Sorry, I don't mean it that way. It was a quick way of saying that you have to discover what drives you. Reading about how others do it may give you some insight, but you are not going to find 'the answer' on HN or anywhere else. Threads like this remind me of self-help books - you can spend all of your time reading about others, or you can start trying different things for yourself and see what works.
I think it was the 'grasshopper' that did it, it's funny in one way but it makes it seem like you're talking down to someone. He asked a very valid question and there is tons of really good advice in this thread, indeed, it may not be 'the answer' but it can help and 'you need to find it out for yourself' makes it seem as though that advice is worth nothing.
Self-help books have limited use they are too general, but the situation between HN'ers in the same profession as the OP is so comparable that it is possible that some concrete tips will in fact materialize.
Even I learned a lot from the answers in this thread and I really hope that such questions keep coming. No such thing as a stupid question.
I agree, there are tons of good suggestions here and although I'm sure I'll face this situation countless times again, the most positive thing that I've realized from posting here is that lots of other people have this same problem :)
