41–50 of 200 posts
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.
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…
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 require without any motivation why.
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…
After 15 years as a freelance developer I’ve started a rural wireless ISP. It hasn’t entirely displaced my freelance work, but allows me to help people in a way that being a developer didn’t (tangibly, at least). Now I install internet access for people, on infrastructure I have built, and I see how happy they are when they go from 2 to 100mbps (this is often in a field in the middle of nowhere). This means they can…
The problem, as far as I can make it, is that the thing(s) you love will probably not look like a corporate job. It's my strong feeling that people don't actually love jobs, they love kinds of work, but only as long as they have agency. Once the work becomes a job it tends to get subordinated to profit motives, instead of your own creative drives. My best bet is that if you want to do something you love you have to s…
My problem is I get bored and lose motivation when working alone. I’m thinking a job would be a good way to keep me moving forward? I’ve tried teaming up with people on projects but it seems like if it’s not tied to a paycheck they flake out pretty quickly.
> I’ve tried teaming up with people on projects but it seems like if it’s not tied to a paycheck they flake out pretty quickly.
Maybe something like contributing to an existing open source project or doing some small projects of your own (e.g. writing a blog about smth that your really like, without aiming to monetize it) could help.
The best case scenario would be to start a self-supporting company or something of that sort.
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.
Definitely aligned with the idea but if you already agree with the title you can save some time and skip the read