But one thing worth pointing out about Jiro is that while the food is very, very good, both in terms of technical execution and taste, the experience is not typical of a high-end restaurant. Jiro the man is extremely severe and focused on his work, while the sushi comes at a very brisk pace. For the boiled octopus for instance, you have to eat it immediately after it is served. If not Jiro will remind you to, once and then a second time more sternly. He expects his clients to respect his craft as much as he does.
- SJX
An excellent documentary.
Worth watching if only to see that learning to fry a good omelette with Jiro's approach apparently takes a couple of years. Though it probably has more to do with the "never complain" part rather than perfecting the actual cooking skills.
Taking myself as an example, I've learned over the years that I respond to affirmation a lot more than I'd like to admit (always thought that was "shallow", until I realized I'm like that). In turn, if I produce good work that holds me in honorable regard, it creates affirmation that drives me. This is a way for me to hack my personality trait into something good. Of course, there are pitfalls in that failure produces the opposite result and I must not reduce my identity to the result of my work.
I think it must be a totally alien, or even irritating, idea to a bunch who expects to paid enormous sum of money because they have done a crash course in JavaScript spanning a month and claims to be able to build websites that can "deliver value" to the business..
That is considering they can even grasp the idea of things like "honor", which itself is a rather unpopular idea because it often gets in the way of making money....
What's funny is that some of them are actually being paid enormous sums of money for very little skill investment.
So in light of that, programming is apparently not a field that expects you to master anything before your salary is maximized.
- 29m30s in Jiro Dreams of Sushi(2011)
So, I assume that this apply only if you like the job. If you don't like the job, how can you actually commit to it?
I remember an old documentary (forget the name, sorry) that show that the government(?) give funds to people like him that still get alive old ways to do stuff. I remember the documentary talk about build samurai swords, pottery and jeans(?). This last one stuck to me because was claimed the jeans will last 100 years or something like that.
Can't say that you can really tell what's on his mind.
Just imagine that the job becomes like a surrogate to the persons' actual identity. They identify with their own job and think it makes their lives meaningful even though they might intensely dislike it. For instance, the people I've met who work in medicine who were very much like that - one of my best friends went through med school. Where I live doctors often work long hours besides having extremely stressful jobs (and so take self-comforting addictions like smoking, caffeine abuse and drinking). It seems as if they're often led into the profession by rather unlofty motives like pay or prestige, but I also know that many give some inherent value to their work because they're helping people. Would they'd be better off in another job? I know it's not up to me to tell, I feel as if many would. Specially the ones very much sensitive about patient loss. Because it's a hard thing to deal with anyway, but it hits them the most.
So yeah, I think that someone might stay in a profession he might not actually personally like for some arbitrarily long periods of time. At least in principle. Don't know how it might apply to other professions though, because I don't see why people would keep programming for ethical reasons - unless they're deathly afraid of the coming machine revolution.
Now, if the question is whether this really is his terminal preference, or whether he misunderstands his own deepest desires and might, under different conditions, have suffered a "mid-life crisis" realizing he hasn't satisfied his true goals after all... I can't really say. You'd have to ask him. Probably after getting him very drunk, because "has your life been a mistake" is not the type of thing you make small-talk about.
"Once you decide on your occupation, you must immerse yourself in your work. You have to fall in love with your work. Never complain about your job. You must dedicate your life to mastering your skill. That's the secret of success and is the key to being regarded honorably."