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Ask HN: Have you found something you love to do? If yes how?

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Re: Ask HN: Have you found something you love to do? If yes how?

#71

Post by Nextgrid »

carlmr wrote: post #44
justinlloyd wrote: post #33

I love to write code, I love to ship products and I love to build businesses. But what I really love, what drives me, is solving interesting problems. That's my entire career. Solve interesting problems. "We're building a web2.0 exercise tracking..." No! "We're putting health records on the block..." Nein! "We're improving how people buy insuran..." Non! "We're creating a mobile app to submit expens..." Nee! "We're b…

>My response on LinkedIn or AngelList when approached by business people and recruiters with their dreadful job opening is usually along the lines of "Thanks for making me aware of this opportunity. Sounds boring. Good luck in your continuing candidate search." Thank you, this is what I always think with these job adverts. It's almost impossible to think about anything less appealing than a list of technologies they…

The worst is when the company brags about their funding as if it makes any difference to me. If anything, it makes their shitty offer look even more shitty. If you're gonna brag about millions, you better offer me a decent cut.

Re: Ask HN: Have you found something you love to do? If yes how?

#72

Post by jensneuse »

Five or so years ago I started to "implement" GraphQL, the Query language from scratch. Lexing, parsing, designing an AST. I had to rewrite everything multiple times, added validation and an execution engine. At some point I realized what I've actually built, the foundation to create an npm-like system for APIs, using GraphQL as the universal integration language for any kind of API. Since I understood how powerful this concept is I'm unable to stop working on it. I'm now turning this into a product/company, it's called WunderGraph: https://wundergraph.com/ Btw. the engine and everything is open source, it's written in Go: https://github.com/jensneuse/graphql-go-tools

Re: Ask HN: Have you found something you love to do? If yes how?

#73

Post by stazz1 »

empressplay wrote: post #38
wellthisisgreat wrote: post #23

I have one thing that gives me a deep sense of fulfillment and a feeling that I was not living those few hours of my life in vain. That is writing fiction. paradoxically (or maybe not) it is not as rewarding process-wise as writing software, which has the strongest instant gratification loop after, maybe, video games. You can’t really be a writer, however, unless you want to die in poverty, etc.

You can make a living as a writer but you need to crank out 4-5 novels a year, which is more than I can do!

I reckon that would certainly affect the quality of the compositions. Unless, of course, 4-5 is the natural output of some monster writers.

Re: Ask HN: Have you found something you love to do? If yes how?

#74

Post by polishdude20 »

thatsamonad wrote: post #20

I enjoy working on and solving technical problems, but the “core” thing that I’ve found I really love is working with other people to figure things out together (even though I’m fairly introverted). Once I realized that it shaped my perspective on a lot of work tasks and hobbies. For example - a good friend and I regularly play battle royale and co-op games together after work in the evenings. The joy of those games,…

This is exactly me. I get super bor d of playing single player games and I don't even play multiplayer games alone. I always need to play with a friend over discord. It's my way of socializing and getting that feeling of playing a team sport. Overwatch has been really fun over the years.

Re: Ask HN: Have you found something you love to do? If yes how?

#76

Post by loonster »

mrfusion wrote: post #40
justinlloyd wrote: post #33

I love to write code, I love to ship products and I love to build businesses. But what I really love, what drives me, is solving interesting problems. That's my entire career. Solve interesting problems. "We're building a web2.0 exercise tracking..." No! "We're putting health records on the block..." Nein! "We're improving how people buy insuran..." Non! "We're creating a mobile app to submit expens..." Nee! "We're b…

I’m sold. How do I achieve this?

Many ways to do it * Become really good at something * Live a modest lifestyle * Have low debt * Have decent savings

Re: Ask HN: Have you found something you love to do? If yes how?

#77

Post by ssss11 »

I’ve jumped around a bit, I’ve done many different tech roles in end user companies (client side).

I’ve found I love three things - designing tech solutions but only what I’m passionate about, business (non-tech: finance, risk mgmt, commercial etc) and am passionate about empowering people rather than fleecing them (in a b2c context).

I’m happy with what I’m currently doing as I’m working in the business space now but ultimately think my place would be bootstrapping a user enabling solution and I’m in the early stages of making a side project to hopefully achieve that.

Re: Ask HN: Have you found something you love to do? If yes how?

#78

Post by rg111 »

pjm331 wrote: post #50
rg111 wrote: post #41

In this regard, you might want to read "So Good They Can't Ignore You" by Cal Newport. I know. The title is cheesy and melodramatic. But this book was really helpful in shaping some of my worldview. This book goes vehemently against the "discovery" of "passion", and instead provides some practical insights on how to do work that you will love. Or how to reach there.

This book is in a genre I call “once you’ve read the title you’ve read the book” Definitely aligned with the idea but if you already agree with the title you can save some time and skip the read

> This book is in a genre I call “once you’ve read the title you’ve read the book”

Hard disagree. Have you actually read it?

It offers much more than the title.

Re: Ask HN: Have you found something you love to do? If yes how?

#79

Post by vaylian »

pjm331 wrote: post #50
rg111 wrote: post #41

In this regard, you might want to read "So Good They Can't Ignore You" by Cal Newport. I know. The title is cheesy and melodramatic. But this book was really helpful in shaping some of my worldview. This book goes vehemently against the "discovery" of "passion", and instead provides some practical insights on how to do work that you will love. Or how to reach there.

This book is in a genre I call “once you’ve read the title you’ve read the book” Definitely aligned with the idea but if you already agree with the title you can save some time and skip the read

No. One important aspect of the book that doesn't appear in the title is: People who get really good at something useful, also enjoy their work a lot more. The public view is often that passion leads to success. But the book argues that in many cases it is actually the other way around.

Re: Ask HN: Have you found something you love to do? If yes how?

#80

Post by User23 »

analog31 wrote: post #18

I fell in love with developing measurement equipment. It started in grad school, realizing that I really wasn't cut out for a basic research career (in a massively overcrowded academic job market), but that I got a lot of satisfaction from being able to solve hard technical problems. Today, measurement systems combine many of my hobbies, including electronics and programming. I would get bored with becoming a special…

> For instance threads on doing little or no actual work without getting caught

I imagine there are exceptions, but I think a lot of this is people doing jobs that are fundamentally pointless to begin with. When what you're doing is of no practical value to anyone, it's difficult to remain motivated.

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