[jebarker]

I disagree about Watterson's speech. It seems very actionable to me for the common man: define meaning in life for yourself, don't get stuck on the hedonic treadmill, think about what your values are and shape your life around them, etc

[cryingpotato]

Yeah I totally agree with this! The crux of the speech for me is "To invent your own life's meaning is not easy, but it's still allowed, and I think you'll be happier for the trouble."

[ramraj07]

This is not very different from telling a depressed person to just cheer up and go for a walk imo.

No one told Watterson to love cartooning and hate “work” the way he says it with disdain. He was just born that way.

And he also turned out to be an exceptional artist. People with exceptional skills should refrain from telling others to follow their paths. It’s disingenuous and not in the interest of the audience at all. Follow your passion will fail badly at you if you are bad at it.

[tracerbulletx]

This is a really negative outlook. The crux of the advice is to have a playful mind, and don't live a life of quiet desperation. This advice can apply to engineers, business people, and anyone else. It does not mean you have to be a cartoonist. In fact the reason I love programming is exactly the same as the reason he says he loves cartooning, because it allows us to play with ideas and learn new domains and problems and ways of thinking. Let's go exploring.

[thowawatp302]

He's not telling them to follow his path. He's telling them to make sure the path they follow leaves them satisfied.

I'm not particularly exceptional, and I give the same advice.

[gizzlon]

The way I read it, it's not about being exceptional (or not).

More like not blindly following other people's definition of success.

We all have choices to make. And most of us could, for example, choose a less prestigious job in order to have more time and energy for other stuff. Among other things..

[jebarker]

I don't think he's just saying follow your passion. He's saying be true to your values (and figure out what those are). If your values are that hardwork is important or providing well for your family is the priority then you can be happy doing those things.