I’m not quite sure what the relevance of the second quote is supposed to be; it seems to argue for developing expertise in an area and is agnostic on whether that area should be ‘direct’ or ‘indirect’, since it’s self-centred in the first place. A hint in what you’re getting at might be in your title; you conflate ‘follow your passion’ with ‘direct work’. I submit that while probably more people are passionate about charity work than, say, working in finance, there are far more people who are passionate about neither.
Also, even if you are passionate about an area now, whether you will remain passionate for long enough to develop the expertise described is still in question; this seems like an end-of-history illusion*. This makes the message of the first quote dubious to me; what happens when what you love changes? Which is one of the reasons 80k recommends against ‘following your passion’ as good career advice for young people especially.
With all that said, if you are an excellent fit for an area (you’re good at it, you enjoy it) and it happens to be an area which fits neatly into high-impact direct work or high-donation earning-to-give, then I’d generally recommend people do that. While their passions are likely to change, their current favoured areas are probably a better guide to what they will like in 15 years than picking at random. And that’s what I’m doing. But those are the easy cases ;) Everyone else has to think a bit harder unfortunately, and that’s where 80k comes in.
“The end-of-history illusion is a psychological illusion in which individuals of all ages believe that they have experienced significant personal growth and changes in tastes up to the present moment, but will not substantially grow or mature in the future.[1] Despite recognizing that their perceptions have evolved, individuals predict that their perceptions will remain roughly the same in the future.”
Regarding the second quote, pretend you’re debating between a job you love and a job that pays double. The quote is saying that if you really love the job, you may wind up being paid comparably anyway, because people who are passionate about their work tend to be the best, and tend to be paid way more than average.
I’ve been earning to give for a few years.
I’m not quite sure what the relevance of the second quote is supposed to be; it seems to argue for developing expertise in an area and is agnostic on whether that area should be ‘direct’ or ‘indirect’, since it’s self-centred in the first place. A hint in what you’re getting at might be in your title; you conflate ‘follow your passion’ with ‘direct work’. I submit that while probably more people are passionate about charity work than, say, working in finance, there are far more people who are passionate about neither.
Also, even if you are passionate about an area now, whether you will remain passionate for long enough to develop the expertise described is still in question; this seems like an end-of-history illusion*. This makes the message of the first quote dubious to me; what happens when what you love changes? Which is one of the reasons 80k recommends against ‘following your passion’ as good career advice for young people especially.
With all that said, if you are an excellent fit for an area (you’re good at it, you enjoy it) and it happens to be an area which fits neatly into high-impact direct work or high-donation earning-to-give, then I’d generally recommend people do that. While their passions are likely to change, their current favoured areas are probably a better guide to what they will like in 15 years than picking at random. And that’s what I’m doing. But those are the easy cases ;) Everyone else has to think a bit harder unfortunately, and that’s where 80k comes in.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End-of-history_illusion
“The end-of-history illusion is a psychological illusion in which individuals of all ages believe that they have experienced significant personal growth and changes in tastes up to the present moment, but will not substantially grow or mature in the future.[1] Despite recognizing that their perceptions have evolved, individuals predict that their perceptions will remain roughly the same in the future.”
Regarding the second quote, pretend you’re debating between a job you love and a job that pays double. The quote is saying that if you really love the job, you may wind up being paid comparably anyway, because people who are passionate about their work tend to be the best, and tend to be paid way more than average.