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Ask HN: How to figure out what gets you 'excited'?

7 points by coreygarvey ↗ HN
I'm a twenty something working in the tech industry who is facing an internal crisis of sorts because I don't know where to focus my time. I quit a job in finance a few years back because I wanted to work on something that could help others beside myself. I started by tinkering with website projects and have a firm grasp of several web frameworks. I work in data analysis using various tools, like R and Pandas, to build predictive machine learning models.

I don't know where to focus my energy to have the biggest impact. Something inside me tells me I need to be a founder of something, allowing me the most opportunity to take advantage of my creativity and skills, but I would not be opposed to leading a team within a company that is working toward an enviable goal. Much of what I read and hear says that no matter what you work on, those who succeed are those who are most excited about their work. I totally agree and have found that my best work occurs when excited but up to this point I have been excited about better jobs in order to improve my resume and learn new tools.

How should I get a better understanding of what gets me 'excited'. Are there publications I can read that will open my mind to new technologies which might interest me (Tech Review, etc.)? Talks I can watch or go to? Should I just narrow things down and research areas for a few weeks to see if different industries get me excited?

Thanks for your response.

6 comments

[ 4.9 ms ] story [ 26.5 ms ] thread
coryl
I don't think you can learn what excites you in an overt process whereby you research a broad range of topics and then pursue whichever one entertains you the most at the end of some period.

You should already be reading things that interest you, and you probably have a few topics that routinely intrigue you, right? Learning about what interests you, and then working on related projects, is an organic process.

As Peter Thiel says, you should think critically about why you're doing the things you do, and be careful not to fall into the trap of prioritizing style (appearance, status, prestige, novelty) over substance.

coreygarvey
Thanks for the reply and this makes sense but my struggle is primarily in exposing myself to the topics that intrigue me. Understanding why I do things is phenomenal advice, and I think some additional introspection concerning interesting articles and things I do will be helpful.
drallison
You might want to look at the lectures given in the Stanford EE Computer Systems Colloquium. They are available in the Stanford Channel on YouTube and through the Colloquium Web Site, http://ee380.stanford.edu. While at only 30 lectures/year the Colloquium cannot be comprehensive, it does try to touch on technologies which will be important in the (near) future.
coreygarvey
This is a really great resource, thank you.
kleer001
Maybe think back 5-10 years. I bet there's some nugget of childlike excitement, deep calm fun focus, that triggered you again and again. Find that and follow it back up your life. Dig into it and find its roots. Look at some photo albums and old emails and find its fruit.

Also "biggest impact" on what? Why do you feel you need to make a big impact. I think that's a little counter productive and mutually exclusive to-in-about-around-through your personal excitement. I can see a one in a million people who's excitements derive from making a big impact on the world.