He buried the lede: "Drawing comic strips for five years without pay drove home the point that the fun of cartooning wasn't in the money; it was in the work." My advice is similar: don't do what you love, do what you can stand doing for 10 hours a day. When people ask about software development, I say: can you debug one line of code for 10 hours straight? if so, then you can be a software engineer. (actually, I've ha…
3+ days is standard for code in academia hahah.
Academic mathematician here. I’ve been stuck on something for the last 20 years.
There's nothing wrong with leading a life of quiet desperation. What's wrong is cheating yourself out of happiness by not being grateful for what you have. So you're one of the unwashed masses in the garage waiting for the clock. Does that mean you have to be unhappy? Not if you can be grateful for what that affords you in the rest of your life, not to mention grateful the work isn't worse. You can always choose to c…
This is a very profound piece of wisdom. There are times where I dwell on how I should have invested my money a decade ago and wish I made different choices before hitting my mid 30s. Yet I have a lot to be thankful for now, despite my mistakes.
Don't beat yourself up. When i was in my mid-30's I had trouble wrapping my head around the fact that I had escaped the fate of every other member of my family: poverty, addiction, and early death. Compared to that, my investment decisions seem trivial.
I agree on the DFW point. It’s rare for a commencement speech to hit the nail on the head, it almost always lapses into this “do what you love” shtick that isn’t really relatable for kids who studied business to pay off their incredibly large student loans - at that point, you love not being in debt
I've always been conflicted about the DFW speech as a wonderful tool to think about how to live from a man who seemed to have led a pretty troubled life. I keep coming back to the speech for its content, but can't help but think of the man who gave it when I do.
You can take the argument at its own merit. The a big chunk of the world walks their bride to the music of one of the most famous antisemites in history anyway!
I don’t know if I got anything very profound from it tbh - this sounds like just another commencement speech from someone who has very little in common with almost every person in their audience asking them to do something they would never do. Similar initially inspiring but later on making you question speeches include the ones from Neil Gaiman, Steve Jobs and Conan O’Brien. Honestly the most amazing speech is from…
I disagree about Watterson's speech. It seems very actionable to me for the common man: define meaning in life for yourself, don't get stuck on the hedonic treadmill, think about what your values are and shape your life around them, etc
This is not very different from telling a depressed person to just cheer up and go for a walk imo.
No one told Watterson to love cartooning and hate “work” the way he says it with disdain. He was just born that way.
And he also turned out to be an exceptional artist. People with exceptional skills should refrain from telling others to follow their paths. It’s disingenuous and not in the interest of the audience at all. Follow your passion will fail badly at you if you are bad at it.
I disagree about Watterson's speech. It seems very actionable to me for the common man: define meaning in life for yourself, don't get stuck on the hedonic treadmill, think about what your values are and shape your life around them, etc
This is not very different from telling a depressed person to just cheer up and go for a walk imo. No one told Watterson to love cartooning and hate “work” the way he says it with disdain. He was just born that way. And he also turned out to be an exceptional artist. People with exceptional skills should refrain from telling others to follow their paths. It’s disingenuous and not in the interest of the audience at al…
This is a really negative outlook. The crux of the advice is to have a playful mind, and don't live a life of quiet desperation. This advice can apply to engineers, business people, and anyone else. It does not mean you have to be a cartoonist. In fact the reason I love programming is exactly the same as the reason he says he loves cartooning, because it allows us to play with ideas and learn new domains and problems and ways of thinking. Let's go exploring.
I disagree about Watterson's speech. It seems very actionable to me for the common man: define meaning in life for yourself, don't get stuck on the hedonic treadmill, think about what your values are and shape your life around them, etc
This is not very different from telling a depressed person to just cheer up and go for a walk imo. No one told Watterson to love cartooning and hate “work” the way he says it with disdain. He was just born that way. And he also turned out to be an exceptional artist. People with exceptional skills should refrain from telling others to follow their paths. It’s disingenuous and not in the interest of the audience at al…
I don't think he's just saying follow your passion. He's saying be true to your values (and figure out what those are). If your values are that hardwork is important or providing well for your family is the priority then you can be happy doing those things.
I disagree about Watterson's speech. It seems very actionable to me for the common man: define meaning in life for yourself, don't get stuck on the hedonic treadmill, think about what your values are and shape your life around them, etc
This is not very different from telling a depressed person to just cheer up and go for a walk imo. No one told Watterson to love cartooning and hate “work” the way he says it with disdain. He was just born that way. And he also turned out to be an exceptional artist. People with exceptional skills should refrain from telling others to follow their paths. It’s disingenuous and not in the interest of the audience at al…
He's not telling them to follow his path. He's telling them to make sure the path they follow leaves them satisfied.
I'm not particularly exceptional, and I give the same advice.