Ask HN: How did you find your passion? - waltonizer
======
maxxxxx
All my passions are either commercially not useful or things I am not talented
enough to be in front. Example: martial arts and boxing. I really loved it but
I am naturally very nonathletic so I was never be able to hang with the top
people which is frustrating considering the effort I put into it. Same with
hiking and photography. I like doing it but somehow I lack the artistic
ability to stand out.

I have passion for software development. I am good at it but somehow I never
managed to do it in an environment that doesn't kill my passion for it. I have
done my own thing but failed at the business side like selling.

I really wish I had passion for something I am good at and that also allows me
to do it for a living instead of feeling like I am wasting my life sitting in
a cubicle. People who have managed to make their passion into a career should
be envied.

~~~
Nostradedamus
Remember this: Albert Einstein had a simple clerk position in a Swiss patent
office. While working at the patent office, Einstein had the time to further
explore ideas that had taken hold during his studies at Polytechnic and thus
cemented his theorems on what would be known as the principle of relativity.

~~~
maxxxxx
I am not sure what to learn from this.

~~~
Nostradedamus
You're not wasting your life sitting in a cubicle. Your mind is always free to
create and discover...

~~~
tmaly
Sometimes a low stress job is ideal for the opportunity to create.

~~~
Nostradedamus
But high stress can do some amazing things to your brain. And immediately when
I found this out I use it at my advantage. For years I worked on my project
with results like "a step forward, two steps behind". So I quit my job with
only a few thousands $$ and put as much stress on my "system". I found my
"eureka moment" a few days before I ran out of $$. They call this the survival
instinct.

~~~
maxxxxx
I think it's great that you succeeded but you shouldn't generalize your
experience. I also put everything on the line for a business idea and failed
miserably with a lot of debt. There are a lot of factors involved in success.
It's not only persistence.

------
auntad
As some commenters have alluded to anecdotally, there's science behind the
idea that "follow your passion" is bad advice. So it's not something you find,
but rather something you build. There are probably very many things that could
become your passion(s) if you build them.

I'm still working on building mine. I've found at least one (coding) that fits
into the picture somehow, being that I've been doing it since I was a kid.
Some others are more recent interests that I want to spend a few years diving
deeper into before rendering a verdict.

Cal Newport wrote a whole book refuting the "follow your passion" hypothesis
in 2012: So Good They Can't Ignore You [1].

And more recently, there's a Stanford study out that makes the same claim [2].

[1] [https://www.amazon.com/Good-They-Cant-Ignore-
You/dp/14555091...](https://www.amazon.com/Good-They-Cant-Ignore-
You/dp/1455509124)

[2] [http://gregorywalton-
stanford.weebly.com/uploads/4/9/4/4/494...](http://gregorywalton-
stanford.weebly.com/uploads/4/9/4/4/49448111/okeefedweckwalton_2018.pdf)

~~~
sgdread
There is another great book written by Cal: Deep Work [1].

Don't follow your passion. Instead, become _really_ good at something. Apply
methodical approach to improve your craft skills. Once you got mastery, you
might actually like it.

[1] [https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Work-Focused-Success-
Distracted/...](https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Work-Focused-Success-
Distracted/dp/1455586692)

edit: formatting

~~~
projektir
> Don't follow your passion. Instead, become really good at something.

The important question always seems to be: at what?

You can't pick a lot of things because mastery takes years, and if you picked
something you're unsuited for, you've just wasted a lot of time.

This just doesn't seem like a high value proposition.

------
awb
There are lots of self help resources on the topic (ex.
[https://youtube.com/watch?v=6pgaJb2Wwhs](https://youtube.com/watch?v=6pgaJb2Wwhs)),
but IMO a passion is when you enjoy the process of something rather than
looking forward to an outcome. Your life probably already demonstrates your
passions.

What do you actually do in your free time (not what you wish you were doing)?
Go to the bar? Play video games? Go to the beach? Those are your passions
right now.

If you want different passions, try different things for an hour a day for a
week or two. Try hiking, photography, reading, writing, etc. If you enjoy the
act itself and such with it, it's a passion of yours.

IMO, there is no shortcut, you have to try different things until they click.

~~~
mettamage
Simple advice but I needed to be reminded of that finding your passion
partially means that you need to try _everything_.

Okay, maybe not everything, but it sure sounds fun! :)

------
nscalf
After years of hearing people I respected on podcasts talking about how
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is one of the most dominant fighting sports, a smaller guy
can beat a bigger guy, etc... I hear a philosopher I like talk about how it is
the most thoughtful and complex practices he does. He says he's like an addict
who is carefully maneuvering around injuries to practice it for the rest of
his life. I decide I'll give it a shot.

Cut to me, a 21 year old weighing in at a strong ~200 pounds (I had been
powerlifting for a couple years), getting flipped and choked in under 15
seconds by Doc, a 60-something year old brown belt at my local gym. Nearly
four years later, I spend 15-20 hours a week at the gym and I think about
techniques all day long.

I'm a software engineer by trade, but my "retirement plan" is definitely
opening a gym and moving the other 40 hours I spend coding into this. The best
description I have heard is "chess with your whole body", when you start to
learn how movements interact with each other on a higher level than just
trying to survive, it's the most complex and precise physical activity in the
world.

And there is always someone who can make you feel like a child fighting your
300 pound uncle.

