I tried that and it completely broke me working with other people who did a shitty job of what I loved doing and didn't care.

I now worked out the thing to do is earn lots of money turning something you hate but are good at into something tolerable. That gives you time, energy and money for the things you love.

Speaking of purpose, that's the purpose of friends, not of coworkers. For example, think of the Gates and Buffett friendship. Or scroll down to the bottom of any pg essay to see: "…and by the way these are my friends."

Do what lets you afford your hobbies.

Unfortunately, once you start getting paid, and especially if it's what you rely on to live, the joy often disappears. Not always, but it seems to be quite common.

See: hedonic adaptation [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonic_treadmill]

It's not hedonic adaptation. Work has a tendency has a tendency to extract as much as it can until it kills and corrupts it the entire way there.

I once read on one my social media timelines someone wrote that "pursuing your passion is a luxury".

Certainly nice to have, but just make sure you have a decent living first.

:)

Yes, because usually job is done for client or employee, not for you or your close ones. Then place for self expression is limited.

I think you are forgetting one more category: what the world needs

OP may find this helpful: https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aKPqgFP1m1Y/WdVP2sfqAmI/AAAAAAAAl...

That’s what the pay is indicative of. If people want it, they will pay for it, and your employer will pay you to deliver it. Unless you’re talking about being driven by a goal outside of any business (i.e. market) needs.

The world is full of market failures but yeah, they approximate each other.

This came up in the Tim Ferris interview with Jim Collins [0].

Collins has a notion called the "Hedgehog Concept". Which is the same as you're noting, but a bit more concise.

- What you love to do

- What you are encoded for (not just good at)

- What you can be paid to do

I think the reframing of the 2nd bullet is important. There's a difference being good at something and being encoded for something. You can be good at math, but relative to someone encoded for math, you're going to face significantly more friction.

This is a hard question and requires a high degree of self-honesty, but I believe it is the crucial differentiator in identifying your "purpose".

0. https://tim.blog/2019/02/20/the-tim-ferriss-show-transcripts...

These 3 criteria seem rather narrow to define a concept as existentially loaded as ikigai. There's a related narrower Japanese word for purely work/task-related satisfaction, "yarigai", which seems closer to what you're talking about.

There are many things I enjoy doing. And I have been well paid for doing one of those things for decades. The fact that I have been employed at it for decades might indicate that I am good at it. So, maybe the trick is to enjoy doing many things so that maybe someone will pay you to do one of those things.