yep.
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.
Same applies to basically anything.
Driving is awesome, but when you are driving because you are commuting, or you have to drive your kids to kindergarten/school it becomes a chore and you no longer enjoy it.
I love programming. But when I have to do it for someone else to earn a living, and do it in a specific manner that they dictate, it feels like a chore and I no longer enjoy it.
Having a workplace that is fun and enjoyable isn’t about doing the thing you love. It’s about a lot of other things, such as the people you work with, the company culture, how much freedom and choice you are granted.
do it in a specific manner that they dictate
That’s the root of the whole thing.
Obviously, if someone is going to pay you to do something for them, they’re going to want you to do it their way, in the manner of their choosing. That’s kinda the point.
The conclusion, of course, is that what you are really enjoying is the freedom to do what you want…and what you want just happens to be this given activity. Once you’re doing it for pay, you’re trading that freedom for money (capitalism in a nutshell, trading freedom for money). All the trappings of the specific nature of that trade are just window dressing and detail.
This applies to literally anything anyone does as a profession, all throughout history, even/especially “the oldest profession”.
Yep, it’s like playing a game that you like while having someone watch over you saying, “no don’t do that, no that isn’t good enough, you are taking too long, redo it all by this deadline”, and the ever present threat their assessment of your playing will have on your ability to live your daily life.
Pretty much.
In the actual nature of my work, I love it. I’m a CAD drafter and 3D modeler. I got started on this path as a little kid when I loved to draw and design Star Wars ships, especially floorplans and schematics of them.
If I could do that all day, it’d be heaven. Instead it’s always far less interesting things, on tight deadlines, with shitty software, and it has to be done in the least efficient ways possible, and I’m given vague and conflicting instructions on what is even wanted.
But it pays better than the Star Wars ships, and I like having food and a car and beer.
If you do something you love as a career, you’ll never work a day in your life have one less thing that you love.
“When your vacation becomes your vocation, you will never have a vacation again.”
