Life in a nutshell. Never make your hobby your job, because you’re going to hate it.
I tend to agree with this a ton, yet it’s left me asking over and over, “What the fuck do I do for work that won’t steal my time and leave me miserable?”
I don’t know if there’s any answer for me personally on this, as I think I just abhor the entire modern arrangement of work that wants your whole life instead of only a small portion of your time just to get by.
You can do anything mindfully or mindlessly. If your paycheck comes in contact with your personal development of a skill, and your freedom to explore its possibilities and your capabilities within that mindset, then yes I understand why doing your passion as a job might be tougher to wrestle with. But I think we must do this. Because if the alternative is to mindlessly do something we don’t love, and spend our lives wishing we had more time to interact with what we do love, then we are trading even more freedom away than if we had made our passion into our work. It is your responsibility to maintain a mindful, aware, thoughtful relationship with your own skills. Do your passion for yourself, more than for your boss. Save your energy at work for your own time.
A guy I work with now flies drones commercially now, he says he cannot wait to stop flying drones for the rest of his life
Yeah that’s what happened with me and computers. Grew up obsessed with the things, then started a career in IT.
Now I love coins and mythology much more than anything computer related. Thinking of making it my next career… maybe not.
I was torn between being a SysAdmin and a Dev. Went to school for SA and now I’m a Linux admin. No regrets and it was fun when I first started… Now not so much.
I actually have fun pretending to be a Dev in my free time. Built a couple open source things and I enjoy it. I’ll NEVER be a dev for my job.
Funny enough, I did the opposite I’m a Dev but tinker with being SysAdmin in my free time.
Some days I wonder if I should get out of tech altogether. I miss setting things up, getting deep into things I find fun. I feel work takes the fun out of it, honestly.
I’d love to volunteer somewhere that’ll make the world better. Homeless shelter, food bank, etc. The problem is, how do I do this AND pay my bills AND have free time to relax?
How do you tinker with SysAdmin? Just set up random systems, or do it for a local club or so?
Now I love coins and mythology much more than anything computer related. Thinking of making it my next career… maybe not.
Haha was about to say, you gonna end up not loving it as well. But if it pays there’s no problem switching fields from time to time. Better to keep things fresh and interesting :)
See… maybe it was because I wasn’t actually all that interested in driving when I made it a career, but I actually still love driving, even though I did it every day for years. It could be because of my accelerometer.
Automotive testing engineer here, please tell me about your accelerometer!
It’s pretty basic. I took a piece of cork and a string to attach it to the base of a mason jar, so the cork is suspended about halfway up, then I filled it with water. I just put that mounted to the center of my dash, and it indicates how much lateral force I’m using during turns. As long as I keep it as close to the center as possible, I’m using the smoothest line.
Exactly like all software developers who thought they were going to make games or some world changing application at least in their own time, and then five years later they are just logging out for the day and playing games or streaming crap all evening like everyone else.
I tried making games a while back and I’ve no idea how people do it. It was rough trying to enjoy your own game after you’ve spent 1000 hours play testing every aspect of it. Half way though the game Id stop thinking my own game was fun. I don’t think I can ever be a game dev.
Playtesting? What’s that? Seems like an old practice that only slowed down release schedules
I’m so sick of computers I don’t even play videogames anymore. I just write stories in notebooks and go for long walks
Given how many great open source projects there are, some developers actually do that. Just not me and you bro.
A lot of FOSS is maintained by people who are getting paid one way or another to maintain it.
