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And how do you find out your passion is a passion? So, this article may be overly facile (I agree with you that it is) but that doesn't mean he's entirely wron

And how do you find out your passion is a passion? So, this article may be overly facile (I agree with you that it is) but that doesn't mean he's entirely wrong, even if he's only right accidentally. There's quite a bit of research into expert performance that shows that passion isn't in-born, but developed, and developed through hard work. The initial steps of most careers (even passion careers) are completely unenjoyable. Yes, maybe you are born with a passion for it, but that's very rare. Most people aren't born with an innate passion, not even most who eventually exhibit expert performance. Most people come to be passionate about what they do well in, and you can't do well until you've gotten over the vicious first humps. What gets the non-born-passionate over the humps is simple dedication. You might enjoy the Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance. Or, for lighter reading, Kathy Sierra's blog/conference talks, which are based on a lot of that same research but much more fun to listen to.

mdkess 14y ago
Therein lies the challenge. And I agree with you that it comes down to dedication. Heck, the stuff I'm most interested in today I didn't even know existed five years ago. The article said: | "Passion is something that will follow you as you put in the hard work to become valuable to the world." Which I agree with. But then it went on to say | Then apply this test: Will people pay you for it? Will they pay you a lot for it? | "Money matters, at least in a relative sense," Newport says. "Money is a neutral indicator of value. Potential customers don't care about your passion. Potential customers care about giving up money." Which I really disagree with as a first measure, to which I say - go work in finance. Your expected value there is far higher than doing anything else. Even if you'll go on to sell a company for $20 million to Google, you'll probably make more money in finance. Money is a side effect - it's important, but if you're looking for money first, I think that you'll miss the forest for the trees. Self actualization should be everyone's primary passion, I feel. And it's hard. What I was getting at more was people who make excuses about not trying for that - always external, "I would, but I have kids", "I would, but I'm married", which I think are the worst kind of excuse (blaming your wife for preventing you from even trying to make anything of yourself! Can you imagine?). "I would, but I want more money to pay off more debt I used to buy a middle class car and a middle class house with a garage and a lawn and an iPad and a pool and and a vacation to some curated hotel in some third world country every couple years. So that's why I'm not trying to figure out who I really am." I will check both of those out, thanks for the recommendations.

mdkess 14y ago

Therein lies the challenge. And I agree with you that it comes down to dedication. Heck, the stuff I'm most interested in today I didn't even know existed five years ago. The article said: | "Passion is something that will follow you as you put in the hard work to become valuable to the world." Which I agree with. But then it went on to say | Then apply this test: Will people pay you for it? Will they pay you a lot for it? | "Money matters, at least in a relative sense," Newport says. "Money is a neutral indicator of value. Potential customers don't care about your passion. Potential customers care about giving up money." Which I really disagree with as a first measure, to which I say - go work in finance. Your expected value there is far higher than doing anything else. Even if you'll go on to sell a company for $20 million to Google, you'll probably make more money in finance. Money is a side effect - it's important, but if you're looking for money first, I think that you'll miss the forest for the trees. Self actualization should be everyone's primary passion, I feel. And it's hard. What I was getting at more was people who make excuses about not trying for that - always external, "I would, but I have kids", "I would, but I'm married", which I think are the worst kind of excuse (blaming your wife for preventing you from even trying to make anything of yourself! Can you imagine?). "I would, but I want more money to pay off more debt I used to buy a middle class car and a middle class house with a garage and a lawn and an iPad and a pool and and a vacation to some curated hotel in some third world country every couple years. So that's why I'm not trying to figure out who I really am." I will check both of those out, thanks for the recommendations.