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I think the point is that if you asked someone with a job such as a janitor or an airline luggage worker if they'd rather get paid to do something that they enj

I think the point is that if you asked someone with a job such as a janitor or an airline luggage worker if they'd rather get paid to do something that they enjoy doing, the answer would be yes 100% of the time. To go even further, the answer would be yes for everyone with a job except for that small lucky few who actually enjoy what they do. And of course, this is not realistic, because some people would want to get paid for things that no one would be willing to pay for.

ericmcer 4y ago
If you asked them what they would rather be doing I doubt many would reply with painter, writer, musician, or other career worthy passions. Obviously if someone’s passion is eating pizza or watching TV or spending time with their kids it would be unrealistic that they turn that into a career. I have many friends who work blue collar jobs and most of them aspire to do the same work but get paid more, work less or work for themselves.
asah 4y ago
disagree: I've known lots of workers who are actually quite content. Obviously, everybody wants more money/benefits/etc, respect, pleasant work conditions, etc. But the workers I know have ABSOLUTELY NO INTEREST in jobs like research scientist, politician, stockbroker, lawyer, doctor, programmer, etc because they involve all sorts of skills & tasks they fear, despise or seem wildly unobtainable. Many people are introverted and fear meeting strangers and public speaking. Many people are enjoy the physical world and "it makes my head hurt" to spend hours thinking about abstract stuff, which a lot of these "desk jobs" involve. I highly recommend the book: How to Tell When You're Tired source: 30 years working all sorts of jobs, from warehouse and retail jobs to executive and board roles.
- hirvi74 4y ago
  > source: 30 years working all sorts of jobs, from warehouse and retail jobs to executive and board roles. Do you mind answering a few questions? I am kind of in a "should I stay or should I go?" dilemma with my current employment, and I have no idea what I want to do (I know more about what I do NOT want to do). You've been working almost longer than I have been alive, and I am curious what you think (and others). 1. What job made you the happiest, and Why? 2. Did you happen to find any positive or negative correlation between life satisfaction/happiness and the amount of money you made? I'm just your average, run of the mill developer. Nothing special about me, and that's okay. It's just a job for me, and I enjoy the work. I have no desire to be some Big N programmer. I could chase dollar signs considering what is out there for us devs, but I am not sure the juice is worth the squeeze when I am already living comfortably.
  - asah 4y ago
    Sounds blissful :-) not knowing enough, I'd generally say to stay for now but also kickoff a thoughtful "project" to discover what you want to do next: research online, talk with people, take interviews, etc. Who knows, maybe you stay? At least you'll know why. One thing that helped me: creating a spreadsheet, where columns are the concrete choices you have, and rows are reasons to make them. The big win is helping clarify why you chose a direction, and which choices are holistically better than others. The sheet can run for months or years and that's fine. Think about what you want to optimize. 5-10 years from now, what do you want your life-experience to have been? Are you having fun? Are you learning/growing? Are you building a network? Is it sustainable i.e. if the company reorg'd tomorrow and your whole team laid off, could you get another job? They say that happiness is most strongly correlated with having a good relationship with your direct manager, and that's been my experience. For me, there was little correlation with pay - all four quadrants have examples. But money is funny, and has strong correlations to culture: good to understand your understand your relationship with money, both short term and long term. Watch out for sucker deals, both in income, overhead/taxes and lifestyle costs: it's easy to end up with far less money than you think based on the paycheck, especially if there's complex stock or benefits. Also, you're only on this planet once so optimize your time as well: a good paying job that's crazy hours can be a sucker bet if you're not learning/growing enough. A job can pay crap but be intense learning and payoff in the next job. Watch out for grass-is-greener: I see lots of jobs that sound awesome... from the outside. Also lots of jobs that sound awesome for summer, but not years. Switching is a lot of overhead. Happy to help if you want, DM me. I learn from hearing other peoples' stories. HN note: I'm not mentioning extreme options since it sounds like you're blessed with a comfortable position in the upper middle class. Some people have real freedom to radically change their income and/or expenses, which then presents different challenges.
    - hirvi74 4y ago
      Thank you for the reply, I read the whole thing a few times, and I would like to continue this. How do I DM you? Is email the most effective way?
- 8note 4y ago
  > Obviously, everybody wants more money/benefits/etc, respect, pleasant work conditions, etc. This is non-obvious, to the extent that I don't think it's true. People are more than happy to not optimize work related things. People want respect and to be treated like humans for the work they are doing. Not being a doctor doesn't mean you should be demeaned

ericmcer 4y ago

If you asked them what they would rather be doing I doubt many would reply with painter, writer, musician, or other career worthy passions. Obviously if someone’s passion is eating pizza or watching TV or spending time with their kids it would be unrealistic that they turn that into a career. I have many friends who work blue collar jobs and most of them aspire to do the same work but get paid more, work less or work for themselves.

