Ask HN: Have you found something you love to do? If yes how?
I&#x27;m not obsessed about &quot;working for my passion&quot; or anything like that. I have a good life outside of work, supported by my high paying programmer job.<p>I did a lot of job-hopping the past few years looking for the right place to work, and I finally found it. I look for companies that respect work-life balance, don&#x27;t want me to work too hard, and have excellent engineering culture that values high quality work and has managed to retain their senior employees. I deliver great work, they make money off of the code I ship, everybody is happy. I can crunch every once in a while but we all understand that it sucks and isn&#x27;t a long-term strategy.<p>My father was a funeral director &amp; coroner. He would NEVER claim he &quot;loves what he does&quot;, but he used his career to build a life for him and his family. I look at my career the same way.<p>What do I ACTUALLY want to do? Develop video games, make music, write fiction. But nobody is shelling out for that, and even if they are, I&#x27;m not good enough at it to compete. I know if I pursued any of my passions, I would have to work much harder for much less pay, and be treated much more poorly by my employer. I know my limits and I know that I cannot thrive in a situation like that, I&#x27;ve done it before, no thanks.<p>Part of growing older is mourning the person you could have been. If I had a time machine, I would have stayed in better shape, practiced guitar more, invested my time more wisely. But I can&#x27;t, and honestly my life has turned out pretty great by trusting my instincts.