All good points, I especially liked, if you are doing what you love then:
* You do better work
* People notice
Unfortunately, not a lot of people are in a flexible enough position to take the "quit what you are doing today and go figure out what you love" advice.
I think it is truer than most people realize, but for a lot of folks with families, mortgages and car payments the gamble is too big.
In this vein, I took a lot of inspiration from the ABC interview with John McAfee[1] where he went from being worth something like $119 million to $1 million and his response was: "I feel free"
When you learn more about his story and how he had stretched himself so thin over so many assets, it makes sense why being broke would make him feel free.
The paradox of choice[2] for a lot of us, but some people especially, is a crippling reality.
Cal Newport is a champion of a very different viewpoint: following your passions doesn't necessarily make you happy [1].
His theory is that you can't just drop everything and start over - you have to leverage the assets you've built up over your professional life. You gain enormous bargaining power by having this wealth of professional assets on your side, and utilizing them intelligently allows you to change your work to better fit your passions.
In other words, it's not the work that's making you unhappy. It's the workplace.
I think it is truer than most people realize, but for a lot of folks with families, mortgages and car payments the gamble is too big.
In this vein, I took a lot of inspiration from the ABC interview with John McAfee[1] where he went from being worth something like $119 million to $1 million and his response was: "I feel free"
When you learn more about his story and how he had stretched himself so thin over so many assets, it makes sense why being broke would make him feel free.
The paradox of choice[2] for a lot of us, but some people especially, is a crippling reality.
[1] http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/story?id=8462247
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradox_of_Choice:_Why_More...