To Love What You Do...

I remember my sophomore year of college when I just loved what I was studying. I was excited, I enjoyed the projects, I enjoyed learning new things, I enjoyed solving problems and producing something that created a solution. I didn't believe that people shouldn't love what they do. I figured everyone had SOMETHING that they loved, and that they should do it. By my Junior year, I would have beaten up my sophomore self given the opportunity. I lost my passion for computers and school and found it in being involved in the campus ministry I was involved in. Where am I now? I'm probably somewhere in between. I doubt I loathed it like I did my Junior year. But...I would still give my sophomore self a slap across the face.

But I found this article on slashdot (although I didn't read it until Dominic sent it to me and told me to), and it just addresses the whole thing about loving what you do. So...I thought I would post it for you guys to see.

I think he says a lot of good stuff, and he makes good points about where this despising of work comes from. It starts when we are kids. Our childhood is defined by pain for pleasure. "Eat your beans and you can have desert." "Rake the yard or you wont get to watch the movie!" "Do your homework and then you can go out and play." I do wonder how much that mentality lends itself to, "Work hard...and you'll have enough to enjoy yourself when you're done." I'm not saying we can trick kids into enjoying mowing the lawn (or maybe you can). But...I wonder what can be done differently.

The world then was divided into two groups, grownups and kids. Grownups, like some kind of cursed race, had to work. Kids didn't, but they did have to go to school, which was a dilute version of work meant to prepare us for the real thing. Much as we disliked school, the grownups all agreed that grownup work was worse, and that we had it easy.

I remember this! I use that myself. I told my sister to stay in school as long as possible! There's nothing else like it (in my defense, it was more because of the social aspects of college and less of a guarantee hate of what you'll do for a living).

The most dangerous liars can be the kids' own parents. If you take a boring job to give your family a high standard of living, as so many people do, you risk infecting your kids with the idea that work is boring. [2] Maybe it would be better for kids in this one case if parents were not so unselfish. A parent who set an example of loving their work might help their kids more than an expensive house.

Interesting.

The advice of parents will tend to err on the side of money. It seems safe to say there are more undergrads who want to be novelists and whose parents want them to be doctors than who want to be doctors and whose parents want them to be novelists. The kids think their parents are "materialistic." Not necessarily. All parents tend to be more conservative for their kids than they would for themselves, simply because, as parents, they share risks more than rewards. If your eight year old son decides to climb a tall tree, or your teenage daughter decides to date the local bad boy, you won't get a share in the excitement, but if your son falls, or your daughter gets pregnant, you'll have to deal with the consequences.

I remember my parents telling me I could do whatever I wanted...but it was stated more like this. "Engineers can do whatever they want." There was a distinct "not happening" attitude when things associated with "the arts" were considered (not bashing my parents...they just wanted the best for us). Not that the arts weren't encouraged. We all took piano, and I got my guitar, my sister was in the nutcracker...but...we were pretty much told flat out that there was no money in those things...so...don't even think about it (I paraphrase of course). And I do think parents feel the pain of their children more than the joy. Not sure if that's what he was saying. But there is something about preparing your children for financial security that is definitely good hearted (if not most of it). I guess the question is, how much is misguided.

the two-job route: to work at things you don't like to get money to work on things you do.

Sounds like having a hobby. You are to work...and develop what you like to do on your own time...and then someday you can do it for money. Well...I guess a hobby doesn't guarantee money later. But this route seems to go against some of the stuff he's said earlier. This is more of a, tolerate it now so you can do things you want to do later. But isn't that what we do anyway in different forms? Tolerate work now so that we can buy that beach house and enjoy ourselves. Or so we can travel when we retire. I know his is more of a transition from one work to another...but...just seems awfully close to the same sentiment.

Closing thoughts...the good book of Ecclesiastes has some interesting things to say about it.
Ecc 2:10-11
Ecc 2:17
Ecc 2:22
Ecc 2:24-26
Ecc 3:13