4 ms·

> Enjoying the work is key Recently I've discovered that this mindset has been detrimental. Sometimes hard work is supposed to be hard. If you rely on passion

> Enjoying the work is key Recently I've discovered that this mindset has been detrimental. Sometimes hard work is supposed to be hard. If you rely on passion or some sort of intrinsic motivation, then as soon as you come to a task you don't want to do (i.e. the 90% of any project that doesn't involve coding) procrastination sets in. I worked mornings non-stop on my little side project for around 6 months last year and slowed right down as soon as all the 'fun' stuff was over. Accepting that the work is sometimes going to suck is a) more realistic and b) more empowering. If you get used to short focused bursts of work you don't feel like doing, then there is quite literally nothing you can't achieve if you put your mind to it.

sreitshamer 15y ago
Agree. I think it's key to have passion/love for the overall goal, and realize that day to day I'm going to have to do a lot of stuff that's not fun. The passion for the overall goal motivates me to do the non-fun stuff.
city41 15y ago
That's a good point. I didn't really think of it that way. And I'm definitely in the 'fun' phase of this project. So thanks, maybe as more tedious stuff comes up I'll have a better mindset going into it.
marknutter 15y ago
Just because the work can get hard doesn't mean it can't still be enjoyable. For me, the enjoyment of work comes from the results you get out of doing it. There are times when I despise the actual work I'm doing but I enjoy doing it because I'm excited to see the final product.
dkarl 15y ago
I came to the same conclusion. Often when working on a difficult problem I used to think, "What the hell is wrong with me? Why is this not fun? Why am I not loving this? Did I choose the wrong career or am I just a lazy useless person?" Then I realized that as an athlete I never would have wondered why it hurt when I got cramps late in a game. I never wondered why my body complained about running the last mile or completing the last rep in training. I never had any self-doubt because I got bored practicing a skill hundreds of times to unlearn a bad habit. Those things are not inconsistent or contradictory to the joy and satisfaction of being an athlete. Thinking about that helps me a lot when the problem I'm working on is causing me only frustration instead of immediate gratification.
Diederich 15y ago
As with many people in this forum, the kind of work I enjoy the most is really hard. It's true that there's a variable amount of sucky work that comes up. Over the years, I've discovered that some of the hardest but most rewarding kinds of work revolve around figuring out what causes sucky work and making that stuff disappear. Many times, this is addressing deep, systematic problems inside an organization. These are often technical, but sometimes they're not. Sometimes, though, it just comes down to coming up with cute hacks to automate paperwork and communication. And that kind of work of work is rewarding too, especially as you get more and more people to use your automation.
darklajid 15y ago
Maybe I just read it differently, but for me this article described a way to cram things that I _want_ to do (other people might play the violin every night at 20 for fun?) into the early morning hours. You're making a good point, _if_ we're talking about doing business in these hours (like trying to progress on your own little startup idea). If you just want to meddle with a small project, experiment with this $randomNewTech or improve your code for the fun of it, then this attitude of 'It should be fun' seems perfectly alright.
- alinajaf 15y ago
  I think doing work you don't like or that you find difficult is compatible with new tech you want to learn just for the heck of it. As an example I'm currently trying to deep-dive on Natural Language Processing. I'm a middling programmer but quite useless at Maths, so I know my weak points are going to be the stats used in NLP. In this, I've picked up the most highly recommended university level NLP text I could find I'm putting in a couple of hours a week studying it. After about thirty minutes in, I begin losing focus and it starts becoming really easy to think of distractions or reasons why I shouldn't be doing it. It's at times like that when it helps to realize that no, I should be doing this, I don't need to take a break, I should just power through. I'm not necessarily enjoying everything I do in these sessions, and it's definitely hard work in unfamiliar territory. I've found that concentration is like a muscle, the more you train it, the harder and longer you can maintain it without taking a break. For me, expecting the work to be fun sets me up to give in as soon as I start losing focus. Interestingly, after going at work 100% for hours at a time, I actually feel way better than I do than after a half-arsed attempt at productivity. Usually I've created or learned something, and I don't have that guilty feeling that I could have got more done today.

sreitshamer 15y ago

Agree. I think it's key to have passion/love for the overall goal, and realize that day to day I'm going to have to do a lot of stuff that's not fun. The passion for the overall goal motivates me to do the non-fun stuff.

city41 15y ago

That's a good point. I didn't really think of it that way. And I'm definitely in the 'fun' phase of this project. So thanks, maybe as more tedious stuff comes up I'll have a better mindset going into it.

marknutter 15y ago

Just because the work can get hard doesn't mean it can't still be enjoyable. For me, the enjoyment of work comes from the results you get out of doing it. There are times when I despise the actual work I'm doing but I enjoy doing it because I'm excited to see the final product.

dkarl 15y ago

I came to the same conclusion. Often when working on a difficult problem I used to think, "What the hell is wrong with me? Why is this not fun? Why am I not loving this? Did I choose the wrong career or am I just a lazy useless person?" Then I realized that as an athlete I never would have wondered why it hurt when I got cramps late in a game. I never wondered why my body complained about running the last mile or completing the last rep in training. I never had any self-doubt because I got bored practicing a skill hundreds of times to unlearn a bad habit. Those things are not inconsistent or contradictory to the joy and satisfaction of being an athlete. Thinking about that helps me a lot when the problem I'm working on is causing me only frustration instead of immediate gratification.

Diederich 15y ago

As with many people in this forum, the kind of work I enjoy the most is really hard. It's true that there's a variable amount of sucky work that comes up. Over the years, I've discovered that some of the hardest but most rewarding kinds of work revolve around figuring out what causes sucky work and making that stuff disappear. Many times, this is addressing deep, systematic problems inside an organization. These are often technical, but sometimes they're not. Sometimes, though, it just comes down to coming up with cute hacks to automate paperwork and communication. And that kind of work of work is rewarding too, especially as you get more and more people to use your automation.

darklajid 15y ago

Maybe I just read it differently, but for me this article described a way to cram things that I _want_ to do (other people might play the violin every night at 20 for fun?) into the early morning hours. You're making a good point, _if_ we're talking about doing business in these hours (like trying to progress on your own little startup idea). If you just want to meddle with a small project, experiment with this $randomNewTech or improve your code for the fun of it, then this attitude of 'It should be fun' seems perfectly alright.

alinajaf 15y ago
I think doing work you don't like or that you find difficult is compatible with new tech you want to learn just for the heck of it. As an example I'm currently trying to deep-dive on Natural Language Processing. I'm a middling programmer but quite useless at Maths, so I know my weak points are going to be the stats used in NLP. In this, I've picked up the most highly recommended university level NLP text I could find I'm putting in a couple of hours a week studying it. After about thirty minutes in, I begin losing focus and it starts becoming really easy to think of distractions or reasons why I shouldn't be doing it. It's at times like that when it helps to realize that no, I should be doing this, I don't need to take a break, I should just power through. I'm not necessarily enjoying everything I do in these sessions, and it's definitely hard work in unfamiliar territory. I've found that concentration is like a muscle, the more you train it, the harder and longer you can maintain it without taking a break. For me, expecting the work to be fun sets me up to give in as soon as I start losing focus. Interestingly, after going at work 100% for hours at a time, I actually feel way better than I do than after a half-arsed attempt at productivity. Usually I've created or learned something, and I don't have that guilty feeling that I could have got more done today.