This is a complex question. When did you figure what you wanted to do when you grew up? Are you doing what you are doing for the love of it or for money? or Prestige?
This begins as school kids. When we would rather play than solve math problems. When the idea that tedious study work will prepare us for our future work as grown ups is injected into our mind. How often did you meet elders who said they loved their jobs?
I read this 2006 article by Paul Graham “How to do what you love” and found it fascinating in the way he dissected the topic.
Samples these :
On kids: “Actually they’ve been told three lies: the stuff they’ve been taught to regard as work in school is not real work; grownup work is not (necessarily) worse than schoolwork; and many of the adults around them are lying when they say they like what they do.”
On Prestige: “What you should not do, I think, is worry about the opinion of anyone beyond your friends. You shouldn’t worry about prestige. Prestige is the opinion of the rest of the world.”
I guarantee you will enjoy reading the post while nodding in agreement. But then, as Paul Graham writes “Doing what you love is complicated.”
Where I learnt this # 289
How To Do What You Love
