Do what you love doesn't pay the bills.
If I did what I loved, I'd be in the garden or knee deep in solder.
I do what I have to do, so I'm chained in front of Visual Studio.
Do What You Love
41–50 of 83 posts
Re: Do What You Love
#42Earlier 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…
> 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.
You can also accomplish this by cutting expenses and reducing your working hours.
I guess it depends on your definition of "rich", but it's very easy to increase your spending to the level where your freedom is not necessarily much bigger than before.
Re: Do What You Love
#43I 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…
I don't think his complaint goes away at all.
For one thing, in my experience, most people don't love to create. Most people aren't artists, programmers, writers, chefs, or carpenters because they wake up in the morning and look forward to it. My overwhelming impression from the vast majority of people I've met in my life indicates that creating things is simply not a driving force. If given a complete lack of want, I'm convinced the majority of the world's population will choose to do nothing creative with it, and spend it socializing, fucking, and eating.
Scarcity is pretty much the only reason their butt finds their way to the desk every morning.
Not that there's anything necessarily wrong with that.
Secondly, even for people who have strong passions in a particular craft, there's no accounting for supply and demand. We are incredibly fortunate that our passions lie in a field that is severely under-supplied, allowing us to enjoy incredible compensation and job security in an era where so few have just that. And our situation is highly temporary, I assure you. The ability for your passion to put a roof over your head and provide the basic necessities of life is... questionable.
So while I'm pulling in a 6-figure salary, have insane perks at the office, flexible hours, live in an amazing city, and have the money and time to pursue my dreams, I'm not going to stand on a soapbox and pontificate to everyone how, if they had only followed their passion, they could be happy too.
The reality is that we are the lucky few. For a vast portion of the population following their passions is a one-way ticket to getting evicted and digging through garbage cans.
Re: Do What You Love
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
>>"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…
> 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. You can also accomplish this by cutting expenses and reducing your working hours. I guess it depends on your definition of "rich", but it's very easy to increase your sp…
> "You can also accomplish this by cutting expenses and reducing your working hours."
This is so easy for people like us to say. We're the ones pulling in 6-figure salaries, where I could conceivably work half-time and still pay the bills. Hell, I could work a quarter-time and pay the bills without experiencing a poverty lifestyle.
Try giving your advice to your local burger jockey, shoe salesman, and janitor. 50% of households in this country make Oh, the presumptuousness of the rich. We hear this topic a lot in this community because, let's face it, we're all making (in relation to the general population) ludicrous sums of money, living in absolute excess (not that there's anything necessarily wrong with that). To presume that most people have a lot of "fat" to trim from their lifestyles is severely misguided.
Re: Do What You Love
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 lin…
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Re: Do What You Love
#46Earlier 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…
I don't think his complaint goes away at all. For one thing, in my experience, most people don't love to create. Most people aren't artists, programmers, writers, chefs, or carpenters because they wake up in the morning and look forward to it. My overwhelming impression from the vast majority of people I've met in my life indicates that creating things is simply not a driving force. If given a complete lack of want,…
well put. "socializing, fucking and eating" sums up 90% of the population and it is very good as it provide huge consumer market to the other 10%.
Re: Do What You Love
#47I 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…
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Re: Do What You Love
#48Earlier 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…
I don't think his complaint goes away at all. For one thing, in my experience, most people don't love to create. Most people aren't artists, programmers, writers, chefs, or carpenters because they wake up in the morning and look forward to it. My overwhelming impression from the vast majority of people I've met in my life indicates that creating things is simply not a driving force. If given a complete lack of want,…
If given a complete lack of want, I'm convinced the majority of the world's population will choose to do nothing creative with it, and spend it socializing, fucking, and eating.
The reality TV show Big Brother is strong evidence in favor of your argument.
It's an artificial environment where people are aggressively prevented from creating anything. You can't even smuggle a pencil and a piece of paper into the Big Brother house -- if you wanted to write or draw something, you'd have to do it with your own blood on the walls, I guess... Once you're in there, your life for the next N months will consist solely of socializing, fucking and eating.
Amazingly, there are millions of people who find this prospect so exciting that they apply for the show year after year.
Re: Do What You Love
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 lin…
[deleted]
Re: Do What You Love
#50I 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…
Even programmers often fail when doing what they love. How many great programmers don't move further than working in a company for salary (something most DON'T love) because what they love is to work on hackish stuff that doesn't interest real users (and does not make money).
The advice "Do what you love" has some ground but it shouldn't be taken as literally as most people do.
And this topic has been discussed to death here.