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I feel like this piece begins with a similar thesis to the Cal Newport book So Good They Can't Ignore You - namely that the ideals and goals around finding your

by Zhyl 5y ago

I feel like this piece begins with a similar thesis to the Cal Newport book So Good They Can't Ignore You - namely that the ideals and goals around finding your "passion" or "doing what you love" are either setting you up for dissatisfaction ("I don't love what I do, therefore I am a failure") or disappointment ("my passion is writing but I became a software engineer instead of a novelist and now I am unfulfilled"). His solution to this was to pick any trade or skill and to explore it via mastery. Deliberate practice and, as with this piece, curiosity to "find" the bits of it that you are good at and enjoy, then focus on those aspects to get enough skill that people will pay you money for that skill. That isn't "passion" in the sense that most will think of when "following your dream" but you end up with a core trade and skillset that you are good at, you enjoy and differentiates you from everyone else in the market (or puts you in a small enough resource pool that you're always in demand). I feel like this article touches on that to some extent, but opens up similar blind spots to a "passion" oriented mindset. Instead of "what if I'm not passionate about anything?" you have "what if I'm not curious about anything?". Both require an unwritten first step of discovering your passion or curiosity. Both don't have a coherent roadmap or end goals, so while one person may find following curiosity to be a better path (as they're able to untangle a thread or find a new one when a line of curiosity has been satisfied) another may find better success by using their "passion" as a guiding star. Fun to think about anyway, but it's definitely true that both philosophies hide or downplay the amount of work required to turn your passion or your curiosity into a paying job.

dgb23 5y ago
Does it work like this: The better you get at things, the more curiosity, passion, motivation, creativity and ideas follow. Some things might be more attractive on the surface than others? They might be more _fascinating_ so there is an initial drive to explore. So I don’t know if there are general rules like this. For me it’s tied to making things, mostly mistakes, and getting confidence through learning. This has an exponential effect on the rest.
dr_dshiv 5y ago
Also, it can eventually become a problem to have a job that is your passion, because then what is your hobby? I always like to be working because it is truly fun. It can feel a bit unhealthy. But, tbh, I’d rather have it this way. I think it is just the paradox of success—more fun to pursue than to have. Typical human nature, if we are unhappy actually getting what we deeply desire!
forgotmypw17 5y ago
I think that mastering any random skill can be fun, and can help with expanding the horizons, but it's a waste of time to do it just because you can get paid for it. Time is not money, time is infinitely more valuable than money, and trading it away in order to spend that time building someone else's dream is a terrible bargain. Everyone has something that they can do better than anyone else, and give something to the world that no one else can, and that's the best direction to put most of one's effort into. In a healthy society, it might be prudent to factor money into it as well, I've found it leading me down all kinds of wrong and fucked up roads, where I was making "good money" and was "good at my job" but felt miserable as fuck all the time.

by Zhyl 5y ago

dgb23 5y ago

Does it work like this: The better you get at things, the more curiosity, passion, motivation, creativity and ideas follow. Some things might be more attractive on the surface than others? They might be more _fascinating_ so there is an initial drive to explore. So I don’t know if there are general rules like this. For me it’s tied to making things, mostly mistakes, and getting confidence through learning. This has an exponential effect on the rest.

dr_dshiv 5y ago

Also, it can eventually become a problem to have a job that is your passion, because then what is your hobby? I always like to be working because it is truly fun. It can feel a bit unhealthy. But, tbh, I’d rather have it this way. I think it is just the paradox of success—more fun to pursue than to have. Typical human nature, if we are unhappy actually getting what we deeply desire!

forgotmypw17 5y ago

I think that mastering any random skill can be fun, and can help with expanding the horizons, but it's a waste of time to do it just because you can get paid for it. Time is not money, time is infinitely more valuable than money, and trading it away in order to spend that time building someone else's dream is a terrible bargain. Everyone has something that they can do better than anyone else, and give something to the world that no one else can, and that's the best direction to put most of one's effort into. In a healthy society, it might be prudent to factor money into it as well, I've found it leading me down all kinds of wrong and fucked up roads, where I was making "good money" and was "good at my job" but felt miserable as fuck all the time.