People seem obligated to contort themselves into new displays of productivity every business cycle. Is being just a person with a job who works for money not acceptable? Must everyone have a "passion" for selling ads on the internet, making slight optimizations to existing workflows, selling products to strangers? Is there really now an expectation that you should turn your personal life into a display of manic behavior as well (the example in the article of a person having a passion for recipes as a mechanic to improve job prospects is absolutely ridiculous)?
The fashion for passion
31–40 of 44 posts
Re: The fashion for passion
#32"Most workers want to do a job they love" I forget where I read/heard it, but some of the best career advice I ever heard was (paraphrasing here): if you keep searching for the job you love you'll never be happy. Find a job you are, for the most part, tolerant of doing every day. There will always be ups and downs, but if you can't even face starting in the morning you're definitely going to spend life unhappy.
I think this can be good advice for some but terrible for others. I am one of those people that needs to do something they love. I finally found that last year, quit my job as a programmer and now Im happier than ever. I think it is very worthwhile to follow your passions if you have enough ability.
Re: The fashion for passion
#33"Most workers want to do a job they love" I forget where I read/heard it, but some of the best career advice I ever heard was (paraphrasing here): if you keep searching for the job you love you'll never be happy. Find a job you are, for the most part, tolerant of doing every day. There will always be ups and downs, but if you can't even face starting in the morning you're definitely going to spend life unhappy.
There was self-help type book (quite a good one, but its name escapes me) that talks about the Passion Mindset and the Craftsman Mindset. The Craftsman derives joy from mastering their craft, learning from past failures and improving every day. You can be a Craftsman in any career which allows for outlier performance - public speaking, writing books, trading, academia, entrepreneurship, software engineering. The Pass…
Likely not the book you're thinking of, but related and one I found useful:
"I Don't Know What I Want, But I Know It's Not This"
https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Know-What-Step-Step/dp/014312851...
Re: The fashion for passion
#34I don't even understand the concept of "passion". There is nothing I enjoy doing, nothing I look forward to. I work because it's everyone's responsibility to pay their own way. I'm just counting sleeps until the one I don't wake up from.
Re: The fashion for passion
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
There was self-help type book (quite a good one, but its name escapes me) that talks about the Passion Mindset and the Craftsman Mindset. The Craftsman derives joy from mastering their craft, learning from past failures and improving every day. You can be a Craftsman in any career which allows for outlier performance - public speaking, writing books, trading, academia, entrepreneurship, software engineering. The Pass…
Likely not the book you're thinking of, but related and one I found useful: "I Don't Know What I Want, But I Know It's Not This" https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Know-What-Step-Step/dp/014312851...
It was So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love
Re: The fashion for passion
#36I don't even understand the concept of "passion". There is nothing I enjoy doing, nothing I look forward to. I work because it's everyone's responsibility to pay their own way. I'm just counting sleeps until the one I don't wake up from.
A lot of people enjoy stuff, so it is possible. Maybe try something else.
Re: The fashion for passion
#37The most important thing I ever heard in terms of building my career and life was "If you want things you never had, you have to do things you've never done."
Re: The fashion for passion
#38I feel the topic of having a passion is becoming a contentious issue. When that investor letter to Google ceo came out, I unfortunately suggested that maybe for a company like Google, too high salaries would bring people in who "work for money and not passion". I never even dreamed of seeing so many people taking issue with what I said. Many were saying that it's just a job and people should not be passionate about G…
>I unfortunately suggested that maybe for a company like Google, too high salaries would bring people in who "work for money and not passion". I mean, that is literally the argument for education, social work, elder care, domestic abuse advocates, CASA, and any other number of social services fields. Why not google? Why shouldn't that argument apply to google as well? Also: >Still, trends like Quiet Quiting seem like…
It's easily the worse response. How does doing the minimum help you? How does having a bad attitude help the situation?
It doesn't make you happier. It doesn't improve your relationships. It doesn't improve your skills. It doesn't make you more money.
Re: The fashion for passion
#39... And then you get laid off. Happened to my gf, took it very hard. She's now going through the disillusionment phase, starting to understand that getting an MBA and being a special talent and loving your job is all a lie.
I feel that.
It wasn't getting laid off but some time ago I experienced a set of let's call them "professional betrayals" that, from a certain perspective, I've never really recovered from (because I'm no longer really capable of caring that much about my job), but from another - and perhaps healthier - perspective have been the making of me (because I'm no longer really capable of caring that much about my job).
Don't get me wrong: I still work hard and do a good job, and even take pride in doing that good job, but it's nowhere near as tied to how I see myself - to who I am - and I'm much the happier for it. I've also become more successful. Honestly, I think giving fewer fucks has proven to be the best thing that happened to my once stalled career.
Re: The fashion for passion
#40This is probably an outcropping of the trend in '90s prep schools to force students to have pitch-perfect side projects for their college applications. That shit never sat right with me. Here are a few side projects I've found employers don't really want to hear about, but find hard to say no to: "I run a bitcoin casino" "I build genetic algorithms to hack the stock market so I can make fuck-you money and quit this j…
How are the first two going?