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Don't waste life

danielflopes.com

11–20 of 45 posts

Re: Don't waste life

#11
when i clicked on the link the page came up blank and i thought it was a brilliant critique on reading blogs. I hit reload to make sure and was disappointed to find a "do what you love" article, uncritical and un-self-aware of all the problems with that line of thinking. Rather than reprint them, here's the best exploration of "do what you love" i've read recently: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/01/in-the-name-of-love/

Re: Don't waste life

#12
If your working time is spent doing something you don't really enjoy that sucks, obviously. It'd be great if we could all spend our lives doing creative, enjoyable things. Realistically though, if your work facilitates a happy life outside of your job then it could still be well be worth it - my parents have led full, happy lives (or so they tell me) raising their kids, doing their hobbies, seeing their friends, and yet they worked jobs that weren't that they both claim weren't much fun, and I'm certain that neither of them look back with any regrets.

The expectation that you can carve out a lifestyle where everything is worthwhile is unrealistic, and while a few outliers might actually achieve it, most people aren't going manage to get anything like that. Don't tell people that they're wasting their life because they fail to pass a ludicrously high bar. A life spent doing fulfilling things is not a waste even if it also includes lots of things that suck.

tl;dr Grow up, take responsibility for yourself, and make sure that on balance, after you're dead, you've done more good stuff than bad, even if your job falls in to the 'bad' category.

(This was posted earlier and then deleted for some reason. This is just a repost of my comment from the first time.)

Re: Don't waste life

#14
post #2

Yeah, do what you love and love what you do. And when you really do it, work stops being just job, it's life as well. And there's no separation between you at home and you at work. Simple yet, very important idea. You can't get tired of work if you really love it.

"And when you really do it, work stops being just job, it's life as well. And there's no separation between you at home and you at work."

That is the single most terrifying sentence I've read in some time now. No thank you.

Re: Don't waste life

#17

I like the idea of the article. However, I don't think you understand free will or the idea of choice. Not everyone gets to have this perfect little say in what they want to do.

Free will doesn't exist anyways. Your brain is deterministic like a biological calculator.

Re: Don't waste life

#18
post #3

I saved 15 minutes by not reading this blog post :)

Why do you come into threads and make comments like this? Genuinely curious. Do you have something against the author or..?
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