“don’t try to major in something you don’t enjoy” is something I’ve heard a few times. But that seems kind of idealistic.
I think this is realistic rather than idealistic. College typically offers plenty of chances to procrastinate and fail courses, and if you’re not genuinely motivated to study something, forcing yourself to do so anyway over a period of several years seems like a recipe for either failure or burnout. Note that often people have difficulties making themselves study even the topics that they do genuinely enjoy and find interesting, once those topics get challenging enough.
Of course, it’s always possible that the field does start feeling more interesting to you once you get more into it.
This is really frustrating because I feel like the culture is constantly spamming two contradictory memes. Lumifer even explicitly gave me both of them upthread.
Don’t do something you don’t truly enjoy, follow your dreams
Don’t do something that isn’t practical, whatever you do, don’t end up working at McDonalds
But in my case (and probably a substantial majority of people) I honestly think that the venn diagram between one and two might have literally zero overlap. Like, isn’t the whole point of a job that it isn’t fun, and that’s why they have to pay you to do it? I tried to compromise by double majoring in something I am genuinely passionate about (art) and something practical (comp sci), but I feel like this is still not enough somehow...? Sometimes I think the only winning move is to get lucky and be born the type of person who has a natural burning desire to become an engineer.
Sometimes I feel similarly; except that I used to be passionate about programming. I suspect doing programming for a job somehow beat that out of me. (If you do something as a job, every time there is a problem at job, it is a negative reinforcement towards what you used to like. You get used to getting paid, and somehow other positive reinforcements are rare; maybe this is a cultural thing.) So I didn’t start in this situation, but I ended there anyway. These days, I do what I don’t enjoy.
Like, isn’t the whole point of a job that it isn’t fun, and that’s why they have to pay you to do it?
Not necessarily. It could be something that is fun for you, but for whatever reason other people can’t do it, so they have to pay you. For example, if the work requires a long period of learning, so when someone wants to have it done now, it is too late for them to start learning now. Or the costs of learning are so high that it wouldn’t make sense to learn it only to do it once, so someone has to specialize. Either way, the idea is to become an expert in what you do. Other people are not paying you only for doing it now, but also for being prepared to do it.
By the way, you say you are passionate about art, so… how much art do you do? Are you trying new techniques? Do you have an online gallery? Is someone using your art for something useful (even if they don’t pay you yet)?
I am asking this because there are people who make money doing art. But it seems like they have to actively advertise themselves. I also know people who have some artistic talent, but they make money doing something else, because (this is just my guess) they don’t try new things, don’t learn new techniques, don’t expand their comfort zones. So they must make money doing something else.
For example I know a girl who has a talent for many kinds of visual things: she can draw nicely, make costume jewelry, take interesting photos, many other things. Her boyfriend is doing web pages; and those pages often have some photo at the header; he buys the photos from other people or uses some free templates. So I suggested her that she could try making a few photos specifically for the headers of the web pages (e.g. nature, a city at night, a beach, anything nice and horizontal). I mean, she already is doing 90% of the thing, why not add the remaining 10% and have a product she could sell? (She even wouldn’t have to bother selling, her boyfriend would do it. He just needs a complete product.) Nope; she doesn’t feel like doing this.
So maybe this is the correct way to interpret the advice. Find something you enjoy… but then also do the remaining 10% you don’t enjoy, to have a complete product. Preferably learn to do this before you have to, while it is still a hobby; because when you already have a boss who is pushing you with deadlines, it becomes even less pleasant.
I don’t have a good answer for you: I struggle with this problem myself. The best I can suggest is to try out a lot of things, to see if you’d find something that was practical and which you did enjoy.
Like, isn’t the whole point of a job that it isn’t fun, and that’s why they have to pay you to do it?
Not necessarily: even if a job was fun, you would still need money to live, so your employer would still need to pay you.
Cal Newport’s ‘solution’ to this is basically: Get good at something and then you’ll enjoy it; expecting to enjoy anything that you are not yet good at is unrealistic. I think this probably isn’t the entire story, because natural aptitude and enjoyment are real things that can cause you to like things more or less initially… But for me at least, this does explain a lot of my enjoyment of things. I find that there are some programming tasks I used to really hate doing, which I now dig into feeling fine, because I’ve gotten good at them. It probably depends on your personality and how you react to different incentives, as well.
