
Do What You Love - aaronbrethorst
http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/do-what-you-love/
======
grlthgn
I always hated that advice "Do what you Love". It's a fucking terrible advice.
I know people mean well when they give that advice, but its a downright
terrible advice for the vast majority of people.

Let me point out that this is an article written by a guy that ended up
"loving" programming. I know that there is a lot of programmers here, (myself
included) but let's face the reality here: only weirdos love programming. I
say this because I'm a weirdo and I love programming, and every friend I know
that loves programming is more or less the.. eccentric type. We just happen to
be very fortunate in that we happen to love something that guarantees a middle
class income and plenty of opportunities.

Most people are normal and love normal things. They like food, they like
music, they like art, they like sex, they like sports, they like adventure. If
you tell normal people to do what they love, you are practically dooming them
to shit careers. It's all about supply and demand. Most people love the same
things that other people love (except programmers, who are weirdos), and there
just isn't enough jobs that normal people will love. Maybe 1% of normal people
will end up in their dream job, and the other 99% end up on the hamster wheel
chasing what they love.

~~~
staunch
I think your complaint goes away if you complete the sentence: Do what you
love _to create_

Most people live read-only lives. They never create music, food, or art. They
merely consume them.

But if you _love_ creating music, food, or art you absolutely can make a
career out of it. Of course, a middling chef or musician won't make it very
far, but neither will a middling programmer really (though they may at least
stay employed).

~~~
potatolicious
I don't think his complaint goes away at all.

For one thing, in my experience, most people _don't_ love to create. Most
people aren't artists, programmers, writers, chefs, or carpenters because they
wake up in the morning and look forward to it. My overwhelming impression from
the vast majority of people I've met in my life indicates that _creating
things_ is simply not a driving force. If given a complete lack of want, I'm
convinced the majority of the world's population will choose to do nothing
creative with it, and spend it socializing, fucking, and eating.

Scarcity is pretty much the only reason their butt finds their way to the desk
every morning.

Not that there's anything necessarily wrong with that.

Secondly, even for people who have strong passions in a particular craft,
there's no accounting for supply and demand. We are _incredibly_ fortunate
that our passions lie in a field that is _severely_ under-supplied, allowing
us to enjoy incredible compensation and job security in an era where so few
have just that. And our situation is highly temporary, I assure you. The
ability for your passion to put a roof over your head and provide the basic
necessities of life is... questionable.

So while I'm pulling in a 6-figure salary, have insane perks at the office,
flexible hours, live in an amazing city, and have the money and time to pursue
my dreams, I'm not going to stand on a soapbox and pontificate to everyone
how, _if they had only followed their passion_ , they could be happy too.

The reality is that we are the lucky few. For a vast portion of the population
following their passions is a one-way ticket to getting evicted and digging
through garbage cans.

~~~
pavlov
_If given a complete lack of want, I'm convinced the majority of the world's
population will choose to do nothing creative with it, and spend it
socializing, fucking, and eating._

The reality TV show _Big Brother_ is strong evidence in favor of your
argument.

It's an artificial environment where people are aggressively prevented from
creating anything. You can't even smuggle a pencil and a piece of paper into
the Big Brother house -- if you wanted to write or draw something, you'd have
to do it with your own blood on the walls, I guess... Once you're in there,
your life for the next N months will consist solely of socializing, fucking
and eating.

Amazingly, there are millions of people who find this prospect so exciting
that they apply for the show year after year.

~~~
TorKlingberg
I don't think we should draw general conclusions about humanity based on
reality show contestants. The draw to participate in Big Brother is that the
house is full of TV cameras. Which, ironically, could actually be described as
creating something.

------
keiferski
Unfortunately, you only get to write these sorts of posts when what you love
is economically in demand.

~~~
pauljburke
More like people only want to read them when what you love is economically in
demand. These always remind me to go back and reread the sections on
survivorship bias in fooled by randomness. I'm not sure if that's ironic or
not.

------
koide
This:

"In general, try things that seem worthwhile, set goals and work hard to
achieve them, and see where that leads and how you respond. It’ll be clear
when something becomes compelling"

Everybody says "do what you love". Few say how to find what you love. Fewer
still say how to manage to work as hard as you should to find what you love.

It's kind of a circular problem, when you love something you'll naturally work
very hard on it, when you are still searching what it is you love, it's really
hard to get the energy to work as hard as you should to find the elusive loved
mission.

~~~
quaunaut
As a recurring depressive, I can't help but think, "How the hell do people
live day to day not knowing at least one thing they absolutely love?"

If not for my own things that I intensely can dig into, I would've offed
myself a long time ago.

~~~
koide
It's amazing how different how life is lived and understood between depressive
and non depressive people.

I personally have a really hard time even imagining depression, and I ask
myself: "how can it be so hard to just pull yourself together?"

I can rationally understand it is really hard, but I can't imagine it.

~~~
shrub
Imagine having nothing that you love to do, and imagine the things that you
previously loved to do are now laborious and draining, no matter the positive
things you tell yourself about them. Think of something you really enjoy
doing, and really look forward to, now imagine replacing the positive
anticipation with dread instead. Imagine knowing you should be getting
positive feedback from some accomplishment or activity, but all that your
brain and emotions register is "meh." It's not that you don't try to pull it
together and keep slogging forward every day, achieving things and smiling at
people, it's just that none of your efforts ever seem to pay off emotionally.
It's not that you don't recognize and routinely count your blessings, but
rather the very act becomes negative as you lament not feeling much of
anything for them. I understand the sentiment that it's hard to imagine, I
hope this description may help.

