Related Notes: [[Questions to help find meaning]] *** In [this article](https://markmanson.net/screw-finding-your-passion) Mark Manson raises an interesting point: "Fun" / passion / joy - is something we are subconsciously attracted to. If we therefore consciously look for "it", it won't actually be right for us. He gives an example: "A child does not walk onto a playground and say to herself, “How do I find fun?” She just goes and has fun." That makes sense - children will naturally get attracted to what excites them without a "socially mature" brain stopping them from pursuing it. He also argues that: "You already found your passion, you’re just ignoring it. Seriously, you’re awake 16 hours a day, what the fuck do you do with your time? You’re doing something, obviously. You’re talking about something. There’s some topic or activity or idea that dominates a significant amount of your free time, your conversations, your web browsing, and it dominates them without you consciously pursuing it or looking for it. It’s right there in front of you, you’re just avoiding it." There is something to this. I don't spend all my time working in an office. I come home sort of tired and do things to just chill and feel good. Well, what are those things? Obsidian stuff, Joe Rogan, scripting and automating, sometimes hacking (although it feels kind of like studying), sometimes I look through Houzz. I spend time reading stuff to help me progress in life, so I'm not sure that counts. However, I do think there is an importance for looking for something because what if I'd really enjoy Formula One racing but have never tried so I wouldn't know? Based on how I spend my free time - I enjoy optimizing things, being efficient, organizing stuff/knowledge... Paul Graham [says](http://www.paulgraham.com/love.html) this: "As a lower bound, you have to like your work more than any unproductive pleasure. You have to like what you do enough that the concept of "spare time" seems mistaken. Which is not to say you have to spend all your time working. You can only work so much before you get tired and start to screw up. Then you want to do something else—even something mindless. But you don't regard this time as the prize and the time you spend working as the pain you endure to earn it." This is an interesting way of looking at it. Work or "passion" can simply be redefined as anything which I like more than unproductive pleasures. "To be happy I think you have to be doing something you not only enjoy, but admire. You have to be able to say, at the end, wow, that's pretty cool. This doesn't mean you have to make something. If you learn how to hang glide, or to speak a foreign language fluently, that will be enough to make you say, for a while at least, wow, that's pretty cool. What there has to be is a test." What do I currently do that I enjoy more than slacking around? *** "Try to do things that would make your friends say wow" This quote is very interesting, because: My friends are people who share my values. Therefore what would make them say "wow" is most likely what I would admire too. So they're a proxy for my own feelings. Smart. What things interest me / would I like to work on that would make my friends say wow? *** In [[Book - Educated]] Tara received [[Book - Educated#^3db933|this advice]] from her professor. First stretch yourself to find out what you're capable of, then decide who you are. *** ## Footnotes Resources - [Paul Graham - How To Do What You Love](http://www.paulgraham.com/love.html) - [Mark Manson - Screw Finding Your Passion](https://markmanson.net/screw-finding-your-passion)