What Should You Work On? (Assuming You Want to Make a Living at It.)

gurneyjourney.blogspot.com

15 points·Erikun··6 comments

For those who don't know, James Gurney is the guy who created the "Dinotopia" series. For those don't know "Dinotopia", it's where George Lucas likely cribbed the idea for Naboo from "Star Wars: Episode 1".

In an ideal world, it makes a lot of sense. In the real world there are various degrees of compromises between, in particular, what you can make money doing and what you really like doing. If you can make a lot of money doing something and it's not all-consuming of your time, you're OK with it, and you can fit in your passion(s) as a hobby well enough, maybe that's OK.

The ideal/real world distinction is a frequent schema for rationalizing setting aside idealistic pursuits. Same goes for calling something “just” a “hobby” or a “passion”. Great for parents coaching their teenagers away from rash decisions. But for adults?

That “real” world is also inhabited by people who do manage to do all the incredible things. Ikigai can be a wonderful way to think about the things you do, the direction you wish to evolve in.

A thought that stirs in me personally - a life split between the thing that makes the money and the thing that is a hobby doesn’t sound balanced. Like, neither the work or the hobby can flourish into its full ideal potential. There is something sad about that, even if it’s still OK.

If you can find that overlap between aptitude and market, the money can go a looong way toward sustaining interest (and/or financing hobbies and stuff outside work that makes the stuff inside work worthwhile).

But yeah, if you can find that trifecta, all the better.

Yeah, and a lot of hobbies get less interesting once they become jobs in any case.

Sadly, this is very true.

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