But ‘love’ seems like a completely inappropriate word for something I would walk away from and never look back if I won the lottery tomorrow.
I think that’s apt, and I think that the people who love their jobs (like Emile) do not fit that description. I haven’t yet held a job that I love. I am, though, studying to enter a field of work that, if I won the lottery, I would still want to work in, because I’m passionate about it. There exist jobs that I would love.
If you still don’t think it’s possible to love your work, what would you do if you won the lottery? Sit on the couch playing video games all day? I doubt it—at least after the first year. Doing nothing, as it turns out, gets really boring after a while, especially for people with curious minds. (This is one of the premises of unschooling; I don’t remember which specific book I read it in, or I’d link it.) You’d find something to do that interested or excited you. Odds are, there’s work to be had which relates to that something. It has the potential to be work that you love.
But I suspect that at least one of us is generalizing from a single example. Either you have not had a job that you loved and are thus assuming that such a thing is impossible, or I am naive and optimistic and don’t understand what appears to me to be cynicism.
If you still don’t think it’s possible to love your work, what would you do if you won the lottery? Sit on the couch playing video games all day? I doubt it—at least after the first year.
Nope, not at all. I’ve got plenty of things I’d do with sufficient free time and resources. None of them that I’ve yet figured out how to get anyone to pay me enough to cover my living expenses though. The reason I work is primarily to fund the things I actually want to do.
I think that’s apt, and I think that the people who love their jobs (like Emile) do not fit that description. I haven’t yet held a job that I love. I am, though, studying to enter a field of work that, if I won the lottery, I would still want to work in, because I’m passionate about it. There exist jobs that I would love.
If you still don’t think it’s possible to love your work, what would you do if you won the lottery? Sit on the couch playing video games all day? I doubt it—at least after the first year. Doing nothing, as it turns out, gets really boring after a while, especially for people with curious minds. (This is one of the premises of unschooling; I don’t remember which specific book I read it in, or I’d link it.) You’d find something to do that interested or excited you. Odds are, there’s work to be had which relates to that something. It has the potential to be work that you love.
But I suspect that at least one of us is generalizing from a single example. Either you have not had a job that you loved and are thus assuming that such a thing is impossible, or I am naive and optimistic and don’t understand what appears to me to be cynicism.
Nope, not at all. I’ve got plenty of things I’d do with sufficient free time and resources. None of them that I’ve yet figured out how to get anyone to pay me enough to cover my living expenses though. The reason I work is primarily to fund the things I actually want to do.