asah 4y ago

disagree: I've known lots of workers who are actually quite content. Obviously, everybody wants more money/benefits/etc, respect, pleasant work conditions, etc. But the workers I know have ABSOLUTELY NO INTEREST in jobs like research scientist, politician, stockbroker, lawyer, doctor, programmer, etc because they involve all sorts of skills & tasks they fear, despise or seem wildly unobtainable. Many people are introverted and fear meeting strangers and public speaking. Many people are enjoy the physical world and "it makes my head hurt" to spend hours thinking about abstract stuff, which a lot of these "desk jobs" involve. I highly recommend the book: How to Tell When You're Tired source: 30 years working all sorts of jobs, from warehouse and retail jobs to executive and board roles.

hirvi74 4y ago
> source: 30 years working all sorts of jobs, from warehouse and retail jobs to executive and board roles. Do you mind answering a few questions? I am kind of in a "should I stay or should I go?" dilemma with my current employment, and I have no idea what I want to do (I know more about what I do NOT want to do). You've been working almost longer than I have been alive, and I am curious what you think (and others). 1. What job made you the happiest, and Why? 2. Did you happen to find any positive or negative correlation between life satisfaction/happiness and the amount of money you made? I'm just your average, run of the mill developer. Nothing special about me, and that's okay. It's just a job for me, and I enjoy the work. I have no desire to be some Big N programmer. I could chase dollar signs considering what is out there for us devs, but I am not sure the juice is worth the squeeze when I am already living comfortably.
- asah 4y ago
  Sounds blissful :-) not knowing enough, I'd generally say to stay for now but also kickoff a thoughtful "project" to discover what you want to do next: research online, talk with people, take interviews, etc. Who knows, maybe you stay? At least you'll know why. One thing that helped me: creating a spreadsheet, where columns are the concrete choices you have, and rows are reasons to make them. The big win is helping clarify why you chose a direction, and which choices are holistically better than others. The sheet can run for months or years and that's fine. Think about what you want to optimize. 5-10 years from now, what do you want your life-experience to have been? Are you having fun? Are you learning/growing? Are you building a network? Is it sustainable i.e. if the company reorg'd tomorrow and your whole team laid off, could you get another job? They say that happiness is most strongly correlated with having a good relationship with your direct manager, and that's been my experience. For me, there was little correlation with pay - all four quadrants have examples. But money is funny, and has strong correlations to culture: good to understand your understand your relationship with money, both short term and long term. Watch out for sucker deals, both in income, overhead/taxes and lifestyle costs: it's easy to end up with far less money than you think based on the paycheck, especially if there's complex stock or benefits. Also, you're only on this planet once so optimize your time as well: a good paying job that's crazy hours can be a sucker bet if you're not learning/growing enough. A job can pay crap but be intense learning and payoff in the next job. Watch out for grass-is-greener: I see lots of jobs that sound awesome... from the outside. Also lots of jobs that sound awesome for summer, but not years. Switching is a lot of overhead. Happy to help if you want, DM me. I learn from hearing other peoples' stories. HN note: I'm not mentioning extreme options since it sounds like you're blessed with a comfortable position in the upper middle class. Some people have real freedom to radically change their income and/or expenses, which then presents different challenges.
  - hirvi74 4y ago
    Thank you for the reply, I read the whole thing a few times, and I would like to continue this. How do I DM you? Is email the most effective way?
8note 4y ago
> Obviously, everybody wants more money/benefits/etc, respect, pleasant work conditions, etc. This is non-obvious, to the extent that I don't think it's true. People are more than happy to not optimize work related things. People want respect and to be treated like humans for the work they are doing. Not being a doctor doesn't mean you should be demeaned