~~~
PascLeRasc
Do you still lift? I'm pretty into weightlifting and I'd like to add a martial
art and BJJ looks like the best fit for me, but I don't want to lose muscle
definition.

~~~
t3h2mas
Continue to lift. Eat protein. Your TDEE might go up if you lift the same
amount and add BJJ on top. If recovery becomes an issue hit the usual sleep,
hydrate, eat, stretch points.

Most of what I've read about muscle loss is that it happens when you eat at a
deficit or don't hit your protein targets.

This video talks about the creators experience balancing BJJ w/ lifting.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/weightroom/comments/6o8ubw/balancin...](https://www.reddit.com/r/weightroom/comments/6o8ubw/balancing_weights_and_bjj_dr_mike_israetel/)

Edit: personally I switched to a 5/3/1 variant for athletes, but plan on going
back to a higher volume program soon, after some weight loss.

------
smilesnd
I found my passion by getting really pissed off. One day I was sitting at my
windows xp box and I wanted to do something really stupid/simple. I wanted to
change all the icons for a application so it would fit my theme. Long story
short I ended up switching to ubuntu learned to program and learned more about
operating systems and networking then I ever should have. Now as a software
developer I find my passion is driven by being pissed at a problem or
situations that I want to control. Twitter tells me I can't do what?? I will
write entire library just for that purpose. Windows 10 wants to run what in my
background?? I will either figure out a way to change that in the registry,
boot it in linux and delete things I shouldn't, or write some script that
keeps it in check.

~~~
wingerlang
> I wanted to change all the icons for a application so it would fit my theme.

In 2012 I wanted to move the notification badges to fit my theme on my
jailbroken device. However there were no way to do it, so I got into
developing software for jailbroken devices and did it myself. 6-ish years
later I still do it. It also led me into my current (iOS) developer career.

I've been programming for way longer than this, so my passion was known
beforehand, however the current direction seemed very relevant to your
comment.

------
gkya
2013\. My 19yo self, having spent almost two years doing nothing but learning
programming, wants to read CS at the uni, but knows not maths. Signs up for a
class to prepare for the national uni qualification exams in order to learn
enough 1 + 1 to qualify for a CS undergrad course. But midway the preparatory
classes has a crush on the philosophy instructor and reads a platonic dialogue
and 1984 to impress her. But ends up actually falling in love with literature
and studying Italian literature from fall 2014. Fast forward to 2018: I'm now
freshly graduated and considering whether to study general literature for my
master's or comparative literature. I'm also planning a career in academia.
But I also have programming skills and live in Gnu Emacs compiled from master
and run Debian stable on my laptop (after a year of FreeBSD after some years
of Arch Linux). So a bit of a unique blend I have ended up being :)

I guess I should be thankful to how stupid I was back then (hopefully I
improved a bit since) :) Getting into philosophy and literature has not only
change my career plans, but helped me tackle my adolescence depression, have
peace in my mind, and overcome the coercions of tradition and society and work
towards realising myself.

------
DyslexicAtheist
travel on a shoestring for a year and then work abroad and expose myself to
different cultures, helped me discover mine.

maintaining passion over a longer period of time (turning the hobby/passion
into a career) is much harder than finding it. it requires a routine with a
rule to restrict/timebox the joyous activity as much as one timeboxes the
chores.

