

I Know I'm Supposed To Follow My Passion. But What If I Don't Have A Passion? - elaineo
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/05/09/182403459/i-know-im-supposed-to-follow-my-passion-but-what-if-i-dont-have-a-passion

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jholman
There are some advantages to following your passion, if you unambiguously have
one. And often there are disadvantages. But pretending to have one is not a
reasonable strategy.

As a first approximation, I'm a fan of Cal Newport's thinking on the subject.
He claims that passion _follows_ mastery, and that therefore passions are not
discovered, but rather constructed, and that deliberate practice can lead you
there. My own opinion is that this summary only captures one side of passion,
but I think in many ways it's the most powerful side, and also the side that's
the most actionable (and thus relevant when someone is asking for advice).

[http://calnewport.com/blog/2009/11/24/are-passions-
serendipi...](http://calnewport.com/blog/2009/11/24/are-passions-
serendipitously-discovered-or-painstakingly-constructed/)

[http://calnewport.com/blog/category/features-rethinking-
pass...](http://calnewport.com/blog/category/features-rethinking-passion/)

It does occur to me, though, that I may be being persuaded by well-polished
rhetoric that appeals to my biases, so if anyone has evidence or arguments
that he's a slick-talking demagogue, I'd like to hear about it. =]

~~~
elaineo
Hey, thanks for sharing that!

So Cal Newport is effectively saying that humans are inherently competitive,
and they'll feel passionate about something once they start kicking ass at it.

That certainly helps, and I think it would hold true for people who start off
with something they already kind of like. But then there are all those stories
of kids whose parents forced them to ice skate or take piano lessons until it
completely squelched any passion the kid had for the activity. So, I'm not
sure I completely agree with CN.

~~~
jholman
I'm not sure "competitive" captures it, exactly. Sort of? I mean, obviously
some people like being better than other people, sure. But I think some people
just like being _good_, full stop. But of course you don't know what "good"
means without comparing yourself to other people, which means it's sort of
epistemically connected to competition. But I think it's still not the same
thing.

ALSO, I can think of several thought experiments that appear to contradict CN,
and I'll add yours to the list, because I totally agree. I've met kids like
that, including an ex-friend who rebounded from his parents' forced piano
lessons so hard that he ended up confined to the psych ward. He mastered piano
AND violin, but he didn't develop passion for either.

Here's another example that is contrastive with CN. I personally am fascinated
by dissecting P&P RPG rules, and assessing which are "good" according to an
ill-defined metric that interests no one but me. Does it even make sense to
talk about mastery at this activity? I can remember being interested in this
when I was a little kid; it's an enduring passion. I don't think it's
explicable by "mastery".

These situations illustrate what I meant by "this summary only captures one
side of passion".

ON THE OTHER HAND...

I do believe that many-or-all people derive enjoyment from mastery, and at
some point this is related to passion. I think the reason I like video games
SO MUCH is partly because they let me experience the sensation of mastery,
cheaply. When you combine that with a goal of being economically relevant (a
goal that I think has both ethical and selfish motivations), it makes sense to
cultivate mastery at something useful-and-not-antifun, and hope that the
mastery becomes a passion.

And to reply to your cousin-comment, I think some people are masterful and
passionate about getting the details right, and they can be tax auditors, and
their passion overlaps with their work. And some people can be masterful and
passionate about intricate systems, and about securing victories, and they can
be patent lawyers and their passion overlaps with their work. I am 100% sure
there are passionate patent lawyers. And some people can be masterful and
passionate about... bullying people? I dunno if anyone can be passionate about
debt collection, actually, but two outta three ain't bad.

------
coldtea
It's a BS baby boomer ideal that everybody should have some "passion" -- and
it should be their work too.

Apparently merely living your life like a normal person (going to school,
getting a job, enjoying a few hobbies, having kids, watching some tv, etc, as
people in all societies have done for centuries) will not do.

And the "passion" better be something grandiose and pretentious too.

~~~
rooker
I disagree. The problem lies in the definition of "passion," which a lot of
people take to mean that it's going to be some sort of thrilling, meaningless
underwater basket weaving. In reality, combining interest and hard work can
lead to more fulfillment than simply drudging in and out of an 8-hour work day
to collect a paycheck. When a person simply believes that they're working for
a paycheck, their satisfaction will tend to decrease, as the paycheck starts
to seem smaller and smaller with regard to the amount of time they're putting
in. 8 hours a day is no small chunk of one's life. It also doesn't have to be
the most fulfilling time in a person's day, but to say that having a passion
for your work is a BS ideal (and to attribute it to baby boomers at that) is
oversimplifying the issue.

That said, you're completely right that living a normal life is not enough for
some people. These people will tend to be either extraordinary or extremely
depressed, all the while thinking they're normal/below normal.

~~~
coldtea
> _In reality, combining interest and hard work can lead to more fulfillment
> than simply drudging in and out of an 8-hour work day to collect a
> paycheck._

And how will that work to fill societies needs for waiters, garbage disposal
guys, cleaning ladies, supermarket clerks, miners, clerks, accountants, etc
etc? There are tons of jobs where almost nobody has a "passion" for. At worst
people follow them because they need to feed themselves, at best because they
feel they can do that line of work competently and make a decent buck. No
passion involved. They still need to be done.

~~~
rooker
You'd be surprised by how passionate waiters can be about their jobs. None of
these claims are universal, and not everyone can be passionate about their
jobs. I agree that society needs garbage men (and garbage men actually get
paid quite a bit), but that doesn't mean that for those of us who have more of
a choice/desire to find fulfillment in work we should completely ignore the
idea of seeking such fulfillment because some others choose not to.

------
elaineo
...then you become a well-paid cog working for someone else who does have a
passion.

~~~
coldtea
Or a non well-paid cog. Like 90% of the people out there, you know.

In what universe there are either people that "follow their passion" or "well-
paid (!) cogs"?

~~~
elaineo
Yes, or a poorly-paid cog... The point of the article was that you can better
optimize your earning potential if you don't follow a passion.

