
Why 'Follow Your Passion' Is the World's Worst Career Advice - mrwnmonm
http://www.inc.com/betty-liu/please-stop-listening-to-the-worst-career-advice-in-the-world.html?cid=cp01002quartz
======
papapra
Here is a summary of : So Good They Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport, which is
about this subject.

[http://www.kevinrandom.com/1-page-summary-so-good-they-
cant-...](http://www.kevinrandom.com/1-page-summary-so-good-they-cant-ignore-
you-by-cal-newport/)

Quote: "The passion movement started in the 1970s. The core illusion: that
there is a magic job out there that’s right for you, and will solve all your
problems. This illusion applies to relationships too :) "

~~~
ctdonath
Nobody said following your passion would solve all your problems.

Following your passion will make those problems worth the cost.

The problem is most people don't understand what "passion" is. Passion is what
you can't _not_ do (not to be confused with a warm fuzzy answer to "what is
your passion?" which you're not really going to ever follow thru on even if
handed every resource to).

ETA: as far as I can tell, few people actually have passions. If you don't
have one, don't pretend to follow it. A career based on lying to yourself is
indeed following horrible advice.

~~~
femto
> Passion is what you can't _not_ do ...

That's the thing I've never understood about following your passion. If you
"can't _not_ do" it, once people figure that out they will stop paying you,
secure in the knowledge that you will keep doing it anyway.

Perhaps the secret to wealth is that your passion has to be money?

~~~
egypturnash
The secret is that if people pay you to do this thing you can't not do, you'll
be able to do _more_ of it.

For instance: I can't not draw comics. I just finished spending four and a
half years on a graphic novel. I like to draw them and I seem to be pretty
decent at them if the reactions I've been getting are any guide.

But I have to pay rent. And power, and internet. And pay for my subscription
to Adobe's Creative Suite, and upgrade my computer now and then.

If nobody's paying me to draw my comics, I'm going to need to find a way to
pay those bills anyway. If I'm not lucky enough to have someone else pay them
for me, then I need to get a job.

There are only so many hours in a day. A job will take up a lot of them. And
I'll have to wedge tiny bits of making comics in the edges of what's left.
I'll need to deal with a commute, and with spending all my energy at work, and
just wanting to come home and sleep instead of draw.

So I draw my comics, put them out for free, and put a tip jar out with them.
If enough people start throwing money in that tip jar on a regular basis, I
can start cutting back on my day job. Eventually I can get to a point where
I'm able to pay all my bills from comics, and don't need to worry about taking
time from them to keep a roof over my head. I can spend my entire workday
thinking about making my comics and drawing them, and get a lot more pages out
a lot faster.

A lot of my fans are taking advantage of the fact that I'll draw comics
anyway. But a subset of my fans have enough money to throw a few bucks my way
and help ensure that I can make a lot _more_ of the comics they like.

Does that make sense?

------
balabaster
I wholeheartedly disagree with this article...

I firmly believe that if you're passionate at something, it's extremely easy
to become extremely knowledgeable and/or highly skilled at it to a point that
it's valuable to the world. Then it's just a case of applying your ingenuity
to figuring out how to make your passion relevant. Once you make it relevant
in today's ever changing market, it's then just a case of positioning it
effectively to make it profitable.

I refuse to believe otherwise... every passion is worth something and makes a
difference. If it didn't, then why are we genetically predisposed to them?
What would be the purpose in this? Why aren't we all just worker bees, all
genetically predisposed to doing the same few tasks?

Of course, the article is just one person's opinion and I suppose in many ways
as relevant and valid as my own...

~~~
agumonkey
I'm in a weird place. I've always been passion driven, to an extreme. Now I'm
running out of desire and suddenly things become insufferably painful. Beside
passion I think it's good to know how to 'work' and be productive
passionlessly.

~~~
adventured
Have you found that doing less things helps? Basically significantly reducing
the demands on your time, and the overall number of things you have to tend to
in any given day.

I've found that as I've gotten a little older, my tolerance for unnecessary
complexity, unnecessary time demands, and doing pointless things, has plunged.
I have also found that I'm much happier and more productive after stripping
away as much of that as possible. There are various costs to doing so, but it
has been worth it so far. When I was 20, I felt like I could juggle anything
and everything (and no doubt reducing how effective I was in the process).

~~~
agumonkey
It's not doing less, it's actually doing anything, and yes it's very related
to age and view on life. As You, in my twenties I would burn into flow to
swallow a lot of things. Now I don't. The irony is that I was quite stupid
younger, and have a much much broader and stronger understanding of
abstraction, geometry, holism etc, all things life teaches you with time. But
.. unnecessary complexity and other goals have taken hold of my `libido` if I
may say so. My comment wasn't much about finding drive again but also
accepting that passion isn't always there but life requires you to be able to
work. I find that people that weren't passion driven at first thus spent a lot
of time working on things that were tough or unrelated to their dream and are
more stable in the long run.