Hunter S. Thompson’s Letter on Finding Your Purpose and Living a Meaningful
Life [https://fs.blog/2014/05/hunter-s-thompson-to-hume-
logan/](https://fs.blog/2014/05/hunter-s-thompson-to-hume-logan/)

~~~
avenius
That's an interesting point - passion does fade over time. I spent 10 years of
my life intensely devoted to music, but at some point it just evaporated. It's
baffling, really.

As for software development, I found my passion as a kid when my father taught
me some simple scripting on his old Dolphin. I was simply amazed by the vast
landscape of possibilities.

------
josephmosby
I didn't find mine until recently, but even then - it definitely found me.

I worked really hard on stuff that I just "liked" enough that I said "hey, if
this is all I did, I would be happy and would make enough money to live." This
was actually something that Phil Knight talked about in Shoe Dog - he was an
accountant, and he knew that if Nike totally failed, he could still be an
accountant and eat.

Eventually I fell in with a group of people where a bunch of things lined up -
it matched my technical skills, I liked the people I was working with, there
were a set of long-term goals I really believed in, and there was career
runway within those goals. I hadn't done anything proactive to find myself in
that situation, I just tried to work hard and be pretty good at anything I was
doing.

If you don't have a passion yet, I'd instead recommend getting a reputation
for being responsible, proactive, and enjoyable to work with. Be an executor.
That gets you introduced to people who have passions and need someone who can
help them get the job done. Being around those people is critical to helping
you discover your own passions.

------
pier25
People usually think passion is a magic spark that ignites and suddenly you
become obsessed. And maybe that is the case when you're still young.

As an adult I've found that passions do not suddenly explode but are built out
of habit.

Sure, you need an interest in something to begin with (finding a thing that is
compatible with character), but one has to put some effort until that interest
gains momentum, so to speak.

------
DamnInteresting
Originally, my primary passion (non-fiction writing) arose as a form of
escapism. I was unhappy with my life due to a bad marriage; she turned out to
be a nasty person and a secret hoarder who spent us into the poor house within
a few years. I had long been trying to write fiction, but I found none of it
worthy of exposure to the public. So I decided to try my hand at non-fiction.
After all, I had been collecting knowledge of strange true stories for as long
as I could recall. Writing served me well in distracting me from the crappy
situation I inhabited.

In a way I was lucky; I discovered this passion and acted upon it when it was
possible to launch a small website, start publishing, and have a reasonable
opportunity to cultivate an audience (ca. 2005). The site now has tens of
thousands of monthly readers. I still love writing non-fiction, but my life is
much better these days. I divorced the wretch, married a great woman, and
started a family. It's harder to find time to scratch the writing itch, but I
still find scraps of time here and there.

------
kozikow
My passion used to be programming. I went back home and programmed or read
stuff about programming. After close to 10 years in job market, I think it's
not so great idea after all. It was much harder to de-stress. I took problems
at work too personally. I sometimes made work decision that weren't unbiassed
enough. Now I think that no matter how much you like your work, for long term
personal well being do not do it at home.

My current after work hobby in an unlikely place. Precision rifle
competitions. It's very scientific sport in nature - winning is pretty much
about forecasting flight of your bullet, that involves lots of physics,
statistics and controlling 10s of different variables. Recent king of 2 miles
competition looked more like science olympiad:
[http://precisionrifleblog.com/2018/07/05/what-the-pros-
use-k...](http://precisionrifleblog.com/2018/07/05/what-the-pros-use-
king-2-miles-edition/) .

------
tonyjstark
I think I got very lucky or I get easily passionate about things.

When I was 13 I wanted to become a hacker, my dad got me a scrape yard DOS box
with a then already obsolete 386SX. There was GW-Basic on it and I hacked away
trying to implement viruses. I got me a QBasic compiler and wrote a programm
that overwrites the config.sys and autoexec.bat and catches the usual
interrupt keys like ctrl-c. Then it showed a blinking colorful ascii-art. My
mother was not impressed when I let it run on her accounting machine...

Fast forward 3 years, I played piano for a while but it felt not cool enough
and I was in to classic rock (I still am) so I wanted to learn guitar since I
couldn't afford a Hammond organ. My friends needed a bass player and so I
listened to my favorite songs, figuring out what bass players actually do and
it got me. So I learned bass.

2 years later I finished school and wanted to study Jazz with my bass, tried
to get into universities but they somehow felt I wasn't completely behind it,
being more of a rock guy, still I wanted to move out from home. I remembered
my coding sessions from my early teens and went into CS. After 2 semesters I
realized that programming and reading about CS 8 hours a day is fun, 8 hours
of practicing bass isn't.

Since then I love my job and still have fun with a blues rock band in the
evenings. Only downside, I don't do martial arts anymore (Boxing, Kali), I got
afraid of hand injuries.

So as stated, there was a lot of luck involved but still I found out, if there
is a slight chance something is fun to do and you invest some energy, you
probably develop some passion for it. I never thought about it if something is
