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Comment by guitarbill | Hacker News Reader

It helps if you’ve had other jobs. Pretty much all jobs have downsides and therefore “suck”.

I think loving your job is a dangerous phantasy sold to CS grads to get the them work longer. It doesn’t mean you have to hate every minute, you can enjoy parts of it.

But passion should be reserved for hobbies outside of work (unless you work for yourself). Be a professional - do it for the money mainly, and don’t put up with horrible work environments. At the end of the day go home and have fun. It’s just a job, and should never define you.

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This is my biggest take away after almost a decade working in this industry.

"Love your job" has been sold to me thousands of times. Yet, I think that people that say they love their job lie to themselves. It is also very unhealthy.

Let's do a quick game. If you had all the money in the world, would you still do your job? Probably not.

I highly advocate for balance in your life. A job needs to be done properly, and once in a while there is nothing wrong about doing a 80 hours work week, but don't drink the koolaid and work away for a dream that is not yours.

> Let's do a quick game. If you had all the money in the world, would you still do your job? Probably not.

Just one data point but I absolutely would.

you would fit into the camp of 'actually loves their job'

While I probably wouldn't do my job, I do believe I would do something similar for an open source project.

Your relation to the work would change I think. You would be less inclined to put up with bad working conditions, heavy deadline pressures, that sort of thing. Things you would normally let slide for the paycheque become dealbreakers or things you push back on.

I think this is true, but it’s also a bit frustrating in that it’s not at all obvious that programmers are building more or better stuff as a result of the “bad working environment” side of things. So can’t we just lose that?

(It probably doesn’t help that preferences are quite variable. I’m generally pretty comfortable doing tight-deadline stuff at least some of the time, especially if it’s clear why someone needs the thing fast. On the other hand, I’m not a big fan of some of the current process/“practices” stuff, and can see that people who enjoy a fair amount of structure could dislike an environment I found near-ideal)

> Let's do a quick game. If you had all the money in the world, would you still do your job? Probably not.

There have been times when I said to myself, "Don't they realize I'd do this even if they didn't pay me?"

Those times are fewer than they were earlier in my career. I've learned that real fulfillment isn't in my job. But, given that I need money, having a job that I enjoy is really sweet.

I've shifted to finding more enjoyment in good interactions with coworkers, and less in the high of getting something to work that never worked before.

I'd suggest that even if you love your job, set limits. Your longevity as a professional depends on it.

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