[staunch]

I think your complaint goes away if you complete the sentence: Do what you love to create

Most people live read-only lives. They never create music, food, or art. They merely consume them.

But if you love creating music, food, or art you absolutely can make a career out of it. Of course, a middling chef or musician won't make it very far, but neither will a middling programmer really (though they may at least stay employed).

[potatolicious]

I don't think his complaint goes away at all.

For one thing, in my experience, most people don't love to create. Most people aren't artists, programmers, writers, chefs, or carpenters because they wake up in the morning and look forward to it. My overwhelming impression from the vast majority of people I've met in my life indicates that creating things is simply not a driving force. If given a complete lack of want, I'm convinced the majority of the world's population will choose to do nothing creative with it, and spend it socializing, fucking, and eating.

Scarcity is pretty much the only reason their butt finds their way to the desk every morning.

Not that there's anything necessarily wrong with that.

Secondly, even for people who have strong passions in a particular craft, there's no accounting for supply and demand. We are incredibly fortunate that our passions lie in a field that is severely under-supplied, allowing us to enjoy incredible compensation and job security in an era where so few have just that. And our situation is highly temporary, I assure you. The ability for your passion to put a roof over your head and provide the basic necessities of life is... questionable.

So while I'm pulling in a 6-figure salary, have insane perks at the office, flexible hours, live in an amazing city, and have the money and time to pursue my dreams, I'm not going to stand on a soapbox and pontificate to everyone how, if they had only followed their passion, they could be happy too.

The reality is that we are the lucky few. For a vast portion of the population following their passions is a one-way ticket to getting evicted and digging through garbage cans.

[pavlov]

If given a complete lack of want, I'm convinced the majority of the world's population will choose to do nothing creative with it, and spend it socializing, fucking, and eating.

The reality TV show Big Brother is strong evidence in favor of your argument.

It's an artificial environment where people are aggressively prevented from creating anything. You can't even smuggle a pencil and a piece of paper into the Big Brother house -- if you wanted to write or draw something, you'd have to do it with your own blood on the walls, I guess... Once you're in there, your life for the next N months will consist solely of socializing, fucking and eating.

Amazingly, there are millions of people who find this prospect so exciting that they apply for the show year after year.

[TorKlingberg]

I don't think we should draw general conclusions about humanity based on reality show contestants. The draw to participate in Big Brother is that the house is full of TV cameras. Which, ironically, could actually be described as creating something.

[heathlilley]

It reminds me of something my father told me when I was figuring out what to take in college..."Find something you like to do and you will never work another day in your life."

His advice was not absolute, there are bad days, but overall he was correct. I wake up almost every morning looking forward to what I will solve/build that day. He was a chef, provided a great life for his family and still experiments in the kitchen even in retirement.

I think the "software as a craft" argument also fits here as people who like to program like to tinker at home much like wood working in your garage.

[paulhauggis]

This is why my new passions are business, marketing, and making money.

[JoeAltmaier]

Most folks haven't been exposed to creative activities since the 2nd grade. When they took the crayons away (only babies use crayons). Its deplorable that the most creative species on the planet provides so little support for expression, even quashing it. Color inside the lines! Park between the lines. Be a team player. Sit down, shut up and listen to the teacher.

[heathlilley]

Because you can't make money off somebody's creativity unless you can control and direct it.

[raphaelb]

"If given a complete lack of want, I'm convinced the majority of the world's population will choose to do nothing creative with it"

I don't know if I agree - I think if you move up Maslow's hierarchy of needs and they no longer 'want' the basics, they will allow themselves to advance into the 'higher stages' and then desire to fulfill those needs such as socializing, sex, etc. But presumably if those things all come easily as well, they will then move further up the line into creative expression, etc.

I know I've been most creative when I didn't need to be, and everything else in my life was more or less 'taken care of', and I suspect many people would have the same experience.

[azth]

> And our situation is highly temporary, I assure you.

On what basis do you say that? And how long do you expect it to last before things change?

[iamgopal]

well put. "socializing, fucking and eating" sums up 90% of the population and it is very good as it provide huge consumer market to the other 10%.

[aangjie]

Exactly. I used to get outraged/saddened/furious when i see that attitude 90% of the population, till i realized, it's inevitable in any economy, except perhaps a communist style, forced one.

[sliverstorm]

Nothing wrong with being a middling chef or a middling programmer; we can't all be rockstar ninjas, and there is plenty of need for normal chefs and normal programmers.

[winxordie]

Of course there's nothing wrong with it. If you love it though, you'll probably wind up a deviation or two better than the average.

Just understand what you love. If programming is a day job, then that's just that. I happen to love this craft.