commercially useful or if I even got good enough to stay out of the masses, I
don't do magic on the bass, I'm not the best dev out there. But at least I
feel good after coming home from work and every time wasted with the band is
time well spent. What else do I want?

------
j45
Learning to build discipline will keep you moving forward until you find
interesting opportunities in most any problem.

The world isn't responsible to entertain, fulfill or inspire us. We have to
learn to see that for ourselves, until we do, we have to put in the work until
we uncover things about ourselves we like doing. Try new things regularly to
cultivate a truly open mind. Passion can't exist where logic alone is.

Passion doesn't matter as much as you think. If you can through saying yes to
solving problems uncover a universal passion (learning, helping others, making
tech work for people) you will find it can be applied anywhere.

This helps to separate the industry from the improvement and making a
difference. Sometimes we have the same lessons to learn no matter the path we
pick. Choice can be an illusion when we are still learning to become well
rounded and would probably learn the same skills from a few equally positioned
opportunities.

If that doesn't make sense, for me the idea/area doesn't have to be as sexy as
much as building the entire system around it, and effecting change with it.

I have worked in some dry industries, but I had plenty to learn independent of
industry which was thanks to good people. I picked up a lot of transferable
skills that I applied when those opportunities that I felt passion for came
up.

PG is right, solve problems, build stuff that people want. Make tech work for
people, not just the digitally inclined.

------
thiago_fm
My mother died recently(~2 years) from cancer and the things she thought I
would do, and even I, at some sense, tried to and gave up, came back.

I was a naturally talent kid for music. Even without any education I could get
a instrument and figure it out. Sure, that wouldn't me make a great player, as
that involves a lot of dedication. But we were very poor and couldn't afford
the instrument or the musical education(or the time to, as music rarely
becomes something profitable in one's life) and I instead focused on at least
having a job. So I studied computer science now and live abroad. Good choice.

So, I've bought a guitar around the time she died and started playing.
Definitely not playing as much as I should to become very good, but enough to
talk about it being a hobby. I also enjoy it very much. I think that if I
would try to become good(as I had to, for other things, in exchange of money),
it would lose the fun of it. So I don't try hard.

My other hobby is reading. I want to learn how to speak German(I can speak
other 3 languages), as I live in Germany and have been trying to improve
myself in that language consistently. I'm not such a good language learner,
but I've been consistently studying them throughout my life.

Another hobby I would like to take on, maybe once I get more confortable with
life in Germany(and the language) is to paint. I can draw quite well but got
bored of it. I had plenty of fun painting at school and some other occasions.
I really like color and abstract art. It is very relaxing and might help me to
relieve some stress from my day job as a software dev.

------
helengriffinjr
Honestly, I started w/ my pain. What caused me to struggle the most often goes
against my core values. It wasn't until I sat and jot down "why" my recent
problems escalated so quickly and had a greater negative impact. Often my new
problems were mirroring old problems. It was then that I realized my beliefs.
This is where I stood during adversity. What I was willing to fight to protect
and nurture. It's why I'm willing to stop every bad habit just so I don't
become its bottleneck. It's my compass for every decision. Your passion has a
direct correlation to your pain. Start w/ your pain, verbalize it instead of
being reactive. Once you know the words at least you can go to thesaurus.com
and use the antonyms as a start to explore your passion ;-) Good luck and much
joy to ya!

Also, passion isn't just a burst of energy, excitement or full of woo-woo
emotions. It's strategic, empathetic, intelligent, loving, strong, and
actionable. Plus reading/listening to Start with Why is helpful AF! Much
success to you on your journey!

resource: [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17447384-start-with-
why](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17447384-start-with-why)

------
ryanmercer
Career wise? I haven't yet. I've found a company I'm really excited about and
have applied though but just playing the waiting game.

Outside of career? Reading. Reading a lot. I read a ton of hard science
fiction and SHTF type stuff as well as books like The Doomsday Machine:
Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner by Daniel Ellsberg (just started it this
morning, been sitting on my kindle for months) and Powering the Future: How We
Will (Eventually) Solve the Energy Crisis and Fuel the Civilization of
Tomorrow by Robert B. Laughlin. Reading books like these have, over probably
20 years, really developed a mind that spends a lot of time thinking about
what problems our species faces in the immediate, near and even far future. I
enjoy this, even though many things outright terrify me for my own future as
well as our collective future.

I like the 'what if' aspect of how reading this variety of works has brought
about in me. What if nuclear war, what if asteroid impact, what if
supervolcano, what if peaceful first contact via broadcast or in person, what
if automation frees up humans to do what they want to do instead of working to
live, what if cancer is all but irradicated in small religious sects, what if
what if what if.

