Ask HN: Serendipity and chasing what you love? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Serendipity and chasing what you love?

2 pointsredact2072 comments

Hey guys, has anyone pursued education or training in something that you love that's worlds apart from your startup or day job? Have you had any serendipitous outcomes?

I've been doing IT since high school, graduated university in it, and have worked up a great career to date. Although it's an incredible industry, as are the creative and intellectual people it attracts; I'm sometimes floored by the intangibility of it. I'm 28 now, and am starting to pursue all those things I liked as a little kid. I've now been taking a lot of trade courses after work in welding, electrical, and have an earth moving and escavation course lined up in a few months.

All of this is based purely on interest, but I'm interested to know if anyone's done something similar that's led to unexpected outcomes?

Of all the things in this world I'm most passionate about, learning is probably at the very top of that list by massive landslide... to a degree that is hard to describe to others considering many people say they love learning when in fact they really like the sound of it. So I understand where you're coming from in terms of wanting to learn for the sake of learning.

That said, not sure what you mean by unexpected outcome. Perhaps if you provide some examples of what you're thinking of. Learning a lot but can't say I see anything unexpected coming out of it but perhaps we have different understanding or viewpoints of what the word unexpected means in this context.

Not career-wise. I still don't feel like I have a career. I took an eight week long program in GIS. It was in Riverside California. I was reacting badly to the smog and had been diagnosed like the year before with atypical cystic fibrosis. While bedridden, doctors did not want to prescribe me drugs. While in GIS school, they happily doped me to the gills so I could finish up the program I taken out a huge student loan for.

It helped save my life and helped me start turning around my medical situation. So in spite of never getting a job in GIS, I feel it was a good investment.

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