Don’t Follow Your Passion • Hacker News Board

Re: Don’t Follow Your Passion

#11

Post by chc » Wed, Jan 26, 2011, 10:32 PM UTC

d3x wrote: post #9

chc wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Feel free to not comment next time you don't feel like saying anything.

Actually I did comment; my comment was that I disagree with this article. I'm sorry that you didn't pick up on that. In the future you should take your own advice and only comment if you have some actual value to add to the conversation e.g.: I agree because... or I disagree because. I was unable to comment at the time because I was working on my startup. My comment conveyed my opinion of the article and yours has do…

I don't see how my comment on the lack of substance to yours was any more "petty" than your flippant dismissal of Amy's article. If you disagree with the article, a good response would either be to explain how it was wrong and offer an alternative view or to ignore it. But just saying "I disagree" is about as relevant to the OP as saying "I like pizza." Neither is a commentary on the article — they're both statements of your personal feelings.

Anyway, that's the last I'll say about this. I just wanted to make it clear that I didn't mean to personally attack you — and I'm sorry if it sounded that way — just your comment's lack of content.

Re: Don’t Follow Your Passion

#12

Post by chc » Wed, Jan 26, 2011, 10:42 PM UTC

d3x wrote: post #10

chc wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is more to the post than just one reading of its title. You seem to be arguing with the proposal "Do things you are not passionate about." That isn't remotely what the article is saying.

Wow, wrong again. The article is total BS and the title is nothing more than link bait. Every successful startup founder I know list a passion for the domain as one of their keys to success. Basically what this article boils down to IMHO is "when shit gets hard just run, or better yet just dont do it because it might get hard" And as for the 6 solutions she proposes... well those are dumb to. If people focus on how m…

No, d3x, you are mistaken about what the article says. You are arguing that passion is important. The article doesn't dispute that. It is categorically not saying that you should do things you aren't passionate about. It's saying that there are many business possibilities related to any given "passion," and the first one that comes to mind is just the most obvious one, not necessarily the best one or the one most closely aligned with what you're passionate about.

> Maybe we should take another piece of advice from this lady that obviously knows nothing about successful products

Amy actually has a number of successful products to her name. See http://unicornfree.com/2010/i-made-216668-from-products/

Re: Don’t Follow Your Passion

#13

Post by wallflower » Thu, Jan 27, 2011, 7:20 AM UTC

reidwalley wrote: post #6

"You decide to open up a café to follow your passion for coffee. Turns out that you hate running a café." This reminds me of E-Myth, where the woman starts a pie-making business because she's passionate about baking pies, and ends up hating the whole damn thing. I have friends who are dying to start their own café because they love coffee and the café atmosphere. But I don't think they've thought it all the way throu…

> As a life coach

Not Off-Topic but what's that like? I have a friend who has a stable job and really has gotten more and more into making a difference with his coaching clients.