<p>This article disagrees.</p>
<p>About time.</p>
<p>I would probably agree with this fellow’s article except it strikes me as funny because the author didn’t really have to make a choice between his three options - work in industry, get a doctorate, and write a non-fiction book. He was basically able to do all of them - he got a doctorate, and he’s written several books. And as a professor he can always consult in industry or quit academia and go work in industry (maybe even at Microsoft).</p>
<p>It’s not like he was choosing medical school when his passion was pro wrestling. Although I suppose he could pursue both of those options simultaneously as well.</p>
<p>So his advice may very well be good, I’m just not certain he is exactly the best example of a career path hobson’s choice.</p>
<p>He hit with this sentence:
</p>
<p>I find the idea of “following your passion” to be totally over rated and simply does not exist for many people, especially at a young age. But, we/they are made to feel that they should have a passion. It wasn’t until I was already working in my chosen field that passion for an area of it grew.</p>
<p>It’s Cal Newport! Had no idea he is a prof.</p>
<p>I always find it suspicious when the advice is to follow passions- you don’t get a job and settle into the life you want just for wanting it.</p>
<p>^^^ I agree. The author would have more credibility in my mind if he had to make a true choice between following a passion and taking the kind of boring job most of us have to be content with upon graduation. Instead he was choosing between most people’s dream job (Microsoft), their dream academic option (PhD @ MIT), and pursuing a dream avocation (writing). No one expects “following their passion” to be painless. The fact that he wasn’t in love with the option he chose doesn’t mean he wasn’t following a passion, and as bovertine points out, the choice he made didn’t close any doors. He still had the option to write on his own time and getting a PhD in CS doesn’t exactly put a future career at Microsoft out of reach.</p>
<p>I would pay more attention to him if he had to make a real and painful choice, say between taking a low-paid stagehand job with a theater in order to pursue acting or working for an insurance company.</p>
<p>What the author did was like choosing between Harvard, Stanford and MIT then congratulating himself over not buying into the hype that one needs to attend an Ivy League school to be of worth.</p>
<p>There are some people with true passion, but more often than not I find it is as an excuse for people not to get on with their life. Most people work at jobs which could be mundane at times, start a family which puts demand on their time, be responsible for other people. I am one of those people. I have provided well for my family and be there for my parents, but over time I have found things that I love about my job, and able to excel because of certain attributes I have. I had a dream of doing something else, but I probably wouldn’t have been as productive. </p>
<p>I think it is fine to have a passion and I don’t think people should give up without trying, but I think it is important to give it a set time on when one should move on. This weekend I was talking to students about working at a start up. They all seem to have the passion (so eager), but their chance of being successful at a start up is very low. I encouraged them to give it a shot, but know when it is time to move on. Sometimes there is a way to keep the passion and still able to put food on the table. Passion should be something that one could afford.</p>
<p>Speaking of having a passion, it bugs me that in the world of college admissions, every HS student is encouraged to have an EC which is a “passion” and is supposed to pursue it avidly during HS. My older child did have one, but my younger child (currently in HS) has spent the last three years exploring different activities/interests. Isn’t this what HS should be?</p>
<p>For that matter while I believe that a “passion” is fine, a lot of adults never really have one and live a happy life. I have certain interests, hobbies etc. that I certainly enjoy but they have changed over the years and what is wrong with that? I enjoy my profession and like my job, but I wouldn’t say that I have a “passion” for accounting (which sounds kind of funny anyway!).</p>
<p>I think think the whole idea is overrated.</p>
<p>^ FallGirl- ime, it’s mostly on CC that posters say you should have a “passion” EC. As one of the Stanford deans said in a youtube: who expects hs kids to know what their passions are, at this point? (Or even earlier, say, in 10th grade.)</p>
<p>Well, that’s an awful lot of common sense in one article.</p>
<p>D is following her passion…her passion is to live as a financially independent adult , hopefully with enough resources to have horses, kids a healthy saving account and travel while still young. She happens to be studying tax accounting in college. This will support her passions.</p>
<p>Music makes my son tick. It was no doubt his passion in hs, and many classmates assumed that he’d major in music. He never considered it. (Frankly we were relieved - his very talented piano teacher and other local musicians had a hard time making ends meet). </p>
<p>Majoring in music would have taken the joy out of something he loved. ( I think of it like an aspiring novelist that does not want to major in English… he just wants to write for enjoyment. ) He has found interesting ways to weave music into his Engineering projects and ECs - I’m tickled by that.</p>
<p>You have to balance “following your passion” with earning enough money to make a living. I say work for Microsoft and the big bucks while you pursue your passion to be a movie star.</p>
<p>Why did the author have a dilemma? Someone with a PhD in CS can still work at a computer company and/or write a book.</p>
<p>It is only a dilemma if following your passion leads to a dead end (however that is defined, which likely depends on the person) while closing doors to other things you may want to do.</p>
<p>He likely had to use himself as an example because he was writing for a big name newspaper, where keeping anonymity is difficult. In his book and blog posts, he usually uses different people as examples. For instance, a woman who is so good at something that people hire her to work and get it done and then she gets to go on vacation.
