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Ask HN: How do you find out what you want to do?

3 points by miles_matthias ↗ HN
It may seem like a easy to answer question, but I'm struggling with it and I'm betting I'm not the only one.

How do you find out what you want to do with your life? Where should you take your career? What are you absolutely best at? What makes you happy? What are you passionate about? How do you find all of that out?

And don't say "it's whatever you're passionate about." How do you discover what your passion is?

Personally, I'm currently working as a developer building mobile apps with titanium. I don't know if I would rather be developing for web or mobile - they're both interesting with their own pros and cons. I'm also not sure my personality suits development the best, although I love technology and the abilities it brings us. Sitting at a desk for 40 hours rarely talking to people isn't my favorite thing in the world. I like interacting with people, writing, traveling, some coding, and teaching.

I've thrown around ideas about consulting, product management, and startups but am at a standstill. I would love to talk to people in those positions to see what their life is like and if I would fit in in their job. Where can I do that?

6 comments

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YuriNiyazov
You do lots of different things, and once you discover that whatever it is you are doing right now is not bringing you satisfaction and the people who have been doing it for longer than you are not the sort of people that you'd want to become, you leave. There's no magic.
meej
Identify your talents, develop them into strengths, and then seek roles that will allow you to play to those strengths.

If you're not sure how to name your talents (many people are much better at identifying their weaknesses), a good way to figure them out is the StrengthsFinder inventory, which I posted about on yesterday's "I'm not cut out to be a programmer" post: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4975353

gruseom
This is indeed a much harder and deeper question than it seems.

I would ask Christopher Alexander's great question: What feels more alive?

datr
On a related note I saw a link posted about a year ago to a "guide to life-type pdf that was written by the CEO of an investment fund. The book had some good points in it, if anyone could share the link again I'd appreciate it.
codexnight
An email would be great.I believe I can help you that.