~~~
TomMarius
I'm same as you, but I'm actually getting tired of it. Everytime I encounter a
problem, I start compulsively thinking in this direction, scaling it during
the process, eventually getting frustrated about my inability to implement
necessary changes.

~~~
ryanmercer
I feel you. Food production is a big one with me right now and I've been
drastically reducing the animal products in my diet and switching to less
processed foods (black beans have become my staple).

I find writing can help manage it a bit, in fact I just finished a piece on
food production and indoor farming
[https://www.ryanmercer.com/ryansthoughts/2018/7/8/tackling-t...](https://www.ryanmercer.com/ryansthoughts/2018/7/8/tackling-
the-problem-of-food-production)

~~~
mrfusion
What are some good things to do with black beans?

~~~
Djvacto
Peruvian Black Beans with Rice & Aji sauce (Yellow or Green Sauce) is
delicious and inspired by a local place I ate at a few times.

Black Bean burgers/patties are great.

I like making tacos with the refried beans (mashed or not).

You can also use black beans in 'stir-fries'! I'm actually trying to decide
what typical Asian sauce to try it with next. Maybe General Tso's?

------
furthermore
A parent dying in my early 20s. Now I'm in my 40s, but because of that age
maybe (not handling death maturely), I became obsessed with the immortality /
singularity movements. Now it's become who I am, someone that believes
technology is the answer to everything and I find anything else boring /
immaterial (stopped caring about sports, recreational maths, fiction, politics
etc, that I had a passion for in my teens).

------
p0d
I wished upon a star.

Joking asides, I think a better question to pursue is how to find contentment.
One key for me has been learning to live for today and not worrying too much
about tomorrow.

A friend just received more money than she could have ever imagined. Sadly it
was an insurance payout after the untimely death of her young husband. I know
what she would rather have.

Keep reading, learing and making plans but don’t get too hung up on what you
think is missing and enjoy the now.

------
cm2012
I like my job (marketing strategy and execution). But if I could I would play
competitive starcraft all day, every day. It just scratches an itch.

------
accnumnplus1
I don't know that I've found things which I'm passionate about as much as I've
found things I enjoy, or which intrigue me, and I pursue obsessively
competitively in order to excel. Whatever it is, I become fairly skilled at
it, through sheer determination, persistence, and immersion, then for one
reason or another I move on - no financial reward, I find the point where
genes separate the men from the boys, etc. I'm a programmer for a living. I
enjoy doing my own programming, not so much work programming, but partly do it
simply because I've been doing it since the zx81 - "... if you're warm and
happy in a pile of crap, keep your mouth shut" \- or something. The Helsinki
Bus Theory seems worth mentioning in this conversation:
[https://jamesclear.com/stay-on-the-bus](https://jamesclear.com/stay-on-the-
bus) .

------
8bitsrule
Step one, it seems to me, is to figure out what passion isn't ... there are
several mental trips that may _seem_ like passion, but don't last. I think of
it as a challenging journey you're drawn to regardless of what others think
(so it's not ego-tripping) or how conventionally rewarding it is (if it is,
lucky you, but ... danger, Will Robinson).

Something that opens you up and allows you to develop ... challenging enough
to keep you from ever getting bored. A large set of related problems, for
example, a universe to apply your growing expertise to.

That (not so elegantly) said, finding it may mean a lot of trial and error. So
staying open to new candidates is important, until you can rule out most
avenues and focus on those you stay drawn to.

------
sveng
Finding your passion is a bit of a trap; this article explains some reasons
why:

[https://mashable.com/2017/03/22/7-habits-you-need-instead-
of...](https://mashable.com/2017/03/22/7-habits-you-need-instead-of-passion/)

Some of the history of “passion primacy” is based on the Hedgehog Concept of
Jim Collins in his book Good to Great:

[https://www.jimcollins.com/concepts/the-hedgehog-
concept.htm...](https://www.jimcollins.com/concepts/the-hedgehog-concept.html)

Mr. Collins was talking about great companies, however. But his three criteria
are instructive.

Put another way: passion finds you. And it probably won’t if you’re thinking
too much about it.

------
lilactown
I discovered Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in college and have trained 5+ times a week
(barring sickness and injury) since then.

I am not very good, but it is definitely my greatest passion. I took a PE
class on a whim after a professor talked about it and it has defined my life
ever since.

------
Chellappa
I found my passion researching about spirituality. We spend so much time doing
daily worship and related rituals, I decided to dig into the meaningfulness or
otherwise of this. That has kept me going for last 4 years or more, bridging
the link between Spirituality and Science. I think today most people are
missing out by not finding out what the composite goal for life should be, I
would love to make them think on those. But at my age of 78, I dont have
energy or technological ability to set up a video, audio or similar lecture
medium. If I did that I would find a meaning for my life at my stage. That is
still my passion and that could keep life exciting.

------
citeguised
My two (biggest) passions are code and the guitar. The latter I discovered
after I found a html-guitar-course on my friend's laptop when I was 14 and
simply went for it (I'm 32 now).

Finding the former was more interesting. I started coding a little bit when I
was 12/13-ish, but it was never more than the basics. Some QBasic, HTML and
Visual Basic. I wanted to do an apprenticeship as a software-dev, but I guess
my math-grades were too bad back then, and I was discouraged to pursue the
path any further. So by 18 I did one in an unrelated field (banking) and
during that started drawing/painting a lot.

I thought I found my calling/passion/etc. and went to an artistic secondary
school and studied Design in Munich (Graduated with a BA).

Around the middle of Uni (26), I had posted a painting [1] to ConceptArt.org
for critiques. I had spent several hours on that one. One respected and
popular member mentioned, that the painting is nicely rendered and all, but it
doesn't make sense; it has no message; it's saying nothing.

That comment and lots of thinking made me realize that I actually wanted to
_have painted_, and not really to paint. I had nothing to say, there was no
purpose I wanted to fulfill by doing art, other than get likes and
compliments.

It took some time (years) until I was completely honest to myself regarding
art. (Nowadays I do pixel-art, calligraphy and caricatures occasionally, but
seldom)

Thankfully, we had a very good HTML/CSS-Intro-Course in Uni, which enabled me
to make a website for my friend's band, which helped me get an internship at
an agency where I did design and HTML/CSS. I very quickly discovered what I
should have known for 15 years: that coding and building digital stuff is my
passion.

I am still working there. Now as Senior Front-End-Developer. Every day I am
grateful that I can work in this awesome (and well-paid) field, doing work I
like and enjoy.

[1] [http://radovcic.blogspot.com/2011/01/guitar-girl-
ii.html](http://radovcic.blogspot.com/2011/01/guitar-girl-ii.html)

~~~
gkya
> I actually wanted to _have painted_, and not really to paint.

Oh, this resonates so much with me... But WRT purpose of art and it having a
message, I don't think that that's a valid approach. I'm into writing fiction
and poetry, and (also as a graduate in literature) believe that art is not a
medium for messages. It's a form of reflection, exploration, thinking,
experimentation. If there ever is a message, it's what the
spectator/reader/listener collects.

------
Nostradedamus
Well...this is how:

It was 1997, I just landed in San Francisco as a fresh new commercial
Architect/Designer... and I was just starting coding in my spare time.

I got lots of contracts designing new .com Startup and was invited to there
"opening" parties. At one of the party, someone asked me a question that will
change the course of my life.

<<are you going to invest in our coming IPO?>> IPO... what the hell is this
??? I said...

A few days later, I came across an article about how Miami was fighting crime
using a Pattern Recognition Software. And I thought I could apply the same
kind of software onto the Stock Market... and this is how I found my passion.

------
EthanHeilman
From a very young age I was obsessed with adversarial thinking. Some of
interest came from being raised on heroic tales of Hannibal of Carthage and
Archimedes out thinking the Romans. I can't not think about breaking systems.

------
rafiki6
Define passion. Your better off understanding your fundamental drives beyond
basic primal urges. Is it money? It is power? Is it helping others? Is it
praise from others?

My own personal experience is this. I did engineering, then worked in various
parts of the hardware/software stack and found myself in finance. I have no
real interest in finance, but much more in economics. I love economics. I have
this deep desire to understand why we do the things we do and why the world
works the way it does today

------
foobaw
There's also a slight chance you might find similar answers from asking this
specific question in HN.

