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What Doesn't Seem Like Work?

paulgraham.com

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Re: What Doesn't Seem Like Work?

#21

Post by contingencies »

delluminatus wrote: post #4

Personally, 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.…

FYI the 'it can be learned because I have the requisite context' zone is well discussed in formal education circles. Curiosity and self-confidence: that's harder to teach, harder to maintain, harder to quantify.

Re: What Doesn't Seem Like Work?

#22

Post by tswartz »

delluminatus wrote: post #4

Personally, 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.…

Ira Glass has some advice on the issue of when you start something you enjoy, but your skill doesn't match your taste. Push through and keep practicing until your skill matches your taste.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbC4gqZGPSY

Re: What Doesn't Seem Like Work?

#23

Post by dragonwriter »

tswartz wrote: post #22
delluminatus wrote: post #4

Personally, 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.…

Ira Glass has some advice on the issue of when you start something you enjoy, but your skill doesn't match your taste. Push through and keep practicing until your skill matches your taste. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbC4gqZGPSY

I don't think the problem is things you enjoy but don't have skill to match your taste, the issue is identifying things you would enjoy if you had more skill, so you know where it is worth investing the effort to get over the lack of current skill.

Re: What Doesn't Seem Like Work?

#24

Post by dm8 »

rabbyte wrote: post #11

Is it common for programmers to dislike debugging? I'm stunned. I never considered the possibility, it's always been something I enjoyed. I don't believe it impacts you either way in terms of capability but I imagine it impacts your desire to continue.

If you are working on support/maintenance roles (in engineering) at big enterprise product company then debugging is major part of your job. I enjoy debugging as it is another way to solve problem. But for some people it gets repetitive (and boring) since you have to do that day in day out as a part of support roles.

Re: What Doesn't Seem Like Work?

#25

Post by dluan »

I wonder if it's possible to do things that others don't like, but doesn't pay - that then ends up becoming something that does pay. I wonder why PG didn't charge his friends for writing papers.

Not sure where this is going, but imagine something like the first public musician. Or the first ever commissioned artist. It must've been valuable, because someone funded them to make it happen.

Re: What Doesn't Seem Like Work?

#26

Post by benihana »

cryptoz wrote: post #5

This 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,…

Simple solution: go work for someone else and let them worry about all the infrastructure so you can write code.

Re: What Doesn't Seem Like Work?

#27

Post by tswartz »

dragonwriter wrote: post #23
tswartz wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ira Glass has some advice on the issue of when you start something you enjoy, but your skill doesn't match your taste. Push through and keep practicing until your skill matches your taste. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbC4gqZGPSY

I don't think the problem is things you enjoy but don't have skill to match your taste, the issue is identifying things you would enjoy if you had more skill, so you know where it is worth investing the effort to get over the lack of current skill.

Thats a good point. I suppose you could use your taste as a guide to what you may be good at. But, like you said, there is that gap between investing the time and discovering if you are skilled at it.

Re: What Doesn't Seem Like Work?

#29

Post by emptytheory »

I had a lot of experience programming in high school. When I practiced on my own, it never seemed like work because it was fun and I had experience telling me that I could accomplish something meaningful. Something made me feel confident in my ability to produce and discover.

When I was an undergraduate, a lot of my peers who didn't have a similar CS background struggled. I experienced this myself when I transferred into the mathematics program. I never had a serious engagement with mathematics until I was in university.

I think reaching the stage where an activity becomes natural requires a serious personal engagement. That is, you have understand the questions which guide the activity (your interests have to align) and you have to have the freedom to ask and answer your own questions (being able to solve your own problems). The activity has to become personal in some sense.

Re: What Doesn't Seem Like Work?

#30

Post by dm8 »

How important is it to do something you love that helps you in live comfortable life?

For example, I always loved theatre and plays but I was told in young age that it's very hard to support comfortable life as a thespian (unless you are breakout success); so best not to take that as a career even though it may really work out for you.

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