a sense of imperfection and constant struggle to get better but never enough, or worse, fear of decay and irrelevance, an inevitable outcome as one ages.

nicbou 6y ago
You can be passionate and content. There are plenty of passionate artists, athletes and engineers who don't care about going pro, getting famous or changing the world. For example, I'm passionate about software development, but I make simple things that don't matter. I'm passionate about cooking, but only for myself and the occasional guest. I'm also passionate about the website I live from, but I don't worry much about its growth. I like to build stuff, but I don't want an audience or its recognition. I don't want users nor money. I just do it because it's nice.
- Judgmentality 6y ago
  I think this is just a simple semantics distinction. I believe what you mean by passion is interest, and what OP means by passion is drive. I think you're discussing slightly different things. I don't believe it is possible to be driven and satisfied at the same time. But I believe it is possible to be interested and content simultaneously.
  - nicbou 6y ago
    But I am driven. I wake up in the morning, make coffee and code all day, for fun. I go to special grocers to find the right ingredients. I'm just not driven by the desire to be successful. I'm content with home-cooked meals and their software equivalent.

mettamage 6y ago

What also isn't talked about: __Burnout and Passions__ Here's a comparison: I once build a computer graphics engine in 2 weeks and a few years prior I played WoW for 2 weeks. In both cases I spent between 16 to 20 hours per day on it. I got ill, had an angry girlfriend (in the computer graphics timeline), and I did everything I wanted to do (it was done). __Passions and Interests__ I have a genuine interest in security. Once every year I become super passionate about hacking/red teaming for 2 months. I'm like a cat in heat or something, but then with security. I play hackthebox, I follow security courses and clock 12 to 16 hours per day on it, 7 days per week. Converted to working days, that is around 5 months of working days. Yet, people mistake this as me having a passion for it. I can assure you, if the article is technical and I'm in the other 10 months, I'd need to apply quite some self-control and discipline to be able to read it. __It's not always the subject__ I have this weird trait. Whatever my friends are interested in, can become a passion of mine. One requirement: I need to do it with them. If I do and I'm having a positive interaction with my friend, then I'm passionate about it. However, I know it's not the subject, it's simply being with that friend. I figured it out by first noticing this in video games. It turns out I don't care about video games, I simply care playing them with friends. It turns out, it's true for all activities I have an interest in. __Passions and linking to other topics__ I love imagining music. It's a compulsion I had since I was 4. Because of this, I quite like making music as well. However, I also like not being poor. I've seen quite a few poor musicians, so I've never focused too much on my music creation and I think that's quite a sad fact about my life. But! It turns out, that (web) app development for things that I find cool or useful scratches exactly the same itch. So that means that passions are wider than your interest alone. It turns out that passions might be able to transfer to other passions if they have the same properties. Unfortunately, I don't feel passionate about (web) app development for corporations. This is mostly because a lot of the creative freedom isn't there, but when you make your own stuff it is there. --- My 2 cents.

asimjalis 6y ago
I found your introspection valuable. I work as a presales engineer. When a customer has a problem and is stuck on something I become obsessed with it. But as soon as we have a fix or a workaround I lose interest in the area. This makes it hard to generalize the solution or publish it as a blog post.

m463 6y ago

"stop starting and start finishing" On the other hand, we have so little time here. Who's to say whether narrow and deep is always more rewarding than broad and shallow? You know, be mindful of doing the wrong thing well instead of the right thing poorly. So learn to forgive ourselves for pursuing things that fizzle out or lose our interest. Leave space to preserve passion to the benefit of our health and happiness. More interests might also mean more opportunities to align shared passions with others.

renjimen 6y ago
Exactly! Few people espouse the downsides of being very passionate about something. It can often lead to missed opportunities and a narrow view of life. Not to say it can't be balanced, but a lot of very passionate people I've met are difficult to arrange things with or have neglected other parts of their life, such as learning to be organised or social skills.

pototo666 6y ago

I haven't seen one that explains the origin of passion or whether it is possible to become passionate. --- As Bezos said, you can't choose your passion, your passion chooses you.

etrautmann 6y ago
I disagree - passion can emerge after you’re much deeper into something. I liked building things but wasn’t passionate about engineering until my last year in undergrad. It took 3-4 years of grinding away uncertainly until I had enough skill to make it really fun and interesting. That knowledge snowballs. Plenty of people are passionate about work which appears arcane. Few of them started with that.
- pototo666 6y ago
  Agree with what you said. Liking is also a great signal for passion. If we like something, we are more likely to do it for years and then have the passion. I don't think we can choose what we like. There are of couses cases when children are forced to do something early and later fall in love with it.
- jlevers 6y ago
  Cal Newport has a book that discusses this this called So Good They Can't Ignore You, which I found really interesting. His thesis is basically that the people who are most satisfied with their work are those who stuck with something until they got really good at it, regardless of whether it was the topic they were "most passionate" about (passion can be fickle, IMO).
  - plutonic 6y ago
    Does this not imply that they are satisfied with their work for largely social, extrinsic reasons (as opposed to intrinsic ones)? Cal seems to argue that people can only be most satisfied if they are better than everyone else at some niche task. I wonder how this is any different than winning at the "rat race" that so many people seem to harp against? Is Cal then in support of the "rat race" ?

vincentmarle 6y ago

> Being passionate about something for a long time ... seems to be a requirement for success in everything. There’s a book that attempts to debunk this myth by making the case that generalists are typically more successful: https://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Range https://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Range

mojoe 6y ago
There's a difference between being passionate about a skillset and passionate about a field. For instance, I can be passionate about renewable energy and still be a generalist in terms of my day-to-day work.

EGreg 6y ago

Here is a comment: Passion is a direct result of three things: 1. Awareness of a major problem that affects a lot of people 2. Becoming convinced of a certain solution that is currently not being implemented 3. Having your needs met for a long time, also known as financial freedom To the extent you find people with 1 and 3, you can recruit them with 2.

abdullahkhalids 6y ago

I think you are switching the order of things. Passion often comes after doing something for a long time. The trick is that you have to mindfully analyze what parts you enjoy about the thing, and how you can enjoy or tolerate the parts you don't like.

alexashka 6y ago

> Too bad for those who lack it, as it seems to be a requirement for success in everything. There is no shortage of evidence to the contrary. Passion talk is out there because it works in fooling people who don't have what it takes to be 0.001%, into believing they might, long enough to buy self improvement seminars/tapes/programs/etc. Here is an easy way to get success - define success to mean something realistic and that would work for you. For most people, that's working a stable job, finding a husband/wife, having a couple of children and living in a safe neighbourhood. That's completely attainable for most people and it doesn't require any passion - a little planning and perseverance will do just fine.

christiansakai 6y ago

Jack of all trades here. I'm fine not being rich because of doing jack of all trades.