Imagine asking this question in a literature conference, juggling competition,
cup-stacking competitions, etc.

Various age groups, hobbies, interests will show that people find passion in
different ways. However, it'd be intriguing to see the similarities between
the "how" and "why" of people discovering their passion.

------
parallel_item
My friends think its passion, but really I just forced the medicine down until
it became habit, then a permanent fixture, and now is familiar and relaxing. I
love learning new things but the "passion" idea is really just me exploring
the nuanced depths of a topic I now know a lot about, and that seems to be
fulfilling enough that it can masquerade as "passion" to outsiders.

~~~
waltonizer
Could you elaborate? Are you eluding to software engineering?

~~~
parallel_item
Software engineering (not as a job) for data analytics and data science that
help me automate information consumption.

------
EpicEng
I had a family and developed hobbies with some depth to them.

Work is fine, I'm grateful for what I do as it puts me in a better position
than the vast majority of people on this planet. I enjoy solving engineering
problems, so I truly enjoy a portion of what I do Mon-Fri.

It's not my passion, and I'm fine with that. There was a time in my twenties
when it was, but now I invest myself in other things.

------
pimmen
I became passable at software development and could then create stuff I like.

I didn't realize just how creatively challenging and empowering software
development is when I started studying engineering, I knew I was ok at math
and just wanted to get a job. I got the skills to do stuff I was passionate
about because of it, and I do all the things I'm passionate about off the
clock.

------
corodra
After the world fell apart around me.

Little dramatic, but here’s my shitty life story as fast as possible. My
girlfriend of just a few days shy of 6 years left me, day before my birthday.
For another graphic designer that was mildly...successful? Whatever, I failed
as a designer. We just moved to the west coast. Zero family or friends. I
couldn’t find a job. Was a truck driver for a while. Quit that. Lost my
apartment. Luckily I made friends with a guy that let me crash at his place a
month prior to eviction. Broke, shit work, student debt, freshly single, no
real home, no old friends, family broke ties with me a while back for other
reasons I won’t get into, thus I literally watched buses go and tried to find
the best road where they maintained high speed with easy access for me to walk
into.

My literally only friend now got some IPAs and I drank myself silly. The next
day, hung the fuck over and sitting outside, I realized I didn’t want to even
attempt a better “old life”, which is the default setting to getting your life
together.

Round about way to saying “freedom” is my passion. Started some businesses
with that buddy. Taught myself to program in 2 weeks (yes, I’m that asshole
programmer you all hate, but I’m far better now than those days). Taught
myself sales skills and worked commission only at Frys to build up those
skills. Got contracts and never had an employer since. I walk away from
anything I want to with zero fucks to give. Each of my contracts have a clause
I sneak in that I can drop the project whenever I want with no repercussions.
No lawyer has ever caught it in the past 6 years. I do what I want without a
single concern for permission or qualifications. Especially since a majority
of college edu lawyers are that retarded. I learn different programming skills
and do them. We wanted to setup a retail shop that competes with a local law
enforcement supply store, we did that. Worked on wind farms. Did a few power
plant jobs for various things. Worked security surveillance contracts. I’ve
been asked by a police chief to run some classes he holds for the state. Did
one so far, it was fun. I write as well and get paid for most of it. 3D
modeling for fun, sell that too. I’m finding a muscle car beater I can project
repair and learn some mechanic skills. Wood working on the weekends. No
permission. No asking. Just do what I want, nearly exactly to when I want
(within reason obviously).

Or I could have been a graphic designer. Just the one thing.

I think the one passion thing is horseshit mostly. That's why people feel
"lost", like I did. Diversify, just like in everything else. Like all the
things and have fun. Even the high class mathematicians and physicists of
history have multiple and many passions. They're normally considered "hyper
focused" by pop culture idiots. Read a book on them. They weren't. Every
single one was ADHD as fuck.

Just do shit and ride that wave. Farther from "normal", the better. Random
cool things are bound to happen. Just roll with them. I always loved surfer
mentality.

Figured doing this on my phone would force me to keep it short... fail. Excuse
errors.

~~~
ajamesside
Impressive comeback for sure. When you say 'Got contracts', how do you go
about finding these contracts? Am in a similar place to where you were where
I've little interest in 'improving the old'; Would rather just deliver value
to a bunch of people but don't know how to find the people to deliver value
to!

------
mathgeek
I pretty much found my passion when I was 5-7 years old and played my first
video games on my father's Commodore 64 and Apple IIe, playing board games and
card games with my grandparents, and then the day I met my wife and when our
children were born. None of those pay the bills, but they don't have to.

------
captn3m0
I read Steven Levy's Hackers. I'd been doing tiny bits and pieces of coding
here and there (this is pre High School) in ActionScript, VisualBasic/FoxPro
etc, but that was the book that inspired the hell out of me.

I started spending more and more time learning things and here I am.
(Software/InfoSec/UX)

------
marktangotango
Have not found my passion. Currently using money as a proxy. Optimizing my
software dev career for it.

------
DoreenMichele
One part accident, one part research. I took a college class that cast a lot
of light on things that I had thought were "normal" for people like me, but
weren't. Then I researched what my options were for doing something with X
that met Y parameters.

