After receiving an increasing number of comments that were only
tangentially related to my blog posts, I began posting the (mostly)
monthly 'Open Thread'. This has been working very well so far.
In short, if you think anything you're going to write is "off topic" to
the current post, but still related to pickup, women, gender politics
and other topics I discuss on this blog, then please leave a comment to
the most recent Open Thread, such like this one. Just post below.
Thank you.
Most career advice given to young people nowadays is to follow their passion. I found this advice great when I dropped out of law because it makes sense - if you are passionate about your work youll put more effort in. But after working in the real world (bars and resturants mainly) I feel like this follow your passion advice is bullshit after seeing so many 'musicians and artists' working in the same field as me but 10 years older. So Im going to study electrical engineering. I was wondering do you think the follow your passion advice given to kids is BS and just an example of the entitlement mentality the youth have? Or is doing something for the money just as stupid?
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesting question that would deserve a more extensive treatment. In the end it comes down to how risk averse you are and whether your passion will realistically be able to pay the bills. A job is first and foremost a source of money, though, even if you enjoy your work. You will be a lot better off if you make decent money and pursue your "passions" in your spare time as opposed to busting your balls just to get by and telling yourself that you do what you want. You know, when a 20 year-old girl works retail and says she's "exploring her options" it can even be cute, but if she's 30 and still hasn't advanced in life, it's tragic.
DeleteA blogger and computer scientist, who talks about ways of doing well at college/school discusses this same problem...
Deletehttp://calnewport.com/blog/2010/10/16/the-passion-trap-how-the-search-for-your-lifes-work-is-making-your-working-life-miserable/
and his video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIMu1PGbG-0
I think this is bad advice, it has permeated schools in letting students choose what they want to learn, and they inevitably dont choose hard subjects like maths, or go deep into others or learn the basics like grammar.
It has also led teaching to engage and entertain rather than learn and practise, which causes students to have a shallow understanding of topics, ie dont know their times/multipication tables but can do them but when they get to algebra they struggle.
Also doing something you love as work, can sometimes end up being boring or the parts of it that you hate doing ends up ruining your joy for the work. For example doing lots of admin, instead of doing the work.
Finally, if you can find something that you are good at, improve at, have something you have autonomy/control over (Tasks, learning etc), have some purpose to your work which is personal, then this will be better than just doing something you love.
cani
The problem with passion is: you get it after you’ve done something. You get it after the struggle. But successful people have a bias and don’t see, that they followed their afford not their passion at first. Passion kicks in after something became easy. But before that it has to be hard. The passion way is just the easy way out, like instant gratification. Do the things that fascinate you.
DeleteGood question and indeed the 'follow your passion' line is feel-good advice but, as you found out, not the best of advice.
DeleteCal Newport wrote about this in his book talking about how the follow-your-passion advice is stupid. Check out his book here:
https://www.amazon.ca/Good-They-Cant-Ignore-You/dp/1455509124
Hey Aaron!
ReplyDeleteDid you ever come across this character and what happened to him?
http://www.salon.com/2013/06/25/ken_hoinskys_reddit_ama_reveals_dark_incidents_from_his_seduction_history/
He was a "veteran" on the seddit section of reddit, and he espoused and followed a lot of PUA talking points, that he took and used supposedly with success. He was one of those guys that said that looks don't really matter and don't override confidence and "game", and he as a overweight average guy pulled 8's and 9's.
Have you ever seen his old field reports on Seddit? They are on the wayback machine archives......
I didn't even know about him, but just had a look. It's a white guy that gets laid in Japan. Nothing to see here, move along. His "game" is built on targeting Japanese women who like foreigners ("gaijin hunters"), thus looks are fundamental to his success. He is either too stupid to figure this out for himself or deliberately deceiving the gullible audience on Seddit.
DeleteHey, what's your take on Illuminatus nowadays? I feel like he used to be a pretty cool guy, but nowadays he seems to have gone off the deep end. He's writing about 'Magickal' Gambling and shit like that. (source: http://www.personalpowermeditation.com/magickal-gambling/ )
ReplyDeleteNot sure how serious he is, but if he isn't joking around, I'd say he's schizophrenic. Maybe you could write something about this, especially since you are an experienced meditator (as pointed out, he writes alot about esoteric subjects)?
Which book had the most impact on you and why?
ReplyDeleteI'll respond to this question on my new blog.
Delete