You can argue that he was lucky, but that doesn’t make his points any less valid. </p>
<p>I’m probably not explaining it very well, but there are a few key tenets to his ideas:
1)Don’t follow your passion. 2) Be so good that they can’t ignore you 3) Turn down a promotion so you get more autonomy and 4) Think small, act big. </p>
<p>[Study</a> Hacks Blog Archive My New Book and a Chance to Speak with Me One-On-One](<a href=“http://calnewport.com/blog/2012/09/18/my-new-book-and-a-chance-to-speak-with-me-one-on-one/]Study”>My New Book and a Chance to Speak with Me One-On-One - Cal Newport)</p>
<p>He’s written “How to be a high school superstar” which was immensely useful. It basically spells out how to get into the schools you want and still have a fun HSL. </p>
<p>Very good writer.</p>
<p>Well, he sets up a false argument, in my opinion. The “follow your passion” or argument is ridiculous.</p>
<p>I have a few passions, and my kids have a few passions. You don’t have to give up gainful employment to follow any of your passions, ever. All passions can be done without being “paid” work, frankly. By definition, one need not be paid to follow a passion, and many, like climbing K2, or writing great poetry and publishing it, aren’t going to pay you a dime, anyway.</p>
<p>Have a good job. Also, follow your passion. If you don’t have a passion? Make a meaningful life for yourself. All the best literature on happiness shows that having a meaningful life is equally as important as having “fun” in terms of creating true and measurable happiness.</p>
<p>Actually, I would say if you need to be paid to do something, it’s probably not much of a passion, anyway, though, in the end, I’ve been paid to do most of the things I would have done for free. But, almost always, I started out doing these things for free, because it was the way I wanted to spend my time.</p>
<p>So, I say, follow your passion, no matter what, but not because it’s the best way to be paid. JMO</p>
<p>Well, at least as heard from high school and college graduation speakers, “follow your passion” means “don’t be a doctor, don’t be a lawyer, don’t be an engineer, don’t be a banker – do something you really like instead, and don’t worry about such conventional, boring, toolish things as making a living.”</p>
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<p>What about the people who really have a passion for working as a doctor, lawyer, engineer, banker, etc.?</p>
<p>Or perhaps it means you shouldn’t try to become these things simply because someone told you you should. Case in point: a close friend became an engineer because his parents insisted he do so. They understandably wanted him to have a career with which he could support himself. The problem was that he really didn’t enjoy engineering and with little joy for the profession didn’t flourish in his career. 7 or 8 years out of college he went back to school and got a teaching degree. He’s now a dean at a wonderful school, making more money than he would have if he’d stayed in engineering and loving his job.</p>
<p>I’m all for working hard and getting a job that pays well, but what’s the point of working your butt of for years and years of college, graduate school and entry level work only to end up in a career you hate?</p>
<p>I surely did not have a passion for microbiology in high school.
My overcrowded, uninspiring high school barely offered me general biology.
I guess I knew I enjoyed science and did not want medical school nor nursing.
Studied clinical laboratory science in college, fell into a vacancy in a microbiology lab after graduation and then fell in love with it. Love every aspect of it and have done well.</p>
<p>How many 17 years olds really have a specific passion for a career?</p>
<p>First and foremost, I think there should be a clearcut definition of “passion”. The term when used in this context may mean so many different things to so many different people and so that is where disagreements arise.
Others would label their hobbies as passion already. Others would not. Others would limit it to the one that truly love doing.</p>
<p>You do your best work when you like what you are doing- this is following your passion. No one ever said you have to be limited to one or keep the same ones. The author had an easy time- he could have even defrerred his grad work to do the Microsoft job for a year or two and accomplished all three. Much better to major in humanities if that is your interest than to follow a career track because “there are jobs”. You can find a job using a humanities major or add courses to be marketable.</p>
<p>I agree with those who find this author unrealistic. His “passions” for the job and grad school were in the same field, he had the credentials for them and writing can be added to either of them. I don’t think he understands more average people or those with more diverse interests. I’ll bet he would have had the same outcome years later if he had taken time out in his early twenties to do something totally different than even working using comp sci skills. Etc.</p>