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work in something you kinda like which gives you many more options
Think the difference is how much effort your hobby is to turn it into a profitable business. 
My art is never going to be profitable as it takes me hours but I doubt anyone would pay more than $25 for it. 
But if you have prestige or enough talent to where it maybe takes 20 min you could sell it for $100 and boom. 
This is definitely true with writing as well. It can take you hundreds of hours only for your books to not sell at all. >

I know a lady who does abstract paintings. Spends 20 mins painting in canvas. Waits just long enough for it to dry and brings it to this place and sells it for thousands. It’s like wtf. >

Gotta know your market!  And also know how to network and market your wares.
I tend to like paintings like that and could pay good money if it "speaks" to me. >

This has been true for as long as work has existed as a concept. >

I think it was less true in the past when income inequality wasn't such a problem. I read a great comment here once about how simply learning the arts used to be incentivized because you could earn a solid living or make decent side cash with those skills without having to stress. Nowadays, even artists and creators in professional positions are marginalized and getting paid peanuts, and it's about to get even worse with AI entering the marketplace.
We are hard on the track of completely destroying anyone's reason for living beyond making money just to stay off the streets, if we haven't essentially already. >

yeah in another life i could have been a successful photographer. or science fiction writer. or musician. hell i'd be happy just being a bartender. or work at a radio station. but i just listed five vocations that you used to be able to pay your rent with, but can't any more. >


five vocations that you used to be able to pay your rent with, but can't any more

I'm an animator, just started, but have made stuff that have been played on tv.
....guess who still lives at home cause prices for a 1 bedroom apartment are insane. 
Technically almost affordable, but would end up broke or in debt within a few months, also on a single income. Choices are either live at home, or get multiple roommates.
Looking back at my parents generation who could get an entire apartment in the city for $400 a month. >

I have a career doing what I am passionate about and I don’t regret it one bit. I actually enjoy my life and do not dread each day like some people do. >

It’s not necessarily dreading each day. It’s just the passion will begin to fade or there will come a time when you’d rather do something different that day or period of time. >

But that's true regardless of whether or not you're doing something you like. If I'm going to end up hating my job eventually in both cases, then I might as well pick the case where I at least still enjoy it for a few solid years, rather than hating it the minute I start it. >

Just gotta keep livin L-I-V-I-N >

You don’t have make your passion your work to be passionate about your work. It’s absolutely possible to have a career you’re passionate about and still have separate passions you engage in during you’re down time. >

I think that's true to a degree, but doing something you're passionate about doesn't automatically turn into a miserable endeavor just because it's your job. Your exact employment situation (as in who you work for) and your individual perspective have a lot more bearing on whether or not you enjoy what you do. I work in a field that I'm very passionate about, and my love for it has only increased with time. I think a large part of that comes from a conscious effort to be grateful for the opportunities I have, and not take for granted that I actually have a pretty good gig going on. 
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In today's world, work has become pain.

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I'm gonna have to disagree with you on that. Work, and virtually everything else in life, is far less painful now than it has ever been. Sure, you might get bored at your job, or not enjoy your career, but I can pretty much guarantee you it sucks a whole lot less than 99.9% of the stuff people were doing for work even 100 years ago. Anything you do can be either a miserable, meaningless chore, or an exploration and pursuit of your potential. It's all about how you approach it in your mind. >

Spent the last 15 years ruining my passions and hobbies thinking I'd find the perfect work/life balance...instead I'm poor and depressed. Now I'm 36 retraining as an electrician because I finally realized a solid career that i find engaging will allow me the lifestyle required to pursue my hobbies without the added pressure of turning them into profit. >

This isn’t an opinion, it’s an instruction. >

Sounds like you're down on your luck. I really enjoy what I do for my main income and I also make a few extra grand a year playing music on the side. Maybe I'm lucky, or maybe I just got tired of being unhappy with life and made some changes. >

Should read don't turn your passion into work for someone else. 
What ruins it is giving up your control in doing what you love for someone else. If you love fishing and can make a living fishing on your own terms it's far more fulfilling than fishing to meet someone else's needs and expectations. >


In today's world, work has become pain.

hear hear!
i love what i do for a living. i hate having a job and a boss and an office. >

HR here, i love being part of someone's development, i feel like a teacher, the problem isn't doing what you love, is when what you love is capitalized in a poor way, art is the best example. >

I only work in field I'm passionate about... It's not about the freedom, it's about how it makes me feel while I'm doing it. I always turned my hobbies into small businesses... I mean.. I enjoy woodworking, selling my services allow me to work on more projects. You know...I don't need 15 tables, but I can sure make them and sell 14 of those. 
It's true that being paid to do something comes with some contraints, and some unpleasantry, that's not a reason not to chose a field we are passionate about, or else working would be a lot more boring than it needs to be. >

I don't think OP is talking about being passionate about your job, which is wonderful but just not the case for some people. A lot of us have a job that pays the bills and other things that fill our souls. And doing something for the sheer joy versus needing rent is a whole different mindset. I agree with you, OP, and I think people can kill their passions by turning them into jobs. >

I love that i'm able to do my hobby as my primary source of income. Honestly, that sounds less like the person liked the hobby and more like they were using it as an escape or safespace rather then actual enjoyment of what the hobby/act itself. >

I have as a hobby, to play strategy games or puzzle games that both allows creativity and at the same time critical thinking... (Cities Skylines, Factorio, RTS games, etc)
My job isn't the same as my hobby, but it has those characteristics (Software Dev and Engineer)... this is the best approach in my oppinion. >

I went to school for art because I liked it and I didn't think I'd live long enough to see myself in a career of any sort so it seemed like a way to leave a piece of myself behind. When I got better I tried to use the only skill I'd built for myself in a few different professions and lost all passion for it.
Years later after doing something completely different for half a decade I tried to pick it up again and it's still a struggle >

Man when has work not be a pain. Lol “In this modern world” >

Completely agree. If you were paid to sit on a beach 8hrs a day. There will come a day when you don’t want to go to the beach and rather do something else. The lust will eventually fade no matter how exciting the situation is. >

I paint industrial equipment all day and can't get home to paint little zombie men while watching YouTube