

Love what you do, not what you earn - Kudos
http://www.kevinholler.com/love-what-you-do-not-what-you-earn/

======
djhworld
> I watched the clock carefully made sure I was out of there the minute my
> shift finished.

Fulfilling your contractual obligations is not a sign of a worker who is just
"getting on by", it's a sign they have other interests or ventures outside of
the workplace.

This is why our industry is so fucked up with this bullshit "doing overtime
means you're COMMITTED" attitude.

~~~
crusso
You got caught up on one line in the article and completely missed the entire
point.

The article is a lesson in self-empowerment. It contains the truth that what
you're doing in your employment can be even more for yourself than your
employer if you adopt the necessary atitude.

He didn't say anything about not having other interests or ventures. You put
that in there because of your preconceptions.

~~~
johnward
Not really. He walked into a job he didn't like and said "i'm going to start
to like this". When is that going to happen?

If you adopt the necessary attitude of going above and beyond for your
employer it will help you out? I've found that to not be true in most cases.

~~~
crusso
_When is that going to happen?_

Learning that atitude was something I at least partly could control in my life
was very important in my overall personal development.

 _going above and beyond for your employer it will help you out?_

Yes. You learn your limits. You make time go by more quickly by being an
active participant. You develop disciplines that can help you out in many
contexts. You keep your mind active by DOING things rather than just watching
the clock waiting for your shift to end. You make yourself more valued which
can help you get that pay raise or promotion. You establish a reputation for
being solid, which makes your future job searches a hell of a lot easier.

Look, you're going to be working your job anyway. You might as well do it
well, make the time go by quickly, and help yourself along the way.

~~~
johnward
Well I still disagree with the premise. In my experience going above and
beyond gets you nothing but more work.

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Nursie
How about both?

Work takes up a huge portion of your life and if you can bring interest and
personal growth to your job then your whole life experience will be better.

BUT money is what makes life flow outside of work. This quotation from the end
is certainly true - _”If you’re doing it for the money, you’ll always be
underpaid” - Scott Bell_

I just don't think it's a bad thing to want to be paid more and to be finding
ways to achieve that :)

~~~
randomdata
I feel you must have both. You can love what you do, but pay validates that
your work is loved by others too. Without that validation you start to get
down on what you are doing and start to hate it yourself. What is the point in
working on something you love if everyone else hates it?

~~~
RougeFemme
Absolutely. But if you ever work for a non-profit - which I did in a previous
life - you will definitely have to focus on "loving what you do" - and loving
the missio of the non-profit - because you will die a thousand deaths every
time you think of your salary.

~~~
carbocation
Even in nonprofits, salary is highly idiosyncratic. There are plenty of
nonprofits with very well-paid employees and, in particular, executives.

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pdog
If you love what you do and not what you earn, someone else will make sure to
pocket the difference.

~~~
calinet6
And sometimes, it's you pocketing the difference, because you're essentially
paying a premium for your own happiness. Seems fair, actually.

~~~
lost_name
I don't think it's unreasonable to both enjoy what you do and not undersell
yourself.

That being said, there may be situations where you accept less money for
something you enjoy more, because the satisfaction is worth it, but this isn't
the same as underselling yourself.

~~~
dmiladinov
This.

I used to work at an organization that paid conspicuously less than local
market value for comparably experienced developers.

The work environment, however, was a really pleasant one to work in. There
were quarterly and annual company-wide events, such as going to local sporting
events, scavenger hunts, Christmas dinners at fancy restaurants, and the like.

My boss was great and took an active interest in developing the skills of his
team, and successfully tanked upper management, leaving us free to develop in
peace. All the developers ate together in our own break room, usually over
board games. There was a sense of camaraderie on our team you don't just find
everywhere.

I loved working there; though I didn't want to, I ultimately had to leave when
I started a family, got a house, and my expenses outpaced my income.

Perhaps I should have left sooner. Perhaps I was unwittingly underselling
myself. However, I prefer to think of all of the above I mentioned as "non-
cash" compensation.

------
chewxy
I wrote about this 2 years ago [0]. In my opinion, it's a choice between doing
the things you already love, and loving the things you do.

Earning money is something you do. You may eventually fall in love with what
you do (as I have, and has Kevin), but many people don't. Ever. And it's not
for the lack of trying either. Some people simply can't grok certain things.

