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Do What You Love

blogs.valvesoftware.com

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Re: Do What You Love

#31

Post by steve-howard »

grlthgn wrote: post #10

I always hated that advice "Do what you Love". It's a fucking terrible advice. I know people mean well when they give that advice, but its a downright terrible advice for the vast majority of people. Let me point out that this is an article written by a guy that ended up "loving" programming. I know that there is a lot of programmers here, (myself included) but let's face the reality here: only weirdos love programmi…

I love food, music, art, sex, sports, and adventure. I'm weird as hell, but I love to program. I just assume that "do what you love" is a short way of saying "find out something you love that other people need, and spin that into a career." I admit that since I've wanted to be a programmer for a long, long time I don't know what it's like to not know what I want to do, but I can't assume this is the only career that you can actually like.

Re: Do What You Love

#32

Post by staunch »

grlthgn wrote: post #10

I always hated that advice "Do what you Love". It's a fucking terrible advice. I know people mean well when they give that advice, but its a downright terrible advice for the vast majority of people. Let me point out that this is an article written by a guy that ended up "loving" programming. I know that there is a lot of programmers here, (myself included) but let's face the reality here: only weirdos love programmi…

I think your complaint goes away if you complete the sentence: Do what you love to create

Most people live read-only lives. They never create music, food, or art. They merely consume them.

But if you love creating music, food, or art you absolutely can make a career out of it. Of course, a middling chef or musician won't make it very far, but neither will a middling programmer really (though they may at least stay employed).

Re: Do What You Love

#33

Post by jewel »

neilparikh wrote: post #13

Side note, but can some one explain or link to something that explains xor-based animation? I couldn't find much in a quick Google search.

When the display only has black and white pixels, you can XOR the a "sprite", or image to the screen to draw it, and XOR the same sprite in to the same location again to undraw it. The advantages are that you don't have to redraw the entire screen this way each frame, images can overlap, and you can draw your image on a black background or a white background.

For animation, you pre-XOR the sprites together so that a single XOR both erases the old image, and draws the new one, in a single blit.

http://z80-heaven.wikidot.com/sprite-routines has some sample code and perhaps a better explanation. http://tibasicdev.wikidot.com/68k:sprites has some sample pictures.

Re: Do What You Love

#34

Post by tferris »

Do opportunities.

That's all about and if these opportunities are about your passion even better. Otherwise you wait for the perfect idea or stuck with a crappy thing for years only because it's you passion.

Re: Do What You Love

#35

Post by Jach »

kamaal wrote: post #30
ryanmolden wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Contrary to whatever you think 'getting rich' is very important. To you. Just like the GP is projecting his view of the world as the view everyone should have, so are you. People are different (gasp) and that means their rankings of most any list of things you can come up with will be different. >And even if you are the best janitor in the whole world. You still won't be able to send your kids to a good university M…

I agree. But I put a few things as they are because sometimes they are necessary to be put it that way. Look at this way. These articles try to paint a picture that its OK to sacrifice your financial well being if you are faced with an option that offers perceived happiness. In reality this is rarely true. Work is just one requirement of life. Of the many requirements which start from brushing your teeth in the morni…

The studies on happiness I've seen tend to conclude with "money doesn't buy happiness but lack of it does buy misery." The specific amount of lacking depends on the relative poverty line and in the US decreases as income approaches ~$75k/yr USD. But there's a lot of individual factors involved with happiness even if on average money has a measurable effect. Some people are really cheerful living below the poverty line but for most it's not a great place to be. Others make do with what they have and are content. Others use credit cards to inflate their income by $2k-$50k. There are also plenty of manically depressed millionaires, so cash alone is not sufficient for some. There are lots of blissful stupid people. I think the better question in these discussions is "what's the optimal happiness a human can achieve, and what can I achieve in the near future?" Since we can measure it I agree with you that money is an important factor, perhaps the dominating one for some individuals, but not the only one.

Re: Do What You Love

#36

Post by sliverstorm »

staunch wrote: post #32
grlthgn wrote: post #10

I always hated that advice "Do what you Love". It's a fucking terrible advice. I know people mean well when they give that advice, but its a downright terrible advice for the vast majority of people. Let me point out that this is an article written by a guy that ended up "loving" programming. I know that there is a lot of programmers here, (myself included) but let's face the reality here: only weirdos love programmi…

I think your complaint goes away if you complete the sentence: Do what you love to create Most people live read-only lives. They never create music, food, or art. They merely consume them. But if you love creating music, food, or art you absolutely can make a career out of it. Of course, a middling chef or musician won't make it very far, but neither will a middling programmer really (though they may at least stay em…

Nothing wrong with being a middling chef or a middling programmer; we can't all be rockstar ninjas, and there is plenty of need for normal chefs and normal programmers.

Re: Do What You Love

#37

Post by ashwin_krish »

Going along with grlthgn, The bigger problem with 'Doing what you love' is most times, we are not aware of what we love. It is just impossible to find what you love. Sometimes the thing we love is short lived. This leads us to the next question, do everyone in the world have some this life-long activity they love? That question has never been answered.

Re: Do What You Love

#38

Post by winxordie »

sliverstorm wrote: post #36
staunch wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think your complaint goes away if you complete the sentence: Do what you love to create Most people live read-only lives. They never create music, food, or art. They merely consume them. But if you love creating music, food, or art you absolutely can make a career out of it. Of course, a middling chef or musician won't make it very far, but neither will a middling programmer really (though they may at least stay em…

Nothing wrong with being a middling chef or a middling programmer; we can't all be rockstar ninjas, and there is plenty of need for normal chefs and normal programmers.

Of course there's nothing wrong with it. If you love it though, you'll probably wind up a deviation or two better than the average.

Just understand what you love. If programming is a day job, then that's just that. I happen to love this craft.

Re: Do What You Love

#39

Post by lotharbot »

kamaal wrote: post #17
rlu wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"shit careers" how? Because they don't pay well? You won't get rich? If you're going to dedicate the next 30 years of your life to something, you'd better damn well enjoy it or you will hate your life. You spend more time at work than with your family, so you'd better not hate your job or you'll go insane. A job that you GENUINELY enjoy should ALWAYS be taken over a job that pays big bucks. We are EXTREMELY fortunate…

>>"shit careers" how? Because they don't pay well? You won't get rich? Contrary to whatever you think 'getting rich' is very important. Its also fun to be rich. Its fun to know you don't have to worry getting up early in the morning and do all you have to to in a hurry just to hit the work desk. Its also fun to not come home tired wanting to do something you love but not having energy or the time to do it. Its also f…

> "that's still not sufficient for what one would call an awesome life."

For what who would call an awesome life?

I stay at home with my family. We get up when we want to get up. My wife does contract work, enough to pay the bills and put a bit away at considerably less than full time, and she does it from the next room. My son has me as a dedicated full-time caretaker and educator. We don't go to Europe, but we can go to the park, grandma's house, or the mountains whenever we feel like it.

The concept of life is to live, and you need money to live, but how much money depends on what you want to do with your life. It depends on what "do what you love" leads you to, whether you need a high income to sustain what you love or whether you live for peanuts (and whether you can earn those peanuts doing something else you love.) You can take your Ferrari on the Autobahn; I'll be out playing in the dirt with my kid.

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