A question for the crowd
Jul. 31st, 2008 02:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexmegamiIs it worth it to drop all your money-making capability to pursue a job you love?
Is it worth it if that job is something that very few people [get to] do, and holds a strong possibility that you won't be able to achieve paidness in that job?
Basically, how much do you [have to] temper your idealism with your pragmatism?
I mean, I don't think of my job as a "career". I'm a phone monkey. I don't think it's likely to lead into anything I'd like to do more. Should I therefore drop everything and pursue a line of work that won't pay much, if at all?
Does the answer change if I've discovered that "doing what I love" as work turns love into, well, work?
Or do I keep the job I have, where even if I don't love the work I'm doing (I don't really care one way or another) I do like the people I'm doing it with, and I'm making money so that I can afford the things that I do enjoy?
Because that, to me, is a perfectly reasonable compromise. Rather than making myself hate the things that I once enjoyed to try and make money off of them, I'll use work to fund the things that I enjoy.
Which seems perfectly reasonable to me.
Is it worth it if that job is something that very few people [get to] do, and holds a strong possibility that you won't be able to achieve paidness in that job?
Basically, how much do you [have to] temper your idealism with your pragmatism?
I mean, I don't think of my job as a "career". I'm a phone monkey. I don't think it's likely to lead into anything I'd like to do more. Should I therefore drop everything and pursue a line of work that won't pay much, if at all?
Does the answer change if I've discovered that "doing what I love" as work turns love into, well, work?
Or do I keep the job I have, where even if I don't love the work I'm doing (I don't really care one way or another) I do like the people I'm doing it with, and I'm making money so that I can afford the things that I do enjoy?
Because that, to me, is a perfectly reasonable compromise. Rather than making myself hate the things that I once enjoyed to try and make money off of them, I'll use work to fund the things that I enjoy.
Which seems perfectly reasonable to me.
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no subject
Date: 2008-08-01 04:40 am (UTC)Then have "work" and don't try to make "fun" into "work". Who care if someone looks at your job title and judges you poorly for it? That's not someone you'd probably want to associate with anyway.
It's a living and everyone's gotta make one. Alternately, you could always introduce yourself by your "fun" identity first.
"Hi! I'm Zhao Yi and I'm a dancer."
"So you make money as a dancer?"
"No, but being a dancer is more important to me than being a pharmacy monkey." or "Fuck you, that's an awfully personal question!" or "Well, I don't make a profit." :P