{"id":108,"date":"2022-05-06T06:10:14","date_gmt":"2022-05-06T06:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/pianisttoprogrammer\/?p=108"},"modified":"2022-05-06T06:17:44","modified_gmt":"2022-05-06T06:17:44","slug":"do-what-you-love-or-computer-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/pianisttoprogrammer\/2022\/05\/06\/do-what-you-love-or-computer-science\/","title":{"rendered":"Do What You Love?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

(or computer science)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Boring computer science job<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I have told a few people that I was thinking about pursuing a career in computer science, and the reaction was often surprise, and some people have tried to talk me out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou should do what you love.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSitting in front of a computer all day sounds boring.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHave you tried applying for a tenure track job in music?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have to be patient with these people, because they haven\u2019t had as much time as I have had to process this. They know me as a musician. I\u2019m a college music instructor. That\u2019s what everyone knew I was going to be since I was a little kid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Look folks, here\u2019s the deal:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
“Look, folks. Here’s the deal:” — Joe Biden<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I love playing music, but what I do for a job is a completely separate decision. Some people love their jobs, some people hate their jobs, many people just think their jobs are okay. My job is teaching music at a college, but I belong to the group that thinks their job is okay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are things I love, things I don\u2019t love, and things I hate. That\u2019s pretty much how most jobs are. I love working with students, and I love playing music. But I don\u2019t love the meetings, and I kind of hate giving grades. I like designing courses, but being on committees is kind of boring. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The person in this photograph has a DMA in music.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

One thing I hate is the salary, which is closely tied to the other thing I hate, which is that there aren\u2019t a lot of jobs available. Salaries are low because the market is flooded with people who have graduate degrees in music. So I struggle to save money, I worry about not being able to retire, I worry that I am going to live in an apartment forever, and work until the day I die. So to compensate for that, I take on extra work, which throws off the work-life balance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now let’s talk about computer science. I love programming. It\u2019s fun. Even the hard parts are fun. It\u2019s like a game to try to solve the problem in the best possible way. I\u2019ve never worked in that industry, so I have to guess about the parts that I might hate. But I\u2019ve been around long enough that I think I can guess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I bet it can be boring. I bet some of the work is tedious. I bet there are boring meetings. I bet there are annoying people that you have to work with sometimes. I bet some bosses are hard to deal with. I bet some clients are hard to deal with too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the salaries are higher (I googled it), and there are more jobs available, which means if you\u2019re in a job you don\u2019t like, you can apply for other jobs, and you might find something without having to relocate. And my understanding is that people with these jobs can and do retire, and they can save money for the future. And they have flexibility, and work life balance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
“Ever since I saw the movie ‘Ghost’ I wanted to try pottery.” — David Servias<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

What is work-life balance? That means you work for a reasonable portion of your time, and you can spend the rest of the time doing things that are important to you, like spending time with your family or pursuing hobbies, such as music, or pottery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the two scenarios above, the musician is doing music to survive and pay bills, and the computer programmer does music for the love of it, and does not depend on it to survive. That means he is free to do whatever music he finds interesting, and doesn’t have the pressure to please a certain audience or his colleagues in order to maintain his status. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your job does not have to be your \u201cpassion.\u201d That doesn\u2019t mean you don\u2019t care about your job, or don\u2019t do good work. It must mean that you are using skills that you have acquired to do work that someone else is paying you to do. That\u2019s what a job is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if you love your job, it\u2019s still a job, and if you stop getting paid, you\u2019re going to stop doing that job. There is nothing wrong with this. It\u2019s not really that weird at all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

So I say, stop worrying about finding a job that you love, and start thinking about what job you are willing to do that will be somewhat enjoyable and not too miserable for you, and worth the amount of money you will get paid to do it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then after work, do the things you love. Write a novel. Compose a symphony. Start a band. Follow your bliss, now that you have the time and resources to do it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(or computer science) I have told a few people that I was thinking about pursuing a career in computer science, and the reaction was often surprise, and some people have tried to talk me out of it. \u201cYou should do what you love.\u201d  \u201cSitting in front of a computer all day sounds boring.\u201d \u201cHave you … Continue reading “Do What You Love?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12288,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/pianisttoprogrammer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/pianisttoprogrammer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/pianisttoprogrammer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/pianisttoprogrammer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12288"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/pianisttoprogrammer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/pianisttoprogrammer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":119,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/pianisttoprogrammer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108\/revisions\/119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/pianisttoprogrammer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/pianisttoprogrammer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/pianisttoprogrammer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}