I think this is realistic rather than idealistic. College typically offers plenty of chances to procrastinate and fail courses, and if you’re not genuinely motivated to study something, forcing yourself to do so anyway over a period of several years seems like a recipe for either failure or burnout. Note that often people have difficulties making themselves study even the topics that they do genuinely enjoy and find interesting, once those topics get challenging enough.
Of course, it’s always possible that the field does start feeling more interesting to you once you get more into it.
This is really frustrating because I feel like the culture is constantly spamming two contradictory memes. Lumifer even explicitly gave me both of them upthread.
Don’t do something you don’t truly enjoy, follow your dreams
Don’t do something that isn’t practical, whatever you do, don’t end up working at McDonalds
But in my case (and probably a substantial majority of people) I honestly think that the venn diagram between one and two might have literally zero overlap. Like, isn’t the whole point of a job that it isn’t fun, and that’s why they have to pay you to do it? I tried to compromise by double majoring in something I am genuinely passionate about (art) and something practical (comp sci), but I feel like this is still not enough somehow...? Sometimes I think the only winning move is to get lucky and be born the type of person who has a natural burning desire to become an engineer.
Sometimes I feel similarly; except that I used to be passionate about programming. I suspect doing programming for a job somehow beat that out of me. (If you do something as a job, every time there is a problem at job, it is a negative reinforcement towards what you used to like. You get used to getting paid, and somehow other positive reinforcements are rare; maybe this is a cultural thing.) So I didn’t start in this situation, but I ended there anyway. These days, I do what I don’t enjoy.
Not necessarily. It could be something that is fun for you, but for whatever reason other people can’t do it, so they have to pay you. For example, if the work requires a long period of learning, so when someone wants to have it done now, it is too late for them to start learning now. Or the costs of learning are so high that it wouldn’t make sense to learn it only to do it once, so someone has to specialize. Either way, the idea is to become an expert in what you do. Other people are not paying you only for doing it now, but also for being prepared to do it.
By the way, you say you are passionate about art, so… how much art do you do? Are you trying new techniques? Do you have an online gallery? Is someone using your art for something useful (even if they don’t pay you yet)?
I am asking this because there are people who make money doing art. But it seems like they have to actively advertise themselves. I also know people who have some artistic talent, but they make money doing something else, because (this is just my guess) they don’t try new things, don’t learn new techniques, don’t expand their comfort zones. So they must make money doing something else.
For example I know a girl who has a talent for many kinds of visual things: she can draw nicely, make costume jewelry, take interesting photos, many other things. Her boyfriend is doing web pages; and those pages often have some photo at the header; he buys the photos from other people or uses some free templates. So I suggested her that she could try making a few photos specifically for the headers of the web pages (e.g. nature, a city at night, a beach, anything nice and horizontal). I mean, she already is doing 90% of the thing, why not add the remaining 10% and have a product she could sell? (She even wouldn’t have to bother selling, her boyfriend would do it. He just needs a complete product.) Nope; she doesn’t feel like doing this.
So maybe this is the correct way to interpret the advice. Find something you enjoy… but then also do the remaining 10% you don’t enjoy, to have a complete product. Preferably learn to do this before you have to, while it is still a hobby; because when you already have a boss who is pushing you with deadlines, it becomes even less pleasant.
I don’t have a good answer for you: I struggle with this problem myself. The best I can suggest is to try out a lot of things, to see if you’d find something that was practical and which you did enjoy.
Not necessarily: even if a job was fun, you would still need money to live, so your employer would still need to pay you.
Cal Newport’s ‘solution’ to this is basically: Get good at something and then you’ll enjoy it; expecting to enjoy anything that you are not yet good at is unrealistic. I think this probably isn’t the entire story, because natural aptitude and enjoyment are real things that can cause you to like things more or less initially… But for me at least, this does explain a lot of my enjoyment of things. I find that there are some programming tasks I used to really hate doing, which I now dig into feeling fine, because I’ve gotten good at them. It probably depends on your personality and how you react to different incentives, as well.