My high school guidance counselor opened our initial meeting with the question: “What do you like to do?” I don’t remember my response, but I’m sure it was something along the lines of “I don’t know.” There’s a feeling, mostly among high school guidance counselors, that one’s calling should be determined by what one likes to do in their spare time.
I think that’s a Bad Idea™. I was talking to one of my oldest and dearest friends last night about this topic. He maintains that people are happiest when they work in a field that they enjoy enough to take up as a hobby. As an example there are countless software engineers who got into the profession because of their hobbiest interest.
I maintain that when one takes up their hobby as a career, it ceases to be a hobby. Strictly speaking, that is, of course, true. Colloquially, not so much. At any rate, as Lord John Whorphin would say “Character is what you are in the dark.” I would paraphase that to “Hobbies are what you do after work.” I know many people who became software engineers because it was their hobby. For the most part, those people do not write code as a hobby any more. Maybe they take care of their kids, or play in a band, or run long distance races, or woodwork, or go sailing, but they don’t write code.
Certainly that’s not a universal generalization, but it’s broadly applicable. I’m not exactly sure where I’m headed with this except to say if there’s something you enjoy doing, keep it for yourself. Get paid to do something else. Find a job that will pay you well enough that you can do that thing you really enjoy. If you go the other route your hobby becomes work, and no one wants that.
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