Founder mode. :cool:
^/s I agree with all of your thoughts, especially:
> great when voluntary and self-driven and terrible if mandated
It's an interesting psychological thing: No matter how easy or even comfortable a job is, if you have to be there at X time for Y hours it's now work. It's the scheduling that kills all the joy.
Even if it's your favorite hobby that you do everyday anyway, but now you have to do it for someone at a specific time, even if they agree to pay you for it. Why does it now suck? Add in other layers like: Do it this specific way, do it in a group of others with competing opinions, do it in a distracting office 1 hour away, etc. and it quickly becomes the polar opposite of what you previously considered to be a rewarding hobby or skill.
On the flip side it can be the hardest work in the world but if I do it on my own terms when I feel like it (sometimes I really want to fix something) - then you don't even have to pay me! It's my pleasure. Glad I could help.
Funny how that works. To truly "love what you do" in a career sense is trickier than it seems, because it often involves tolerating a lot of peripheral stuff that everyone naturally hates like commuting or having a bad manager (among other things). For the capable, it takes changing things at your job to get as close to imitating the fun hobby as possible (tech, meeting schedule, hours, flex time) - so that you can actually think and perform from a place of comfort and well-being (why every manager is not perfecting this art is beyond me).