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Comment by inlineint | Hacker News Reader

The article assumes that you don't find your work interesting enough to keep your attention focused for a prolonged period of time. Maybe it is better to try to understand why it is not interesting and find ways to make it actually catching rather than figure out workarounds. Because why should we spend time on things we are not interested in?

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sometimes work becomes work. I really enjoy providing control systems for hydro electric power plants, but when people change their minds and I have to re-do the same work, or if some equipment provided by another firm doesn't work properly and it eats up a bunch of my time it is a drag. Or I get burnt out after working 12 hour days for four months so that we don't get sued if the power plant isn't generating on time, and then I might have loads of work to do after to clean up the documentation and other parts of the contract so we can get paid the full amount, but man I just don't feel like working anymore, whereas if I'm doing a moderate amount every day with lots of time for exercise and socializing I really enjoy the same work.

edit: I should add that I work either on site at power plants or remotely from home

Tell me about your job that is always interesting.

I really enjoy programming and applying various technologies to solve problems.

However, I don't always enjoy my work. If I'm stuck o the same thing for prolonged amounts of time or if things keep not working out (eg fixing a bug only to find another and another and...). My work also requires that sometimes I do stuff that I don't enjoy. I've yet to come across a job where I enjoy 100% of the tasks that come my way.

I've also noticed that there's a difference in enjoyment between tasks that I do because I have to and tasks that I choose to do because I feel like it. Both tasks could actually be the same thing, only one I decided I wanted to do and the other external factors decided that I should do the task.

For example, one day I was feeling frustrated and burnt out by work and after work I did a little programming that was more-or-less the same kind of work that I do in my job, but I did it for myself for fun. And I felt refreshed.

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