------
lotharbot
I think it's important to remember that "Do What You Love" may not lead to
_financial_ success. It will only lead to you doing more of what you love,
which may or may not ever pay well.

(I'm a stay-at-home dad, and I love it. But it doesn't generate a lot of
cash.)

------
EternalFury
I get to quote from Gladiator, yeah!

In the movie, Cicero says: "Sometimes I do what I want to do. The rest of the
time, I do what I have to."

I love building things and programming, but I love it when it is a process of
self-accomplishment, driven by a deep desire to create, discover and learn.

In my job environment, however, these values are irrelevant and what I love to
do otherwise becomes what others trample and waste.

So, yes, do what you love to do when you can and do what you have to do the
rest of the time. Unless you don't care about living under a bridge.

------
SoftwareMaven
_Every_ time I've tried to push my career in some direction, I've been left
unhappy and frustrated. Whenever I've held on and enjoyed the ride, I've found
myself in new and exciting territory. I have no idea what tomorrow will bring,
but I know enough to stop trying to force what I think it should be; instead,
I'll watch and see what happens and make the best of it.

------
bufordtwain
This was the highlight for me:

"Perhaps the most useful way to figure out what you really want to do is to
observe what you actually choose to do."

In other words, what do you do in your free time?

~~~
debt
It seems so weird to me that we've gotten to a point where people don't think
they are what they do.

~~~
mattgreenrocks
Well, they aren't. They just cognitively distance themselves from it because
it sucks.

And I say this as someone with an achievement neurosis. I fight this
perception of myself and others because it ultimately does not benefit me --
I'd be working hard either way. No need to pile my identity onto it.

------
gouranga
Do what you love doesn't pay the bills.

If I did what I loved, I'd be in the garden or knee deep in solder.

I do what I have to do, so I'm chained in front of Visual Studio.

~~~
ljf
There is money in gardening - I have friends that are very successful at it,
and are still hands on, picking and planting the plants - while making more
than enough to live a happy life.

My father loves drawing and making stuff, he is a pretty damn successful stage
designer.

You have to love what you are doing AND be good at it AND good at selling
yourself. But if you can crack that you really can love getting up each day. I
know I do, and I know most of my friends and family do.

My richest friend works 60 hour weeks to have a great car parked outside his
office and to support a stunning home he never 'lives' in - and he will tell
anyone that no only does he hate his job, he isn't happy. But he really thinks
having more (holidays, watches, suits, etc.) will make him happy, but they
haven't yet...

------
fallous
Do garbage men and sewage workers love what they do? I doubt it. Are their
jobs absolutely vital to the very existence of modern civilization?
Absolutely.

"Do what you love" seems to fail if you wish it universal as a categorical
imperative.

------
gms7777
On this same topic, Mike Peters, pulitzer prize winning cartoonist, gave a
brilliant commencement speech at Washington University in St. Louis this May.

I admit though, I consider myself one of the lucky few (and probably stand
amongst many of you in this category) for whom doing what I love coincides
with doing what actually makes me "successful" by our society's standards.

I loved this line though, perfectly described my college experience and
discovery of programming: "I was good at lots of other things I did
academically, but they all felt like work."

------
ashwin_krish
Going along with grlthgn, The bigger problem with 'Doing what you love' is
most times, we are not aware of what we love. It is just impossible to find
what you love. Sometimes the thing we love is short lived. This leads us to
the next question, do everyone in the world have some this life-long activity
they love? That question has never been answered.

~~~
mattgreenrocks
It's not impossible, but it does require introspection, and a willingness to
change things up. The combination of qualities excludes many people - you can
have introspection without action, but it can end up in depression.

It's also partially generational, too. Later generations aren't as tied to
their jobs because they grew up in a world where, collectively, employers
didn't take quite as good care of employees.

------
moocow01
Unrelated but that background with the pale hues makes it tough for me to
read. Maybe Im just getting old.

------
tarr11
I love when people write these kinds of things, and include all the details.
Makes it so much more memorable.

Good read.

------
hcarvalhoalves
"Do what you love, but please do get your PhD first. You do love academia,
right? Right???"

------
anamax
I'm really glad that the guy who picks up my garbage doesn't do what he loves
full time.

------
thedillio
In a Stanford lecture, Tina Seelig said something along the lines of: find
where your interests, what your good at, and the market (ie someone will pay
you) intersects and do that. I've always liked that advice.

------
varunsaini
Very well said...it is not the destination but journey that matters most...

------
tferris
Do opportunities.

That's all about and if these opportunities are about your passion even
better. Otherwise you wait for the perfect idea or stuck with a crappy thing
for years only because it's you passion.

------
johnohara
Personally, I prefer those moments in life when everything seems to strike a
nice balance. I find they give me insight into what I love to do.

And yes, it generally involves creating something.

------
neilparikh
Side note, but can some one explain or link to something that explains xor-
based animation? I couldn't find much in a quick Google search.

~~~
jewel
When the display only has black and white pixels, you can XOR the a "sprite",
or image to the screen to draw it, and XOR the same sprite in to the same
location again to undraw it. The advantages are that you don't have to redraw
the entire screen this way each frame, images can overlap, and you can draw
your image on a black background or a white background.

For animation, you pre-XOR the sprites together so that a single XOR both
erases the old image, and draws the new one, in a single blit.

<http://z80-heaven.wikidot.com/sprite-routines> has some sample code and
perhaps a better explanation. <http://tibasicdev.wikidot.com/68k:sprites> has
some sample pictures.

