from Hacker News

Don't Follow Your Passion, Follow Your Effort

by ricksta on 10/10/12, 5:34 AM with 29 comments

• by gizzlon on 10/10/12, 7:36 AM

  "1. When you work hard at something you become good at it."

  Yup

  "2. When you become good at doing something, you will enjoy it more."

  Hmm.. what now?

  I'm good at a lot of things I hate. I've spent time doing them either because I had to or because I enjoyed it at the time. For me, it often works the opposite of what he says; when I get better at something, I often find it boring.

• by blackhole on 10/10/12, 7:33 AM

  All this articles proves is that people are misusing the word "passion" to mean some sort of hobby. If you haven't poured almost all your free time into something, you aren't passionate about it.

• by vetler on 10/10/12, 10:58 AM

    1. When you work hard at something you become good at it.
    2. When you become good at doing something, you will enjoy it more.
  

  Actually, it's quite possible to become good at something you don't enjoy, speaking from personal experience. One does not follow the other, and I'm surprised that the author states this as a fact.

• by ojbyrne on 10/10/12, 10:58 AM

  This seems so close to an article that appeared in the NYT a couple of weeks ago that it almost feels like plagiarism: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/30/jobs/follow-a-career-passi...

• by trustfundbaby on 10/10/12, 6:41 AM

  Its not a very well written article, was a little annoying to find that in the end he was just making a painfully semantic argument

• by pedalpete on 10/10/12, 5:47 AM

  Please update the title, the url is blogmaverick.com, which I think most people on HN know is Mark Cuban's blog.

  I feel like Cuban wrote this post just because he needed to write a post. In the end he says "Don’t follow your passions, follow your effort. It will lead you to your passions...", and the roundabout way he goes to get there doesn't add any value. He himself says if you're passionate about something, you're going to learn about it, and become better, etc. etc. Ignoring that that isn't completely true, I've wasted too much time just writing this comment.

• by Tichy on 10/10/12, 8:03 AM

  Maybe he is a very "clear" person. Lot's of normal people are confused and not so well organized. Follow your passion is a guideline for getting started with organizing your life.

  I can only assume that the author was always organized enough to put his effort where his passion is, but he doesn't seem to realize that.

  A normal person will just put the effort where he/she is told to put it by authorities: first parents, then school/high school, then the first random shitty job they happen to land. Sure, it works, they'll probably eventually be able to pay off their mortgage. But some people expect more from life.

• by helios410 on 10/10/12, 11:34 AM

  Ken Robinson did a great talk about passion, that somewhat negates this blog post...it takes a lot more than just being greatly skilled at something to be passionate about it.

  https://vimeo.com/21195297

• by zsherman on 10/11/12, 2:32 AM

  Is it just me or does this logic not make sense? You put a lot of effort in -> you get good at it -> you become passionate about it. How do you choose what to put effort into? Answer: what you're passionate about.

• by jaggederest on 10/10/12, 7:28 AM

  I think he's right. Too many people pick things that seem dreamy without considering whether it's actually something worth doing.

  I'd honestly rather be an excellent plumber than a fifth-rate rockstar.

• by dageshi on 10/10/12, 8:39 AM

  I think perhaps "Passion" needs to be replaced with "Obsession".