The Ignorance of Bliss Link

David Seah has come to some big conclusions about his seven years of writing on his site.

At some point I’d like to review those million words, but I’m ready now to make a major conclusion about the time I’ve spent chasing passion: **I’ve failed to discover my passion and make it work. ** I’ve given myself seven years to let nascent opportunities and niche interests twist themselves into the semblance of a passion/love/interest based work-life balance. I’ve had a few promising leads, but I noticed this year that I’ve started to repeat some of the same thoughts. This indicates to me that perhaps I’d been doing the same song and dance for too long. I’m ready to move on. I’m tired.


There is one trick, actually, that has helped me. I think of it as “de-emotionalizing my response to work.”

I have a real problem with the business of telling people to follow their passion and quit their jobs. It’s snake oil. Some dreams work better for consoling us than they do for feeding us.1 I’m in a position to know. There is often a fine line between what makes us happy and what makes us sad and that line is really easy to move.

  1. I mean this mostly in the literal sense. I guess it also makes for good symbolism and a catch phrase for another crappy motivational book. ↩︎