What Doesn't Seem Like Work?
paulgraham.com
What Doesn't Seem Like Work?
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Re: What Doesn't Seem Like Work?
#2Dell's origin story follows this idea. Many consumers don't enjoy building their own computer, Dell enjoyed building your computer for you at a fair price.
Re: What Doesn't Seem Like Work?
#3Ugh I hate stuff like this. Sometimes programming feels like work, sometimes it doesn't. I write, I make art. A lot of people wouldn't consider either of those real work. Yet sometimes each activity feels like work, other times the activity feels great and feels like something I could do forever uninterupted. Virtually all of the time you find something you enjoy, even if someone else thinks it's work, there will be parts of making it a career that will definitely be work (e.g. programming is always fun but maybe corresponding with your boss isn't).
I have a friend who will program all day. He spends all his time on Project Euler. He loves studying algorithms to understand them completely and trying to devise better algorithms. This is what he does in his free time. He does it all the time because he hasn't had a job in years. My friend is probably a much better programmer than I am but I have steady well paying work because sometimes I like programming and sometimes I like talking to people and the second part helps me work with clients and co-workers. My friend the obsessive programmer for whom it is always a hobby can't hold down a job for the life of him. I hope for his sake he finds something that can support him as well as fulfill him. But the advice pg presents in this article is so trite as to be useless.
Re: What Doesn't Seem Like Work?
#4Personally, I experienced this with programming. When I learned to program in high school, it never struck me as a chore; it was always just interesting and I enjoyed it.
However, I think the only reason I was able to enjoy learning programming was because of how adept I already was with computers as a "power user", because it gave me the physical skills and conceptual underpinnings required to appreciate the field.
To me, this raises an important question.
If you lack the physical skills or are a novice in a field, it can be frustrating or intimidating to learn even if you would otherwise enjoy being competent. For example, learning to draw: should one accept their dislike of basic beginning drawing practice to imply that drawing is not an appropriate vocation for them? Difficult question; probably depends on the person. The only way to know if you love drawing at a competent level is to reach that level. In a sense it begs the question: how can you tell if you will enjoy doing something until you have the ability to actually do it?
I don't think there is an easy way to solve this problem; you simply have to put the effort into practicing new things even if you don't enjoy the practice. That's where you get into willpower, commitment, etc. My experience of the world is that you simply cannot expect to be successful by only doing things that don't feel like work; sometimes, you have to actually do the work.
Re: What Doesn't Seem Like Work?
#5This dichotomy, and the realization that it can fuel smart people to use their abilities to do amazing things in the world, is what upsets me most about the startup ecosystem. I'm a programmer. Writing weather software doesn't seem like work to me. However, since going through a startup accelerator, I'm supposed to all these things that are very much "work" - and it gets me down. Things that are important, for sure, like pitch decks, financial modelling, market research, raising capital in general. They're distracting me from the things I like doing but I do them because they're necessary for the business. My "fun work" quickly became "work that I don't like doing", and it's hard to stay in love with your startup after a lot of that.
I wish there were a way for startup founders to do what they love doing, and not what the VC/fundraising cycle tells them they should do.
If someone can solve that problem I'd be really really happy.
Re: What Doesn't Seem Like Work?
#6Ugh I hate stuff like this. Sometimes programming feels like work, sometimes it doesn't. I write, I make art. A lot of people wouldn't consider either of those real work. Yet sometimes each activity feels like work, other times the activity feels great and feels like something I could do forever uninterupted. Virtually all of the time you find something you enjoy, even if someone else thinks it's work, there will be…
It seems to me that the essay tried to answer the question "What is it that you want to have as your career". Now, whether you can actually make that your career is an entirely different question. I might love playing tennis, but if I'm 30 years old. There is no chance I could start now and become a professional player.
Re: What Doesn't Seem Like Work?
#7This dichotomy, and the realization that it can fuel smart people to use their abilities to do amazing things in the world, is what upsets me most about the startup ecosystem. I'm a programmer. Writing weather software doesn't seem like work to me. However, since going through a startup accelerator, I'm supposed to all these things that are very much "work" - and it gets me down. Things that are important, for sure,…
You could get a "Business co-founder" while you focus on the technical side.
Re: What Doesn't Seem Like Work?
#8This dichotomy, and the realization that it can fuel smart people to use their abilities to do amazing things in the world, is what upsets me most about the startup ecosystem. I'm a programmer. Writing weather software doesn't seem like work to me. However, since going through a startup accelerator, I'm supposed to all these things that are very much "work" - and it gets me down. Things that are important, for sure,…
You could get a "Business co-founder" while you focus on the technical side.
Yeah, that would be awesome - our startup has three co-founders: me, a designer, and a CTO. So even though I'm the initial programmer, idea guy, and CEO, I'm also the business role at the moment. We'll hire a CFO+others...once we raise funding ;).
Re: What Doesn't Seem Like Work?
#9Reading HN never seems like work. I feel like I could do it all day.
Re: What Doesn't Seem Like Work?
#10This dichotomy, and the realization that it can fuel smart people to use their abilities to do amazing things in the world, is what upsets me most about the startup ecosystem. I'm a programmer. Writing weather software doesn't seem like work to me. However, since going through a startup accelerator, I'm supposed to all these things that are very much "work" - and it gets me down. Things that are important, for sure,…
I think it actually is possible for startup founders to take the route you're talking about. Check out this talk by Lew Cirne (CEO of NewRelic): http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=3367
He basically talks about how much he loves programming and problem solving, so when the company grew, he just hired people to do the parts of the CEO role that he didn't want to do.