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The ability to pursue your dreams is a luxury of the modern age. Generations of people have lived and died working as poor farmers, doing what they needed to to

The ability to pursue your dreams is a luxury of the modern age. Generations of people have lived and died working as poor farmers, doing what they needed to to support their families. (Many hundreds of millions of poor people still live their lives doing so.) "Do what you love" is overrated advice: "find a way to love what you do" is better.

csomar 15y ago
That's not quite true. It's not because of the "modern age", but because of the "great countries" known as the Developed World. In the Pharaohs age, there were people working as Farmers, but there were scientists too. There were also traders, and there were the possibility to become rich doing what you love (Example: prototyping a Pyramid). Certainly, this is not possible for everyone, but that's the case even today. If there is a difference, it's in the Internet. I don't live in a Developed country, but I have a considerable set of options with the Internet.
- adrianN 15y ago
  History is not my forte, but I'm pretty sure that back then your birth determined what you were going to be.
  - sliverstorm 15y ago
    Yup. If you examine history, you'll find that you didn't get rich being, say, a mathematician or scientist. You had to be rich to be a mathematician or scientist.
Udo 15y ago
> The ability to pursue your dreams is a luxury of the modern age. Yes it is, to a degree, like many things that are important to us today. But I fail to see how that supposedly devalues the concept. How is the agrarian age now considered the blueprint for what a good life supposedly looks like? I for one very much prefer the here and now.
- dgreensp 15y ago
  And more to the point, "do what you love" can save you from squandering that very luxury. I think many of us were handed down an old ethic of sacrificing your dreams to pay the bills that may or may not apply to our own lives.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- sliverstorm 15y ago
  It's not about devaluing the concept, it's about people have survived for millions of years doing what they very much did not love; while it's great if you can manage it, doing what you do not love won't kill you and for most it's a damn sight better than starvation. So, be realistic, and don't expect to feed yourself collecting stamps because it's what you love- but if you really love woodworking, by all means you can try to be a carpenter.

csomar 15y ago

That's not quite true. It's not because of the "modern age", but because of the "great countries" known as the Developed World. In the Pharaohs age, there were people working as Farmers, but there were scientists too. There were also traders, and there were the possibility to become rich doing what you love (Example: prototyping a Pyramid). Certainly, this is not possible for everyone, but that's the case even today. If there is a difference, it's in the Internet. I don't live in a Developed country, but I have a considerable set of options with the Internet.

adrianN 15y ago
History is not my forte, but I'm pretty sure that back then your birth determined what you were going to be.
- sliverstorm 15y ago
  Yup. If you examine history, you'll find that you didn't get rich being, say, a mathematician or scientist. You had to be rich to be a mathematician or scientist.

Udo 15y ago

> The ability to pursue your dreams is a luxury of the modern age. Yes it is, to a degree, like many things that are important to us today. But I fail to see how that supposedly devalues the concept. How is the agrarian age now considered the blueprint for what a good life supposedly looks like? I for one very much prefer the here and now.

dgreensp 15y ago
And more to the point, "do what you love" can save you from squandering that very luxury. I think many of us were handed down an old ethic of sacrificing your dreams to pay the bills that may or may not apply to our own lives.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
sliverstorm 15y ago
It's not about devaluing the concept, it's about people have survived for millions of years doing what they very much did not love; while it's great if you can manage it, doing what you do not love won't kill you and for most it's a damn sight better than starvation. So, be realistic, and don't expect to feed yourself collecting stamps because it's what you love- but if you really love woodworking, by all means you can try to be a carpenter.