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An alternate perspective to this is. The great line of thought, that you are meant to 'follow your passion' and discover your true calling. There is a job mean

An alternate perspective to this is. The great line of thought, that you are meant to 'follow your passion' and discover your true calling. There is a job mean for you and you just need to find it. I disagree with this and feel this thinking makes peoples lives miserable thinking they're somehow wasting their lives and makes people take plunges in life that they later regret. I feel there is space for an attitude that, to learn a craft you need to toil and master it with deep dedication and practice. Mastery, will bring with it naturally that joy that we seek. I think if people consider their craft as bigger than themselves, with an attitude of humility and learning they will get the happiness and satisfaction of building things. Rather than seeking a job that's somehow obliged to give you that happiness juice..

dmingod666 6y ago
These ideas are from the book "be so good they can't ignore you" cal newport
shagie 6y ago
There's a blog post from a CS Professor that I stumbled across a bit ago - Find The Hard Work You're Willing To Do - http://www.cs.uni.edu/%7Ewallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2018-10.html#e2018-10-21T09_53_29.htm http://www.cs.uni.edu/%7Ewallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2018... Its short, only a few short paragraphs - but it has one key piece that I've found myself oft quoting to people: > Maybe this is what people mean when they tell us to "find our passion", but that phrase seems pretty abstract to me. Maybe instead we should encourage people to find the hard problems they like to work on. Which problems do you want to keep working on, even when they turn out to be harder than you expected? Which kinds of frustration do you enjoy, or at least are willing to endure while you figure things out? Answers to these very practical questions might help you find a place where you can build an interesting and rewarding life. > I realize that "Find your passion" makes for a more compelling motivational poster than "What hard problems do you enjoy working on?" (and even that's a lot better than "What kind of pain are you willing to endure?"), but it might give some people a more realistic way to approach finding their life's work. -- I enjoy software development - and I do so because I enjoy solving those problems. To me, software development is like being paid to solve sudoku puzzles all day long (and yes, I watch cracking the cryptic from time to time)... well, at least when I'm not in meetings. One of the important skills that I now realize that the dreaded math classes that I disliked (integrations and eigenvectors - ugh) was about the skill of continuing to solve the problem rather than giving up (and searching for the answer). Yes, there's a place for people who go to the back of the book or Stack Overflow for the solution - but many haven't learned the hard skill of continuing to solve the problem when its not easy.
- t8e56vd4ih 6y ago
  I also try to look at software development as some sort of brain jogging or solving puzzles because I actually tend to neither care about the actual product nor do I care for hyped up new technology.
- gkop 6y ago
  This resonates and I would add, on the theme of managing complexity higher up in this sub thread, it’s rewarding to reduce entropy locally. Like, yes the complexity is overwhelming and a significant, even singular challenge — and also the individuals in the weeds have an opportunity to use creative means to subdue it to degree that is material to the sustainable success of their team, group, department, start up, etc..
- andrewflnr 6y ago
  That link deserves a top-level post.
  - shagie 6y ago
    I've tossed it in the submit page. It was submitted once before, but didn't gain any traction then. As an aside, it is interesting looking at the history of other submissions from the same author - https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=uni.edu https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=uni.edu
    - andrewflnr 6y ago
      I gave it an updoot, so here's hoping for better this time.
- darkteflon 6y ago
  Great link. As someone who burned out on a first career for exactly the reason stated, this is advice that I wish I’d received when younger, and the advice I’ll give my kids when they’re old enough. Trying to progress in your chosen craft when you find the actual challenge to be sheer tedium is deeply demoralising and can affect other aspects of your life. In my case it lead to feelings of helplessness and pointlessness. Such a great link - states the problem succinctly and provides an excellent heuristic. Thanks for sharing.
shiyason 6y ago
Could not agree more! Same goes for marriage actually! Thinking that life would have been better with someone else, is just an escape for the mind which makes people miserable! The secret is to roll up your sleeves, and put in the work!
- tartoran 6y ago
  True but beware, sometimes no matter how much is put into it’s simply a bad match. Also struggling with a bad match is a learning experience in humility but one is not to force themselves for a lifetime in a situation they don’t enjoy at all.
vlunkr 6y ago
If you haven't watched Soul yet this is essentially the plot.

dmingod666 6y ago

These ideas are from the book "be so good they can't ignore you" cal newport

shagie 6y ago

There's a blog post from a CS Professor that I stumbled across a bit ago - Find The Hard Work You're Willing To Do - http://www.cs.uni.edu/%7Ewallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2018-10.html#e2018-10-21T09_53_29.htm http://www.cs.uni.edu/%7Ewallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2018... Its short, only a few short paragraphs - but it has one key piece that I've found myself oft quoting to people: > Maybe this is what people mean when they tell us to "find our passion", but that phrase seems pretty abstract to me. Maybe instead we should encourage people to find the hard problems they like to work on. Which problems do you want to keep working on, even when they turn out to be harder than you expected? Which kinds of frustration do you enjoy, or at least are willing to endure while you figure things out? Answers to these very practical questions might help you find a place where you can build an interesting and rewarding life. > I realize that "Find your passion" makes for a more compelling motivational poster than "What hard problems do you enjoy working on?" (and even that's a lot better than "What kind of pain are you willing to endure?"), but it might give some people a more realistic way to approach finding their life's work. -- I enjoy software development - and I do so because I enjoy solving those problems. To me, software development is like being paid to solve sudoku puzzles all day long (and yes, I watch cracking the cryptic from time to time)... well, at least when I'm not in meetings. One of the important skills that I now realize that the dreaded math classes that I disliked (integrations and eigenvectors - ugh) was about the skill of continuing to solve the problem rather than giving up (and searching for the answer). Yes, there's a place for people who go to the back of the book or Stack Overflow for the solution - but many haven't learned the hard skill of continuing to solve the problem when its not easy.

t8e56vd4ih 6y ago
I also try to look at software development as some sort of brain jogging or solving puzzles because I actually tend to neither care about the actual product nor do I care for hyped up new technology.
gkop 6y ago
This resonates and I would add, on the theme of managing complexity higher up in this sub thread, it’s rewarding to reduce entropy locally. Like, yes the complexity is overwhelming and a significant, even singular challenge — and also the individuals in the weeds have an opportunity to use creative means to subdue it to degree that is material to the sustainable success of their team, group, department, start up, etc..
andrewflnr 6y ago
That link deserves a top-level post.
- shagie 6y ago
  I've tossed it in the submit page. It was submitted once before, but didn't gain any traction then. As an aside, it is interesting looking at the history of other submissions from the same author - https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=uni.edu https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=uni.edu
  - andrewflnr 6y ago
    I gave it an updoot, so here's hoping for better this time.
darkteflon 6y ago
Great link. As someone who burned out on a first career for exactly the reason stated, this is advice that I wish I’d received when younger, and the advice I’ll give my kids when they’re old enough. Trying to progress in your chosen craft when you find the actual challenge to be sheer tedium is deeply demoralising and can affect other aspects of your life. In my case it lead to feelings of helplessness and pointlessness. Such a great link - states the problem succinctly and provides an excellent heuristic. Thanks for sharing.

shiyason 6y ago

Could not agree more! Same goes for marriage actually! Thinking that life would have been better with someone else, is just an escape for the mind which makes people miserable! The secret is to roll up your sleeves, and put in the work!

tartoran 6y ago
True but beware, sometimes no matter how much is put into it’s simply a bad match. Also struggling with a bad match is a learning experience in humility but one is not to force themselves for a lifetime in a situation they don’t enjoy at all.

vlunkr 6y ago

If you haven't watched Soul yet this is essentially the plot.