------
jasode
The Scott Adams (of Dilbert) slides about "Passion is Overrated":

[http://www.slideshare.net/Scottadams925](http://www.slideshare.net/Scottadams925)

------
brianclements
I think Elizabeth Gilbert had a better take on the topic:

 _" I am a big advocate for the pursuit of curiosity. You've maybe heard me
talk about this before? We are constantly being told to pursue our passions in
life, but there are times when passion is a TALL ORDER, and really hard to
reach. In seasons of confusion, of loss, of boredom, of insecurity, of
distraction, the idea of "passion" can feel completely inaccessible and
impossible. In such times, you are lucky to be able to get your laundry done
(that sometimes feels as high as you can aim) and when someone tells you to
follow your passion, you want to give them the middle finger. (Go ahead and do
it, by the way. But wait till their back is turned, out of civility.)

But curiosity, I have found, is always within reach.

Passion is a tower of flame, but curiosity is a tiny tap on the shoulder — a
little whisper in the ear that says, "Hey, that's kind of interesting…"

Passion is rare; curiosity is everyday.

Curiosity is therefore a lot easier to reach at at times than full-on passion
— and the stakes are lower, easier to manage.

The trick is to just follow your small moments of curiosity. It doesn't take a
massive effort. Just turn your head an inch. Pause for a instant. Respond to
what has caught your attention. Look into it a bit. Is there something there
for you? A piece of information?

For me, a lifetime devoted to creativity is nothing but a scavenger hunt —
where each successive clue is another tiny little hit of curiosity. Pick each
one up, unfold it, see where it leads you next.

Small steps.

Keep doing that, and I promise you: The curiosity will eventually lead you to
the passion.

And that'll be the end of boredom."_ [1]

[1] [http://www.elizabethgilbert.com/one-of-the-greatest-
quotes-o...](http://www.elizabethgilbert.com/one-of-the-greatest-quotes-on-
creativity-ever-i-am-a-big-advocate-for-the-purs/)

------
cobookman
Bad career advise. But great life advise. There is more to life than money and
being high on the exec ladder.

------
drdeca
Worst?

Surely not the worst possible advice.

E.g. it is much better than "work with the intent to cause as much harm as
possible to yourself and those around you"

~~~
nraynaud
One I like is the "learn programming, there is a lot of money there".

~~~
foobar2020
It is a reasonably good advice. After all there is plenty of programming work
that does not require ever learning how does quicksort work or what is a
mutex. Accessible to nearly anyone with increased intelligence.

------
TheBiv
"I found:

a) Something I liked to do (writing) b) Something that people were willing to
pay me for (writing) c) Something that I was good at (writing)"

My only problem with the authors solution is that if you break down "passion"
into those 3 buckets then her answer is still a general answer of "writing".

I would've enjoyed the author to dig deeper into why the writing she does and
the 3 points led her to find the thing she is passionate about.

------
JDiculous
I agree that it's terrible advice, but the article is clickbait and lacking in
substance.

------
cstanley
I hate the misleading + provocative title used to get me to click. It actually
takes away from the nice framework for 'work' communicated in this article.
The title seems to suggest that 'passion' should not be a component in ones
career goals, which is bs.

~~~
iaw
Passion should not be a component of ones career goals. Something that you
enjoy doing can be, but is not always, something you're passionate about.

I obtained a degree in one of my passions and I do it as a hobby, I would hate
doing it for a living because of numerous reasons even though I'm good at it
and people would pay. Instead I found something that I am not passionate about
but enjoy greatly that has a better working dynamic for my personality.

It's my opinion that the concept of 'passion' should only play into career
goals in so much as determining if the field you're interested in actually
aligns with what you enjoy about the concept of that field.

------
wodenokoto
The odd thing is the author mentions that even if you don't make (a lot) of
money, you are still doing what you love (and thus must be happy and succesful
by any meaningful criteria), and then later fails to bring this back into the
conclusion.

There is probably little chance that you'll be good enough at something, to
use that skill to acquire vast amounts of money if you are not passionate
about that skill. But the chance that what you love is something that is In
demand enough to make you rich, is also pretty slim.

------
somberi
From Somerset Maugham’s novel “The Moon and Sixpence” (1)

Storeve : "I don’t pretend to be a great painter,” he says early on, “but I
have something. I sell.”

Yet he recognizes Strickland’s (Stroeve's friend) work as genius.

He tells the dealer, “Remember Monet, who could not get anyone to buy his
pictures for a hundred francs. What are they worth now?” The dealer questions
this logic. “There were a hundred as good painters as Monet who couldn’t sell
their pictures at that time, and their pictures are worth nothing still. How
can one tell? Is merit enough to bring success?”

Stroeve is infuriated. “How, then, will you recognize merit?” he asks.

“There is only one way—by success,” the dealer replies. “Think of all the
great artists of the past—Raphael, Michael Angelo, Ingres, Delacroix—they were
all successful.”

(1) - [http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/05/31/the-great-
and-t...](http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/05/31/the-great-and-the-good)

------
austinjp
The author's recognition that luck is a critical factor is refreshing.

Happiness != success.

Career != life.

Work != career.

Life is not one-dimensional, and luck is a huge factor in all of these.

