Comment by FinnLobsien

> I think that this statement is guilty of a rather typical sin on software forums which is assuming we all work similar jobs. I suspect you are right that a large portion of devs would agree with this.

Thinking of myself, I guess it's kind of true. I work in marketing (content specifically) and while I consider myself a writer, I actually quite enjoy writing about things like usage-based pricing or product strategy.

For most writers, those things would be the thing they want to be liberated from so they can write speculative fiction while my desire to write speculative fiction doesn't extend beyond wanting to be "wrote a novel" guy.

On the other side, I was into photography as a teenager and thought I wanted to be a photographer. But when I read about the actual workday of photographers, I lost all interest.

---

> A thought that occurred to me when reading your post was that TFA is somewhat guilty of being on the extreme side. Your framing to me, is actually quite helpful in providing balance, in the sense that it may not always be wise to chase for the white rabbit profession with no downsides. Rather accepting some downsides while still enjoying the process (unlike the dour university admins).

I think the biggest problem with the article's take is that if we say you should enjoy the "underbelly" parts of a job, then wouldn't that select for people who don't care about the result?

Do we want the researchers who love writing grant applications and teaching hungover undergrads more than they do working on visionary ideas?

Ultimately, I guess one thing the article is missing is that sometimes you can have your cake and eat it too. In many situations, you can bring in a co-founder/creative partner who loves the stuff you hate and vice versa.