jwhendy comments on Why do some kinds of work not feel like work? - Less Wrong

19 Post author: Wei_Dai 08 January 2011 01:28AM

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Comment author: jwhendy 08 January 2011 05:08:03AM *  1 point [-]

I wonder how much personality plays a role in this question. For myself, I can say that I have noticed a strong trend toward pursuing things with a high novelty value. Documenting work experiments with a new piece of note-taking software. Tracking tasks with a new task manager. Setting up a new piece of equipment. Getting to document an experiment with a high-speed video camera for the first time. But this fades. In the case of software tools, this is dangerous as I expend more time looking for a shiny tool than actually using it.

I could also list "work" done at home that would seem like work to others but not to me. Consider the following:

  • My enthrallment at setting up a fresh install of Linux compared to an IT employee who does so every day
  • My recent acquisition of a table saw and subsequent fling with woodworking projects compared to a carpenter who does all he can not to quit
  • My excitement at spending spare time learning Python compared to a programmer who can barely bring himself to look at another line of code
  • My buying of a road bike on craigslist, then excitedly taking the entire thing apart and rebuilding it for maintenance compared to someone at a bike shop who hates what he does

I guess I'm not exactly giving you an answer, but simply sharing some personal data points. My endeavors that don't feel like work generally don't last very long. My attention wanders to something new that I get excited about. My energy toward that arena becomes almost unlimited and it never feels like work even though I'm accomplishing tangible results. Even though novelty and interest fade, these types of things can be cyclical for me. After some time has passed, it may regain it's glow.

I would love to hear if anyone has managed to maintain a doesn't-feel-like-work relationship with something for an extended period of time. I don't think I have a single example of something in that category for myself.

Comment author: Lila 21 February 2011 06:54:21PM 1 point [-]

I don't think I have a single example of something in that category for myself.

Not even if you include relationships with people? (It's often said that "relationships require work", so relationships with people could be relevant to the subject.)

Comment author: jwhendy 21 February 2011 07:48:27PM *  0 points [-]

Hmmm. Interesting point. I'm tempted to draw some kind of distinction between the two, as I see the "work" in this post typically as impersonal, static objectives that need to be completed whereas a relationship is a personal, dynamic entity that I'm "undergoing." I don't see my relationships as "tasks" or work in the sense of them having a deadline, concrete end point, etc. Perhaps if I broke relationships down into steps (e.g. "get coffee with so-and-so by x date for at least 30min)... they could be looked at like that.

If one considers relationships as "work"... then yes, I have at least one thing that I've been working on for a long time that doesn't feel like work :)

Edit: I'd still be interested in the more "traditional" meaning of my question, though... has someone done some task/line of work for say 1+ years straight and been as enthralled about it as they day they started? Something like that.

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