Ask HN: How did you find your passion?

I respect this post immensely, I really do. I have studied various martial arts for a total of about 10 years (49 years old now, karate, Japanese sword-- kendo, iaido, even a few years of zen meditation which I see as the source of so much). Loved it while doing it. It strikes me one has to pick theirs very carefully. Everyone is different but my sister started studying Crav Maga in her early 30s for 2 years and now at 40 has chronic un-diagnosable pain problems which started only a few years after. She doesn't remember a single injury that "shifted" her health status but definitely something wrong occurred within the nervous or skeletal system and now she's a mess.

> I wanted to change all the icons for a application so it would fit my theme.

In 2012 I wanted to move the notification badges to fit my theme on my jailbroken device. However there were no way to do it, so I got into developing software for jailbroken devices and did it myself. 6-ish years later I still do it. It also led me into my current (iOS) developer career.

I've been programming for way longer than this, so my passion was known beforehand, however the current direction seemed very relevant to your comment.

Step one, it seems to me, is to figure out what passion isn't ... there are several mental trips that may seem like passion, but don't last. I think of it as a challenging journey you're drawn to regardless of what others think (so it's not ego-tripping) or how conventionally rewarding it is (if it is, lucky you, but ... danger, Will Robinson).

Something that opens you up and allows you to develop ... challenging enough to keep you from ever getting bored. A large set of related problems, for example, a universe to apply your growing expertise to.

That (not so elegantly) said, finding it may mean a lot of trial and error. So staying open to new candidates is important, until you can rule out most avenues and focus on those you stay drawn to.

That's an interesting point - passion does fade over time. I spent 10 years of my life intensely devoted to music, but at some point it just evaporated. It's baffling, really.

As for software development, I found my passion as a kid when my father taught me some simple scripting on his old Dolphin. I was simply amazed by the vast landscape of possibilities.

I love Jiu Jitsu as well but I had to take a break from it after getting a back injury.

I would describe it as "Timed chess with your whole body" because every movement you make matters. It puts things in perspective of what your priorities in life should be, there are many analogies to be said with this. If you spend too much time analyzing a situation you'll get placed into a rear naked chokehold, armbarred, etc. Move now or never

The reason why I like jiu jitsu on a mechanical level is because I find I have an obsession for automating things. I like to think of myself as smart lazy. I don't work harder than I have too - and what I love so much about jiu jitsu is that the best practioners are exactly this. The sheer minimal movement to achieve maximum practical results is exciting to me. I would say this is also why I love rock climbing as well too

At the same time, its important to hone your skills in jiu jitsu. Knowing when and where to react to different body positions is much like knowing what solution should be implemented in a project.

Onto the obsession with automating things. I find that any derivative of this makes me really passionate. Jiu jitsu is one application. But it goes further. I'm a big fan of r/homegyms and r/bodyfitness because they derive from the same application. I find that I am also obsessed with short workouts with maximal result, nutrient macros, sleep equipment, etc. I have a pretty crazy home gym treadmill-desk ironmaster super bench setup that I derived inspiration from many industries.

Another application is finding the best XYZ workflows for a given program. I used to get obsessed with writing gaming guides / build setups for MMO games as a kid. Some have been read by hundreds of thousands of users. Some have actually had a profound impact on peoples lives - in one case I had a surgeon thanking me for the youtube guides I made to train his motor skills.

I found that this same passion eventually pooled into other things as well - mostly related to notetaking software, flashcards, and learning. Things like GTD, space-repetition learning, discovering new content, etc. I have a whole system setup for each of these things, a full blown 800 subs on youtube I've curated overtime in many industries. In the last few years I've used about 500+ software applications. I love to try things out for at least one time to see if I enjoy it or not.

This obsession with software goes into many other fields. I find I spend a huge amount of time cataloging every software used in any industry, because I'm always curious what things businesses & people automate. In fact if you were to look up software alternatives, there's a really big chance you'll actually come reviews I've written here. [link redacted]

This obsession with automation doesn't really stop here. I'm a huge fan of frontend and nice UX designs, both on web and in actual products. In many ways, marketing is a derivative of automation - in the sense of appealing to the 5 senses in the most intuitive way possible. Its why I enjoy frontend development as well and can appreciate simple functional aesthetic designs.

In addition, I am obsessed about learning history as well. I find you can learn from other peoples mistakes and this goes back to automation in learning. By learning what others failed at you save yourself time down the road. I also invest a lot of time watching documenateries about different industries related to construction, shipping, logistics, world culture, social economics etc. I love to travel as well every 1 or 2 years.

Because I'm also obsessed with automation and notetaking - I am also obsessed with with building my own plugins and solutions. My first hobby DIY project is used by 400 businesses today on a relational database application.

Because of the obsession I have - it also pools into higher learning as well. I can't build cool things unless I have a better understanding of how things in nature works. Naturally I am also interested in topics related to math, computer science, electrical and mechanical engineering. And things like fullstack development, etc. Currently right now I'm building a notetaking app that I haven't found in any other solutions in in the market, but its a long learning process since I don't have any backend knowledge.

So basically, my passion is automation, and I just pool derivatives of that into other fields. I think I have curated this passion by spending so much of my childhood playing video games actually. In elementary school, I used to cheat and make my own modded starcraft maps. In middle school, I played a lot of MMOs, learned how to curse in Korean, before I learned about world cultures in school. In high school, I used to teach economics to my guild members on how to do buy/sell things much like you would on ebay. I would practice things like insider trading, running bots, price gouging, etc on the trade market because I was on the alpha game tester too. Then I ran my own virtual business and sold that for real money on the side. In college, I had a youtube channel I used and became one of the most famous players in a popular MMO. I don't derive any satisfaction from playing video games anymore though - although I still socially game only. Consequently this is also why I have little interest in financial tech as well.

I think passion needs to be curated over a good span of time. You just need to know what drives you, and this might just mean a lot of discovery of new fields and content. Trying out new things. Etc. Finding things you don't like etc.