~~~
balabaster
Luck is what outsiders label reasons that you get ahead and they don't. The
reason a door opened for you and not for them. The reason that you're
successful and they're not.

What they fail to see is that it wasn't lucky at all. It may have been luck
that that particular door opened when it did, but realistically, from the
inside, it was leveraging the best opportunity available at the time. If that
door hadn't opened, you'd have taken another route to your objective. There is
little luck involved. The only lucky thing I suppose is the probability of
taking the route you did.

When you climb a mountain your goal is the summit. The climber who decides "Ah
shit, I couldn't do it because there was bad weather, you were so lucky that
you hit the mountain when you did and had that window to summit." There was no
luck involved... you would've summited anyway, you'd have just taken a
different route or persevered longer to get there. That's the difference
between those who make it and those who say "If only I'd had their luck."

I guess you could say it took some luck for Edison to make the light bulb...
but I daresay if you'd suggested such a thing to Edison, he'd have taken your
head off. But that's the difference between seeing failure and seeing the
thousands of incremental changes that led from something that wasn't
satisfactory, to something that provides lights for the entire world...

~~~
jack9
It's lucky that I wasn't born as an aboriginee. Babe Ruth didn't have to
compete against black players or get drug tested, ad nauseum. The whole "you
make your own luck" is as wishful thinking as any other hokey religion.

~~~
balabaster
It's lucky that you were born with such a sense of knowing your place in the
world and not striving to be more than society lets you be... It must be a
great source of comfort.

There are many many examples of people who have done what society said
couldn't be done because of who they are, what race they are, what sex they
are, what circumstances they are shackled by... by many accounts the honey bee
shouldn't be able to fly.

Imagine where you could be if you said "Fuck that, I'll define my own destiny
thanks."

~~~
studentrob
> Imagine where you could be if you said "Fuck that, I'll define my own
> destiny thanks."

Sometimes you'd be better off. Sometimes you'd be dead. Is society better off
because of a person who stood up for his or her beliefs and paid a price for
that? I'd say yes. Is that person better off for it? Debatable.

------
reality_TV
I haven't read the article, but why not follow your passion that at least
guarantees you a job in this industry. It's not what you "TRULY," want to do,
but at least your making a living in the field you have an interest and a
passion for.

i.e. I started up long ago & in the process learned how to code & design. A
few years after I landed my first coding gig. I'm still coding for a living,
while also still pursuing my startup/inventor goals.

Again, I didnt read the article, but I can't see anything negative in
following your passion in our industry (tech), unless you you just waste money
having others build your dreams and not gaining new skills yourself.

------
mariodiana
If you wind up becoming Picasso or Eddie Van Halen or Meryl Streep, it's great
advice. But if you're one of the many talented but marginally employed
artists, musicians, or actors, it's not so great. The truth is that there are
a lot of very talented people out there who have been seized with a passion
that in most cases just does not pay out. Blessed are they whose passion is
accounting.

------
volume
This is an issue that will never be settled at a high level - where it's some
sort of rule everyone should live by. This is what the headline implies.

Your approach is relative to your current situation.

IF people realized this we'd:

\- have 50% less questions on Quora and Yahoo answers

\- better google matches for the things we need

\- a faster internet (or maybe not, more room for porn bandwidth?)

------
anotheryou
clickbait bullshit...

how can it be the worst if it makes 1/3 of the advertised formula?

Also hardly anyone sucks at their passion (and admits it to himself, which
would be crucial for the calculation, too). That makes it at least 1/2 of the
formula...

~~~
kzhahou
> Also hardly anyone sucks at their passion

Anecdotally, I know far too many people who have devoted years to areas they
have little to no aptitude in (in the arts, and in business). They have no
natural talent and are getting nowhere (by any metric, not just financial),
but they do love their field.

~~~
iaw
I could not agree more. I think people are conflating the things one enjoys
doing with passion.

~~~
markdown
Are you implying that if people aren't good at something they love doing, they
just aren't passionate about it... and that with real passion, being great at
something is inevitable?

~~~
iaw
Not in any way. I'm saying that enjoying doing something is not the same as
being passionate about it. There are many things I enjoy that I don't have a
passion for.

Passion and pleasure are being conflated a lot here.

------
lucio
bs. first she says that she is one of the lucky ones finding the perfect job,
3 of 3, and in the next paragraph she says "Plenty of us aren't so lucky"...
... "of us"??? You've just excluded yourself from the unlucky in the previous
paragraph.

~~~
theoh
There's no contradiction. Some of set U ("us") are lucky. "Plenty" members of
set U are not lucky. Set U contains everybody.

