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On the other hand, you might consider simply finding what you love, and letting the rest take care of itself. Yep, this works great for me. Because I'm never

by dkarl 14y ago

On the other hand, you might consider simply finding what you love, and letting the rest take care of itself. Yep, this works great for me. Because I'm never bored by what I love, never discouraged by what I love, never heedlessly irresponsible about what I love, never sick of what I love, never resentful of what I love, never scared to death of what I love. I'm never distracted by what I don't love, never seduced by what I don't love, never fooled by what I don't love. I'm never foolish in my love, never shallow in my love, never fickle in my love, never maturing or changing in my love. And of course I never, ever love more than one thing at a time.

stephengillie 14y ago
"Do what you love, and you'll never have to work again" Some act like this is a joke, saying: "Yea right, you still need a job to survive." Yes, you do need income to buy food and shelter. But the income doesn't even need to come from a job, and it certainly doesn't have to come from tasks you dislike. If you hate your job, you are probably in the wrong career or working in the wrong field. If you really hate your job, people close to you know, and it affects them.
- barbarella 14y ago
  My husband loves his job, as a freelance programmer, like most of you out there. He loves it even more when there's no money involved. He can't be bothered marketing the projects he loves spending time on. He's in the right career, all right, but is he making a living?
reinhardt 14y ago
Look at the bright side, at least there is something you love instead of trying to keep afloat in a sea of indifference and drifting lukewarm interests. Not everyone has it so good.
- bduerst 14y ago
  I was there a while ago. The only advice I can give to those who are feeling this that it takes tremendous effort to move yourself into a position in life that you enjoy. What's worth having or keeping in life isn't easily obtained.
nostrademons 14y ago
I don't think that's really the author's point. I think his point is that when you find something you love, you will forgive the little aggravations and just power through them, because they are part of this activity that you love. You find yourself loving the aggravations as much as the achievement, so that it's the process that pulls you along. I'm debugging a double-free in a C library right now. I have basically no information to go on other than the failing test; ASAN/Valgrind was no help, and the liberal assertions sprinkled throughout the code aren't catching it. Many people would say that this is a pretty sucky task, but it is challenging and engrossing enough that I debated not writing this comment (I'll try and keep it short so I can return to my work soon ;-)). That's why people usually use the metaphor of running. Running is hard work; it is hard on your joints, it is hard on your muscles, it gives you a hell of an aerobic workout and leaves you sweaty and out of breath afterwards. Yet many runners (not I) get a high from the process - not from having finished the race, nor from how fast they finished the race, but just from having run.
- geoka9 14y ago
  > Yet many runners (not I) get a high from the process I think it's within the grasp of anybody. You just have to learn to enjoy the pain running (or any other workout) brings. It sounds perverted but it does help to approach exercise with such mindset. Now, how to convince yourself to enjoy it, is an interesting question. For me, the realization that we (as animals) were meant to run much (if not most) of our waking day did wonders (the aha moment, if you will).
  - tete 14y ago
    Even games consist of work. If they don't they tend to be rather boring. I think it's not good for humanity to be forced to things, because it prevents them from learning to love them. As an example everyone loves to read books unless they are for school. Everyone loves to read stuff on Wikipedia unless it's for university and everyone loves to solve puzzles unless it's to make money. Well, or you learn to carry over that love. Seriously, I think all these "get people interested into math/science/engineering" things wouldn't be necessary if one of the first experiences wouldn't be to be forced to do it, forced to do lots of boring homework, to sit still in class listening to the teacher, preventing you from being outside. I think the only reason I am into computer science is because I never really had it in school. (And now I am studying CS and suddenly history and languages are interesting as hell)

by dkarl 14y ago

stephengillie 14y ago

"Do what you love, and you'll never have to work again" Some act like this is a joke, saying: "Yea right, you still need a job to survive." Yes, you do need income to buy food and shelter. But the income doesn't even need to come from a job, and it certainly doesn't have to come from tasks you dislike. If you hate your job, you are probably in the wrong career or working in the wrong field. If you really hate your job, people close to you know, and it affects them.

barbarella 14y ago
My husband loves his job, as a freelance programmer, like most of you out there. He loves it even more when there's no money involved. He can't be bothered marketing the projects he loves spending time on. He's in the right career, all right, but is he making a living?

reinhardt 14y ago

Look at the bright side, at least there is something you love instead of trying to keep afloat in a sea of indifference and drifting lukewarm interests. Not everyone has it so good.

bduerst 14y ago
I was there a while ago. The only advice I can give to those who are feeling this that it takes tremendous effort to move yourself into a position in life that you enjoy. What's worth having or keeping in life isn't easily obtained.

nostrademons 14y ago

I don't think that's really the author's point. I think his point is that when you find something you love, you will forgive the little aggravations and just power through them, because they are part of this activity that you love. You find yourself loving the aggravations as much as the achievement, so that it's the process that pulls you along. I'm debugging a double-free in a C library right now. I have basically no information to go on other than the failing test; ASAN/Valgrind was no help, and the liberal assertions sprinkled throughout the code aren't catching it. Many people would say that this is a pretty sucky task, but it is challenging and engrossing enough that I debated not writing this comment (I'll try and keep it short so I can return to my work soon ;-)). That's why people usually use the metaphor of running. Running is hard work; it is hard on your joints, it is hard on your muscles, it gives you a hell of an aerobic workout and leaves you sweaty and out of breath afterwards. Yet many runners (not I) get a high from the process - not from having finished the race, nor from how fast they finished the race, but just from having run.

geoka9 14y ago
> Yet many runners (not I) get a high from the process I think it's within the grasp of anybody. You just have to learn to enjoy the pain running (or any other workout) brings. It sounds perverted but it does help to approach exercise with such mindset. Now, how to convince yourself to enjoy it, is an interesting question. For me, the realization that we (as animals) were meant to run much (if not most) of our waking day did wonders (the aha moment, if you will).
- tete 14y ago
  Even games consist of work. If they don't they tend to be rather boring. I think it's not good for humanity to be forced to things, because it prevents them from learning to love them. As an example everyone loves to read books unless they are for school. Everyone loves to read stuff on Wikipedia unless it's for university and everyone loves to solve puzzles unless it's to make money. Well, or you learn to carry over that love. Seriously, I think all these "get people interested into math/science/engineering" things wouldn't be necessary if one of the first experiences wouldn't be to be forced to do it, forced to do lots of boring homework, to sit still in class listening to the teacher, preventing you from being outside. I think the only reason I am into computer science is because I never really had it in school. (And now I am studying CS and suddenly history and languages are interesting as hell)