~~~
asr1191
Could you elaborate on this?

~~~
DoreenMichele
I was a homemaker, military wife and homeschooling mom. I returned to college
and took two classes and CLEPed some others to lock in my old college credits
so I wouldn't have to start over from scratch if I ever got around to going to
school again. If your classes are too old and you didn't complete a degree of
some kind, they won't take them as transfer credits.

One of the classes I took was an online _Environmental Biology_ class
(possibly not the correct name of it). The big project for the class was to
plan a residence in the middle of nowhere that didn't have existing
infrastructure, like electricity and sewer, and how you would support yourself
in the middle of nowhere. I immediately knew that half of my answer was "Build
an Earthship."* This clued me that, no, not all homemakers are fascinated with
alternative energy, passive solar design, etc as some means to save money and
so forth.

I decided that quarter that I wanted to do something career-wise with the
built environment. I pulled out a big book of college info on various
universities in the US and scoured it for majors having to do with the built
environment.

Architecture was on the list, but architecture programs generally are self-
contained and do not take transfer credits of general ed classes. I would have
to start completely from scratch.

Civil Engineering was on the list, but required multiple Calculus classes.
Although I had a strong math background, I had dropped out of calculus my
first quarter in college and never wanted to see it again.

I think there were about six or seven majors on the list. After going through
all of them, I settled on Urban Planning as the degree program and career that
interested me. Most Urban Planning degrees are Masters programs, not
Bachelors. That fall, I enrolled in an online BS in Environmental Resource
Management.

At some point, my life was derailed by a serious health crisis and divorce. I
never completed my BS degree, though I did later get a Certificate in GIS
(equivalent of Masters level work) and I moderated a planning sub-forum for a
time that I founded on what was, at that time, the world's foremost planning
forum. I currently do some volunteer work at a non-profit that is pertinent to
this interest and I have a very part-time job with the same non-profit.

I don't know if this will result in a planning job (unlikely, since I have no
driver's license) or exactly where I am going with this, so I didn't really
want to get into the details because, in some sense, it is currently a failed
dream. But I felt the basic model of "have epiphany, then do some research to
flesh it out" might be a useful thought for some people.

* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthship](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthship)

------
jason_slack
I think I only have my passions in life because I don't have to spend all day
doing them in an environment that isn't conducive. I really enjoy coding but I
have had jobs that make it a chore and not fun.

I also really love learning Chinese!

------
togusa2017
For me it's commit to th unknown if you have 1percent of interest and if you
could do that job without any motivation that's your job. If not then move
ahead to another until you click. Keep repeating .

------
myth_buster

      The belief that interests arrive fully formed and must simply be “found” can lead people to limit their pursuit of new fields and give up when they encounter challenges, according to a new Stanford study.
    
      Mantras like “find your passion” carry hidden implications, the researchers say. They imply that once an interest resonates, pursuing it will be easy. But, the research found that when people encounter inevitable challenges, that mindset makes it more likely people will surrender their newfound interest.
    

[https://news.stanford.edu/2018/06/18/find-passion-may-bad-
ad...](https://news.stanford.edu/2018/06/18/find-passion-may-bad-advice/)

------
dte22
I love cars.. so I went where the money was in order to afford my taste in
cars. You win some, you lose some.. :)

------
snthd
What Scott Adams has to say on the subject:

[http://slidesha.re/1dPgJ0p](http://slidesha.re/1dPgJ0p)

[http://blog.dilbert.com/2014/01/21/goals-are-for-losers-
pass...](http://blog.dilbert.com/2014/01/21/goals-are-for-losers-passion-is-
bull/)

------
Exuma
Here's my tiny secret I use in my mind to try a lot of new things with the
same amount of energy and enthusiasm (without feeling like I'm getting beat
down)...

I think of my life like a series of lit candles. I actually visualize it as
such.

Each candle represents a project, a way to make money. When a candle dies or
the flame goes out, it means I got bored of that project, it didn't make
money, it failed, whatever.

The goal of my life is to have several lit candles at once, and not only that,
but a better and better FALLBACK.

A fallback in my terms is basically "if EVERYTHING else fails, you will have
THAT thing as something that makes you happy/will carry you the rest of your
life". It's basically something you have _already_ achieved, or have, or ONE
HUNDRED percent certain you can get it if you don't currently have it.

The point of a fallback is that it lets you focus on something, giving it your
100%, without that nagging feeling like you're "wasting time" or FOMO. You can
fully commit to it, and just enjoy it for what it is, without a fear of
failure (because why should you care if it fails, you can always do X, your
fallback)

When I was 22, my fallback was "I can at least learn real estate, which isn't
that fun, but I can make money and I can backpack around the world on a
shoestring budget"

insert _more projects, more success, more freelancing_... all driven by the
limitless energy stemming from the fact that the 'worst case scenario' wasn't
actually so bad.

When I was 25, dozens more lit candles, dozens more burn out, my fallback was
"at least I can do freelancing for $20/hr for the rest of my life and have
true freedom to do whatever I want"

When I was 28-29, my fallback was "at least I can make $230K+/year coding,
working for someone else, but still making an awesome living and traveling"

When I was 30, my fallback was "at least I can make companies in a weekend and
just make money from all my side projects, and potentially try to hit a winner
to retire, and if I don't hit it soon I can always go back to working"

When I was 33, my fallback was "at least I have the relationships with my
