How to Do What You Love (2006)
paulgraham.com
paulgraham.com
I come from a family of laborers, riddled with addiction, poverty and death. I’m a weird outlier.
Yes I worked hard. In fact I put on blinders and made absolutely everything about my work. But I have to acknowledge luck.
I’ve seen so many smart, determined, hard working people get crushed by this business. I’m so suspicious of any self help type advice about following your dream to do what you love. I don’t want to be discouraging and kind of admire how young people propel their ambition because lack of experience is actually helpful.
I was kind of dumb to start in this field. But what did I have to lose? But damn if i didn’t get lucky.
No regrets here. But some guilt about the giant unfairness of it all.
Having a job is said to be even more onerous than schoolwork. And yet all the adults claim to like what they do. You can't blame kids for thinking "I am not like these people; I am not suited to this world."
Hardly. school is much more strict compared to many work environments, from my own experience at least. Think of how many ppl do their jobs half assed but are still employed, or come in late, etc. School was so strict growing up. Mouthing off to a teacher means calls to parents, detention, = 2x punishment (parents + teacher) etc. Can't eat at school except for lunch time , must pay attention, etc. School kids get treated like such shit compared to workers.
That control gives supervisors immense (and intoxicating) power because of the constant implicit (and devastating) threat of taking away your livelihood.
Even worse is graduate school, where supervisors combine the role of teacher/academic supervisor and boss/work supervisor. It's sort of the worst of both worlds - still hard to change schools or teachers, but with the added terror of the workplace.
- Cleaner - Dishwasher - Cashier - Retail - Warehouse Worker - Farmer - Landscaper - Data Entry
I only hated the Warehouse Worker and Dishwasher Jobs. The cleaner job was my least favorite of the rest, but at least there was a modicum of satisfaction after the work was completed. Finishing busywork school assignments to meet some arbitrary requirement dictated by the state was soul sucking.
Grownups say a lot of shit. Just because it isn't true doesn't mean they don't believe it or say it.
Now, compare school to manual labour or many other shit jobs. Traveling by bus hours a day, working nights. Jobs where supervisors will humiliate, swear at you, not pay you overtime. And you take it because it's better than living on the street.
Isn't mouthing off to a supervisor also punishable at work?
EX: I'd take Brooks over 90% of our existing elected officials...
It is much easier saying "turn the other cheek" when you are not the one getting slapped.
> to try to do things that would make your friends say wow
Not great advice. The opinions of friends, like those of parents, can be hard to disambiguate from inner knowledge. So it's important to respect friends' opinions, but not to seek to impress them with the work we choose to do.