I disagree with this and feel this thinking makes peoples lives miserable thinking they're somehow wasting their lives and makes people take plunges in life that they later regret.
I feel there is space for an attitude that, to learn a craft you need to toil and master it with deep dedication and practice. Mastery, will bring with it naturally that joy that we seek.
I think if people consider their craft as bigger than themselves, with an attitude of humility and learning they will get the happiness and satisfaction of building things. Rather than seeking a job that's somehow obliged to give you that happiness juice..
Its short, only a few short paragraphs - but it has one key piece that I've found myself oft quoting to people:
> Maybe this is what people mean when they tell us to "find our passion", but that phrase seems pretty abstract to me. Maybe instead we should encourage people to find the hard problems they like to work on. Which problems do you want to keep working on, even when they turn out to be harder than you expected? Which kinds of frustration do you enjoy, or at least are willing to endure while you figure things out? Answers to these very practical questions might help you find a place where you can build an interesting and rewarding life.
> I realize that "Find your passion" makes for a more compelling motivational poster than "What hard problems do you enjoy working on?" (and even that's a lot better than "What kind of pain are you willing to endure?"), but it might give some people a more realistic way to approach finding their life's work.
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I enjoy software development - and I do so because I enjoy solving those problems. To me, software development is like being paid to solve sudoku puzzles all day long (and yes, I watch cracking the cryptic from time to time)... well, at least when I'm not in meetings.
One of the important skills that I now realize that the dreaded math classes that I disliked (integrations and eigenvectors - ugh) was about the skill of continuing to solve the problem rather than giving up (and searching for the answer). Yes, there's a place for people who go to the back of the book or Stack Overflow for the solution - but many haven't learned the hard skill of continuing to solve the problem when its not easy.
Trying to progress in your chosen craft when you find the actual challenge to be sheer tedium is deeply demoralising and can affect other aspects of your life. In my case it lead to feelings of helplessness and pointlessness.
Such a great link - states the problem succinctly and provides an excellent heuristic. Thanks for sharing.
As an aside, it is interesting looking at the history of other submissions from the same author - https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=uni.edu
Thinking that life would have been better with someone else, is just an escape for the mind which makes people miserable!
The secret is to roll up your sleeves, and put in the work!
Though that will change soon thanks to a fantastic liquidity event.
I'm looking forward to leaving this industry in a couple of months and living comfortably on my low- to mid-seven figure exit.