Best-selling author and professor of computer science at Georgetown University speaks about how the notion of ‘following your passion’ is actually pretty bad advice. Instead, he suggest passion is found by first building a rare and valuable talent and then using this to take control of your career path. In other words: be so good and work so hard that no one can ignore you.
I think passion is great. But it’s not something that you “follow” (which implies you can identify it in advance). It’s instead something you have to purposefully cultivate over time.
To improve at a cognitive skill, you need to do the following:
* Time block deep work and commit to it everyday * Have an artefact that you set out to achieve in each of these sessions
* Build up your ability focus like an athlete (increasing by 10 minutes at a time is good enough)
Newport’s writing and ideas regularly appear in major publications, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Post, and Inc. Magazine.
Buy his latest book here.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/30/jobs/follow-a-career-passion-let-it-follow-you.html?_r=0
Three Hundred and Sixty Five Days of Inspiring Things 