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I feel like this advice focuses on execution (“I know that mastery and autonomy make me happy, $this is how I achieved that”). It’s much harder to actually und

I feel like this advice focuses on execution (“I know that mastery and autonomy make me happy, $this is how I achieved that”). It’s much harder to actually understand what makes you happy, and when your mind is deceiving you: you may not fully appreciate what you have to give up to achieve a certain goal. Would you be able to elaborate how you realized that mastery and autonomy were the things that make you happy?

mattgreenrocks 5y ago
Mastery was a recurring theme. My happiest times in life were always marked by intense learning, and intense learning usually accompanies things that get labeled hard. Now, you don't do hard things because other people say they're hard; you do them because they're interesting to you and they push back when you dig in, causing you to need to bear down. In the process of that, then you start clawing back to beginners mind, and getting closer to be able to let this new thing reshape you in some small way. I love that feeling, it is like discovering a new conceptual world. Of course, it only makes sense if you're intrinsically interested in said thing, and willing to let it change you. Stuff like virtual machines, interpreters, systems programming languages, Haskell, etc is all stuff I just wanted to know how it worked at one point, and I'd get sucked into more and more cool things to learn. I'm not a professional at all of those things (Haskell is a lifetime of learning) but I still enjoy them quite a bit, and have gotten a chance to use all of those professionally. Over time, they become competencies that are increasingly rare, so this has positive effects for future career choices. Re: autonomy, I've always inferred this from my general attitude toward hierarchy, personality type, and watching myself across years and companies fail to be motivated at _all_ by the usual things that people seem to be motivated by. I feign interest in them and accrue enough of them to be reasonably autonomous, but I'm not going to be working weekends for months on end to beat other people at changing a word on my job title. That's the type of thing that flows directly from knowing who I am. I don't need an upgraded title to hope to know who I am. I'm happy to receive it if it is given to me, but if it isn't; that's fine.
redisman 5y ago
I’ve found what makes me happy. The issue is that it is not something I can get out of work or a business. As a smaller example. I know we were all lied to that you just need to find what you love and then do that as a job. For me it just killed the enjoyment for one of my passions for years (video games). I enjoy them so much more since moving to general web dev. I also used to love programming but 14 years of doing it as a day job has sucked most of the enjoyment out of it. Now it’s just a great career which is not too bad of an outcome.

mattgreenrocks 5y ago

Mastery was a recurring theme. My happiest times in life were always marked by intense learning, and intense learning usually accompanies things that get labeled hard. Now, you don't do hard things because other people say they're hard; you do them because they're interesting to you and they push back when you dig in, causing you to need to bear down. In the process of that, then you start clawing back to beginners mind, and getting closer to be able to let this new thing reshape you in some small way. I love that feeling, it is like discovering a new conceptual world. Of course, it only makes sense if you're intrinsically interested in said thing, and willing to let it change you. Stuff like virtual machines, interpreters, systems programming languages, Haskell, etc is all stuff I just wanted to know how it worked at one point, and I'd get sucked into more and more cool things to learn. I'm not a professional at all of those things (Haskell is a lifetime of learning) but I still enjoy them quite a bit, and have gotten a chance to use all of those professionally. Over time, they become competencies that are increasingly rare, so this has positive effects for future career choices. Re: autonomy, I've always inferred this from my general attitude toward hierarchy, personality type, and watching myself across years and companies fail to be motivated at _all_ by the usual things that people seem to be motivated by. I feign interest in them and accrue enough of them to be reasonably autonomous, but I'm not going to be working weekends for months on end to beat other people at changing a word on my job title. That's the type of thing that flows directly from knowing who I am. I don't need an upgraded title to hope to know who I am. I'm happy to receive it if it is given to me, but if it isn't; that's fine.

redisman 5y ago

I’ve found what makes me happy. The issue is that it is not something I can get out of work or a business. As a smaller example. I know we were all lied to that you just need to find what you love and then do that as a job. For me it just killed the enjoyment for one of my passions for years (video games). I enjoy them so much more since moving to general web dev. I also used to love programming but 14 years of doing it as a day job has sucked most of the enjoyment out of it. Now it’s just a great career which is not too bad of an outcome.