Everyone knows don't shit where you eat, but what about "don't work with your passions"
If you enjoy doing computer stuff (coding, repair and building, management, etc) don't work in that industry. I've had this thought for a really long time about how if my work is sitting down and my hobbies are all sitting down, it is really hard to maintain a good schedule of forcing yourself to stay in shape and commit to a lot of exercise because frankly I don't really enjoy it and it just takes time away from what I actually want to be doing. If I were to just work a job that forces me to get exercise, like the forest service or a construction worker or anything that is very manual labor focused, I get all of my exercise needed as part of my job, and then I also get to do whatever I want at home without feeling guilty and I don't get burned out.
I think the world really needs to stop telling people that they need to do what they love, I think you really need to do something that you can tolerate doing for 30 years. Even my job was doing drugs and having sex all day, I still probably wouldn't love it after a while, if my job was playing video games I wouldn't love it, if my job was doing community service but paid, I wouldn't love it. But I enjoy all of those things outside of work, probably because they aren't work!
If you're going to spend all of your days coding, you're clearly going to lose interest in coding because that's just how work is: you don't want to do it!
> "don't work with your passions"
> I think the world really needs to stop telling people that they need to do what they love
I think there is a difference between using one's skill doing something they don't enjoy and doing what one loves (with or without the use of said skills).[*]
I would probably also stop enjoying playing video games if that was all I did at work, but that is because I would want to do more with that. Maybe be more involved in the creation. What we love doing usually evolves and I see no reason why someone should simply tolerate something for 30 years when they could instead evolve what they do with their personal growth. Whether that involves their trained skills or not I don't think should have much weight. I think of it as more of a starter pack to help point you in your direction, even if that means you find all the items you acquired to not be of much use and go off in search of something else. It still helped get you to where you are headed. I think the 'do what you love' is finding work that does not feel like work, with or without your passions/skills.
[*] an example from a talented designer I know who was miserable from spending 2 years basically adjusting a single web widget then moved on to other work being involved in the overall design of a product and loves it.
> Would I enjoy coding more if I didn't do it as my full time job [deleted]
For me, the satisfaction of building hardware and software is solving a problem that someone has. I'm ok with that "someone" being myself or a friend, as a hobby... or being a stranger, via some commercial product I help develop.
Corporate work doesn't have to be soul-crushing. BTW, is the "20% project" concept actually a thing anywhere? (Either as 20% out of 100% or 120%)
If you enjoy doing computer stuff (coding, repair and building, management, etc) don't work in that industry. I've had this thought for a really long time about how if my work is sitting down and my hobbies are all sitting down, it is really hard to maintain a good schedule of forcing yourself to stay in shape and commit to a lot of exercise because frankly I don't really enjoy it and it just takes time away from what I actually want to be doing. If I were to just work a job that forces me to get exercise, like the forest service or a construction worker or anything that is very manual labor focused, I get all of my exercise needed as part of my job, and then I also get to do whatever I want at home without feeling guilty and I don't get burned out.
I think the world really needs to stop telling people that they need to do what they love, I think you really need to do something that you can tolerate doing for 30 years. Even my job was doing drugs and having sex all day, I still probably wouldn't love it after a while, if my job was playing video games I wouldn't love it, if my job was doing community service but paid, I wouldn't love it. But I enjoy all of those things outside of work, probably because they aren't work!
If you're going to spend all of your days coding, you're clearly going to lose interest in coding because that's just how work is: you don't want to do it!