[boerseth]

I swear this is how I've gotten good at most of my hobbies. Playing guitar for 20 years has gotten me to a great level for a hobbyist, but not at all because of any virtues like discipline, self control, or routine.

Rather, every day whenever other more important chores or duties loomed, I'd notice one of my guitars laying around, in my couch or my bed or leaning next to my desk. And most times, I'd give in. There's always a new skill, technique, lick, or song that I'm working on, or something I've recently mastered that gives me joy to play.

If anything I think discipline would have hurt my guitar skills over the years.

[Cthulhu_]

Man I wish I had a hobby like that instead of video games, lol.

(I'm very much into video games that scratch the same itch as software development does, but with games they give more instant gratification and they present you the next objective in a fairly structured fashion, but often without pressure. I've binged Factorio, now I'm back on Rimworld, where my people just do the tasks they are supposed to and only procrastinate when I allow it and / or when they have a mental breakdown from seeing too many dead bodies)

[cleartext412]

If I were to choose between bearing the fruits of 20 years of practicing music and equal amount of time spent playing this kind of games, it would certainly be the latter, and I did try both.

[Rendello]

I did this for many years, but pretty much just got worse. There's probably a threshold of skill you need to reach on an instrument. I decided that if I pick up guitar again, I'll be sure to do a few months of structured lessons, because I'm tired of noodling around on the same two scales!

[Sammi]

This is why "follow you passion" is terrible career advise. If you make your passion your work then it stops being your "passion".

Much better career advise I've heard is: What kind you shit are you much better at suffering than other people around you seem to be?

Because work is work. There's a reason you get paid to do it. Sure it might be something that you are good at and care about, but if you need to work on it 8 hours a day, then you will inevitably start to feel the grind. This is why you get paid and go on vacations.

[Cthulhu_]

This is what software development is for me; "just learn coding lol" is terrible career advice because it's simply not for everyone, just like management or marketing isn't for me.

I could do blue collar work, but preferably factory work.