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Comment by pards | Hacker News Reader

> It feels to me like “do the things you like” is a luxury of someone who isn’t anxious about paying all their bills.

I encourage my kids to keep their hobbies as pastimes, not as income sources. As soon as you try to make a living from your hobby or passion, it sucks the joy out of it.

Make money from your job; derive joy from your hobby. Separation of church and state.

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I'm pretty sure most movie directors love making movies. Most novelistics love writing. Most indie video game developers love making video games. Most musicians love playing music.

From what I've read most novelists HATE writing.

“Slit your wrists and pour yourself onto the page”

Hate writing. Love having written.

Yes! I'm not a novelist but the same applies to running.

Musicianship is a good example of why you should not think doing what you love would keep you afloat.

Effort required to become a good musician is comparable to a surgeon (likely more) yet the chances of success is comparable to that of a football player.

Yes but if there's zero joy in your job, you probably won't be very good at it. Sprocket sales sounds like a gray, drab career, but the successful salespeople chase the thrill of closing.

Pick something you medium like that someone will pay you money for. Life is too short to work on something you have no emotions about.

To add, don't think you'd enjoy producing if you enjoy consuming. Many kids these days aspire to become a youtuber or other kind of influencer, only few actually put in the work, and fewer still succeed because I'm convinced you need to have certain specific characteristics to do that kind of work (or hobby), and only a minority of people enjoy recording themselves. Probably more today than 20 odd years ago but still.

>Make money from your job; derive joy from your hobby. Separation of church and state.

Thing is that the state wants to take more and more of your time for less money. So you lose the ability to enjoy church at some point.

We need huge work reform before we can truly follow this wisdom.

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