network that I aggressively spent time building to build at least one 50-100
million dollar business... at least I have about 20 very successful people
wanting me to build stuff/start companies with me and any one of them could be
a winner.. and if EVERY ONE ELSE FAILS I can always get a job and travel"

That's where I'm at right now. Each fallback increases over time, just keep
replacing candles with more candles and let others burn out.

I probably have gone through 500 candles... some burn for years before they go
out, others burn for a day. I have over 100 private repos on my GitHub of
(fully-written) projects, 90% of them bombed. I've met an insane amount of
awesome people in the process, and have learned a lot. The companies I built
that are successful are now are doing well, including one in the alexa top 50.

All of this came from a boy sitting in a room of my friend who graduated from
harvard saying "you should learn programming" and me thinking "Im just an art
student, I'm way too dumb for that"

So programming / business / companies is one passion.

For my other passions, guitar, drawing, painting, biking... those don't come
EXTREMELY naturally to me, except drawing, but I have drawn since I was a kid
and it just 'makes sense'. Just because I'm really good at it (fairly early
on) however doesn't mean I don't struggle with the resistance to doing it
every day. Sometimes I look at people who are obsessed on instagram and can
just paint or draw for 10 hours a day... and wish I had that. I suppose in
that sense coding is my most crazed obsession, I can program for 15 hours a
day fairly effortlessly. But other hobbies I have to work for it.

------
shostack
Over time I've discovered several interests that probably meet the criteria of
being passions. They wax and wane, and I find I usually burn really hot on
them initially, go through a cooling off period, and come back eventually
after having taken a break with something else. The frequency with which I
come back tends to mark how big a passion it is for me.

A few examples of how I came across them:

\- Photography -

Started working at a company where photography is front and center in
everything I do. Started there with no real skills or gear, am currently
several years in, have a DSLR, several lenses, am comfortable with Lightroom
and Photoshop, understand photography technique, and am actually proud of some
of my work. With the responsibilities of life eating up my time, these days I
focus more on mobile device photography, and on taking fewer, better photos.

\- Espresso -

Was introduced to this by someone at work who helped train me and guide me
through getting gear. Got a home machine thinking it would be an easy way to
get my espresso fix at home and realized how deep and nuanced the world of
espresso is. Turns out, it tends to be a good match for data nerds who spend
their day optimizing things. I've now built several spreadsheets modeling
things like my savings over time, brew ratios, etc.

\- Role-playing Games -

Lucked into randomly discovering where the Gygax family would meet to play D&D
with their friends, and started playing every weekend with them in high
school. Something about being with people who are at the "top of the game" (no
pun intended), deeply passionate about it, and welcoming to newcomers likely
made it easier for me to get immersed.

\- Cooking -

Got sick of microwaved meals in college by week two. Discovered asian super
markets a few blocks away, got some cookbooks and some gear, and started
learning how to cook authentic asian cuisines. Then started reading up through
Julia Childs "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," lived with a couple other
passionate foodies, and never looked back.

If I had to pick out a few common threads between these, it would probably be
that they had mechanisms for giving direct, and fairly immediate feedback,
room to optimize so I could see tangible gains from my efforts, and that I was
exposed to others who were similarly passionate, and often more experienced.
This last bit is critical I think as it let my passion continue growing
without being dampened by others around me not having as much interest in
them. Ie. when you start geeking out about something and someone is clearly
getting bored, that lessens my excitement. On the flip side, when they start
geeking out too, we start building on each other's excitement, and it
reinforces the enjoyment I get from the passion.

In terms of discovering new passions, it tends to be somewhat random, but now
I'm actively on the lookout having discovered a few so far. Shockingly, Reddit
has been useful for helping gauge where I'm mildly interested, or potentially
on the verge of finding a passion. When something catches my interest, I
browse the main subreddit for it, and if I find I'm losing hours of time
consuming everything there, that's a fairly good indicator.

Another thing that is somewhat obvious only in hindsight, is to ask others
about their passions. There's so many random things to discover in the world,
and when someone shares their passion, you get a glimpse beyond "the thing"
into what gets them to geek out over it. Often times it may not be the thing
itself, but a trait of the thing (ie. process optimization coupled with
caffeine addiction for espresso).

Hope that helps!

~~~
PascLeRasc
Do you do any analog photography? That's how I got into the hobby and I love
it, and a lot of my friends who used to shoot on DSLRs got tired of them and
switched to analog for the quirks and simplicity.

Also, check out the book Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat if you haven't already. It's
not a cookbook per se, more of a technique and cooking theory book, but it
really changed the way I approach cooking most dishes.

~~~
shostack
I do not--it is cool stuff, but I don't have the time or patience for it.

Thanks for the book recommendation. I've heard of that one before. I have a
giant molecular gastronomy cookbook that's also fascinating, but I'm finding
these days my culinary adventures are more geared towards finding solutions to
cook good food in bulk with easy cleanup and reheating.

------
delbel
By failing at all my other passions.

------
lonnyk
Follow your passions

------
eaenki
You don't find/choose your passions. Your passions choose you. As early as 6
and as late as 13 - as far as I know. If you ask such a question, you don't
have any passion in particular and my suggestion is "you might want to keep
going the career/job route". A passion is a calling, you don't "find"
callings.

