Comment by auntad | Hacker News Reader

Comment by auntad | Hacker News Reader

As some commenters have alluded to anecdotally, there's science behind the idea that "follow your passion" is bad advice. So it's not something you find, but rather something you build. There are probably very many things that could become your passion(s) if you build them.

I'm still working on building mine. I've found at least one (coding) that fits into the picture somehow, being that I've been doing it since I was a kid. Some others are more recent interests that I want to spend a few years diving deeper into before rendering a verdict.

Cal Newport wrote a whole book refuting the "follow your passion" hypothesis in 2012: So Good They Can't Ignore You [1].

And more recently, there's a Stanford study out that makes the same claim [2].

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Good-They-Cant-Ignore-You/dp/14555091...

[2] http://gregorywalton-stanford.weebly.com/uploads/4/9/4/4/494...

There is another great book written by Cal: Deep Work [1].

Don't follow your passion. Instead, become really good at something. Apply methodical approach to improve your craft skills. Once you got mastery, you might actually like it.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Work-Focused-Success-Distracted/...

edit: formatting

> Don't follow your passion. Instead, become really good at something.

The important question always seems to be: at what?

You can't pick a lot of things because mastery takes years, and if you picked something you're unsuited for, you've just wasted a lot of time.

This just doesn't seem like a high value proposition.

I've read the book. I actually disagree with Cal on the that one for the simple reason you can be really, really good at something and not passionate about it.

I think there's a trick here though - get really good at something and then use that to make someone else's life better - now that is something you can probably get passionate about.

This whole passion debate will run and run though - I don't think anyone really has the definitive solution - it will be different for different people.

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