So the other option is to do the things that you love. But those things may
not pay well. And so people are left with the original dilemma that Kevin
posted. I have mulled about this, and came to the conclusion that I was merely
very lucky that I had a job that I love.

[0] [http://blog.chewxy.com/2011/11/14/what-you-love-what-you-
are...](http://blog.chewxy.com/2011/11/14/what-you-love-what-you-are-good-at/)

------
denzil_correa
Thanks for sharing. Personally, I am of the philosophy "doing what you love"
rather than "loving what you do" (a subtle difference). However, "loving what
you do" is still better than "loving what you earn".

~~~
kholler
Agreed. But in the same sense, if you love what you do you are doing what you
love.

~~~
denzil_correa
Yup, but the vice-versa is not true i.e. if you love what you do, you may not
be doing what you love. It is more out of force than volition.

------
iSnow
Meh, easy to write blog posts like that if you are working at EngineYard and
presumably earning quite healthily.

~~~
jstanley
The point of the post is his attitude change that occurred while he was
working at the pub, and presumably earning little more than minimum wage.

~~~
kholler
Exactly. When I first started there I was earning a "training" wage. As
someone under the age 16 I started out earning roughly €6.00 an hour.

After that I progressed to minimum wage(€8.65) and before I left I was earning
€10 an hour.

~~~
BSousa
Where is this if you don't mind me asking? 8.65 EUR minimum wage is great.
Minimum wage is is close to 3 EUR.

~~~
kholler
This is Ireland. More information here:
[http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employment/employment_r...](http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employment/employment_rights_and_conditions/pay_and_employment/pay_inc_min_wage.html)

------
lightup88
Worth pulling out the Stack Overflow survey analysis. Looks like Stat Wing
found a weak, but statistically significant relationship between compensation
and job satisfaction for what it's worth. <https://www.statwing.com/demos/dev-
survey#workspaces/2496>

------
husker314
That's easy to say when you make more than 1000 (one thousand) euros a month
like I do..

------
bitwize
Do whatever you're good at that you get paid well to do. Learn to love this
job. When you have a mortgage to pay and a family to feed, money trumps love
EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

------
calinet6
Funny, that title is exactly how I'd describe my current job.

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peterkelly
Haven't we had this debate on HN once or twice before? ;)

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cscx
What blogging software are you using on your blog?

~~~
kholler
I built the blog using jekyll, a static site generator.
(<http://jekyllrb.com/>)

Still working on improving it but it's allowed me to dynamically generate tag
and category pages as well as a few other neat things. That and it's seriously
lightweight.

~~~
cscx
Is there a python equivalent of jekyll?

~~~
Skoofoo
If it's any consolation, you wouldn't have to write any Ruby code with Jekyll.
You'd only write HTML templates, Markdown/Textile, and a sprinkle of YAML.

------
kahawe
I like this story because it does not end with some explicit or implied "and
then I hit it big time ( _as a reward for my love_ )" as if loving what you do
and sticking with it is some sort of super-secret method for guaranteed
success. OP made it work for him in the present and enriched his life by doing
so, it seems it even paid off later too. Great! His "win" was right there.
There are a lot of ways to be successful and loving what you do can certainly
help but it won't give you much of an edge on folks who are "just" doing an
outstanding job for the money. The most perfectly and enthusiastic and
welcoming bar can go belly-up for no reason but people's taste suddenly
changed or the financial crisis hits hard and nobody has money to go out
anymore.

If you are radically doing what you love for the love of doing it and you
laugh about money, good for you. But don't blindly hope or subconsciously
count on some miracle future success just because you loved your work so much.
The people who completely bombed doing what they love(d) hardly ever share
their crushing stories.

You cannot control all the things that can greatly influence your success and
loving what you do won't shield you against it either. Keep that in mind. Get
something out of it now, always get some sort of return for yourself and NOW,
if that is "just" money and you consciously made that decision then that is
ok. If it means really good connections and a technological playground you
love playing/working in, then that is also ok. If it is a great opportunity to
learn and grow it into a career even if the pay is horrible, well that is ok
too. There are industries where this is pretty-much the norm and if you ever
want to be anybody in those industries, you got to pay your dues. Luckily in
IT, you are mostly shielded from that and can always expect at least not half
bad compensation, given you can sit in a comfy and cool office and hit a few
keys and get the chance to do 99% of your clicks over if you screwed up.

