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Do What You Love

blogs.valvesoftware.com

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Re: Do What You Love

#71

Post by cgmorton »

[deleted] wrote: post #67
lotharbot wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "that's still not sufficient for what one would call an awesome life." For what who would call an awesome life? I stay at home with my family. We get up when we want to get up. My wife does contract work, enough to pay the bills and put a bit away at considerably less than full time, and she does it from the next room. My son has me as a dedicated full-time caretaker and educator. We don't go to Europe, but we can…

[deleted]

So you're planning to buy your kid a ferrari, because he wants it?

Screw that. If my kid is the kind of person who wants a ferrari, that will motivate him to get rich and buy one. But I would be really disappointed in myself as a parent if that's what my kid grows up to value.

Re: Do What You Love

#72

Post by johnohara »

Personally, I prefer those moments in life when everything seems to strike a nice balance. I find they give me insight into what I love to do.

And yes, it generally involves creating something.

Re: Do What You Love

#73

Post by raphaelb »

potatolicious wrote: post #43
staunch wrote: post #32

Earlier 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"

I don't know if I agree - I think if you move up Maslow's hierarchy of needs and they no longer 'want' the basics, they will allow themselves to advance into the 'higher stages' and then desire to fulfill those needs such as socializing, sex, etc. But presumably if those things all come easily as well, they will then move further up the line into creative expression, etc.

I know I've been most creative when I didn't need to be, and everything else in my life was more or less 'taken care of', and I suspect many people would have the same experience.

Re: Do What You Love

#74

Post by fghh45sdfhr3 »

grlthgn wrote: post #10

I 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…

only weirdos love programming

That's overstating it a bit. Despite the fact that I like food, music, art, sex, sports, and adventure more than I like programming, programming would still be one of my favorite hobbies.

I say would be because now it is a profession and when I leave work I don't want to touch a computer.

But the programming I like is the open source work I do between jobs, that kind of beautiful code I create for free. And in small doses. The large code bases that must ship on time, that's work that I would not do unless I get paid.

Now people that code all day at work, and then code a lot more at home and over the weekend, almost every weekend, purely for the love of coding, those might be a bit odd.

But not odder than any obsessive hobby, which can just as easily be sports or food. I think the oddness here is just the obsessiveness.

Re: Do What You Love

#76

Post by ljf »

gouranga wrote: post #41

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.

There is money in gardening - I have friends that are very successful at it, and are still hands on, picking and planting the plants - while making more than enough to live a happy life.

My father loves drawing and making stuff, he is a pretty damn successful stage designer.

You have to love what you are doing AND be good at it AND good at selling yourself. But if you can crack that you really can love getting up each day. I know I do, and I know most of my friends and family do.

My richest friend works 60 hour weeks to have a great car parked outside his office and to support a stunning home he never 'lives' in - and he will tell anyone that no only does he hate his job, he isn't happy. But he really thinks having more (holidays, watches, suits, etc.) will make him happy, but they haven't yet...

Re: Do What You Love

#77

Post by dllthomas »

fghh45sdfhr3 wrote: post #74
grlthgn wrote: post #10

I 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…

only weirdos love programming That's overstating it a bit. Despite the fact that I like food, music, art, sex, sports, and adventure more than I like programming, programming would still be one of my favorite hobbies. I say would be because now it is a profession and when I leave work I don't want to touch a computer. But the programming I like is the open source work I do between jobs, that kind of beautiful code I…

> That's overstating it a bit.

Is it? How many people, do you think, love programming but are instead do something else? Probably fewer than program but don't love it, given what the financial incentives have been for a while now. Most people, by far, are not programmers. How rare does something have to be for it to make you a "weirdo"?

Re: Do What You Love

#78

Post by shrub »

koide wrote: post #56
quaunaut wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a recurring depressive, I can't help but think, "How the hell do people live day to day not knowing at least one thing they absolutely love?" If not for my own things that I intensely can dig into, I would've offed myself a long time ago.

It's amazing how different how life is lived and understood between depressive and non depressive people. I personally have a really hard time even imagining depression, and I ask myself: "how can it be so hard to just pull yourself together?" I can rationally understand it is really hard, but I can't imagine it.

Imagine having nothing that you love to do, and imagine the things that you previously loved to do are now laborious and draining, no matter the positive things you tell yourself about them. Think of something you really enjoy doing, and really look forward to, now imagine replacing the positive anticipation with dread instead. Imagine knowing you should be getting positive feedback from some accomplishment or activity, but all that your brain and emotions register is "meh." It's not that you don't try to pull it together and keep slogging forward every day, achieving things and smiling at people, it's just that none of your efforts ever seem to pay off emotionally. It's not that you don't recognize and routinely count your blessings, but rather the very act becomes negative as you lament not feeling much of anything for them. I understand the sentiment that it's hard to imagine, I hope this description may help.

Re: Do What You Love

#79

Post by dataminer »

grlthgn wrote: post #10

I 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…

The advice is meant for the 10% not the 90%. People who took time to mail Michael Abrash, have some knowledge, ambition and passion. Out of these 10% some will have the drive to follow through, do the hard work and love the journey, they will become the top 1%. So the advice is not meant for everyone just for some.

Re: Do What You Love

#80

Post by reneherse »

koide wrote: post #56
quaunaut wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a recurring depressive, I can't help but think, "How the hell do people live day to day not knowing at least one thing they absolutely love?" If not for my own things that I intensely can dig into, I would've offed myself a long time ago.

It's amazing how different how life is lived and understood between depressive and non depressive people. I personally have a really hard time even imagining depression, and I ask myself: "how can it be so hard to just pull yourself together?" I can rationally understand it is really hard, but I can't imagine it.

It's good of you to try to imagine it, as most people seem not to make a conscious effort at empathy if something isn't directly affecting their lives.

I'll second what others have written in this thread, and if you'd like to hear a further description, please send me an email at the address in my profile.

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