The dangers of prestige

My office is located at a WeWork in Shanghai, and every day I note the slogan: “Do what you love.”

I think it’s ironic that this statement could resonate with many (most?) people, and yet almost no one follows its call. I’m not sure whether it’s good advice to just say “do what you love" without considering individual circumstances. However, I believe it’s worthwhile to consider what most people aspire to instead, and explore some possible alternatives that might be closer in spirit to what we may truly desire.

Prestige

The word “prestige” has a positive connotation. It’s fair to say that most people prefer to do prestigious things, all else being equal.

Paul Graham once wrote that “prestige is the opinion of the rest of the world." It made an impression on me, because I had discovered some time ago that consciously caring less about what others think is actually a huge step towards happiness. The logical conclusion is that choosing to do something just because it’s prestigious is counterproductive to becoming happier.

Chasing prestige by itself might not be so bad. Many prestigious things have some value; after all, going to a top-ranked university does provide tangible benefits such as an arguably better education and a high-quality lifelong network. The problem is when something is prestigious not because it has some intrinsic value, but because it pays you a lot of money if you do it. I can think of some jobs that are prestigious solely because of their high compensation. For example, investment banking is a career that I think no one would pursue if it paid nothing.

What we love

“But wait,” you might think. “Isn’t this true for every job? If a job paid nothing, no one would do it."

I'm not so sure. One way to test the above hypothesis would be to consider whether there are things that people are paid to do, but are also things that people do for free, either purely for fun or as volunteers. I can think of three main categories:

• Creating things. Writing, painting, music, photography, and making videos on YouTube all fall into this category. Computer programming as well - there’s a thriving open source community, which by definition is programmers writing code for free and sharing it.
• Helping others. Any type of volunteering (the true type, not whatever you do to satisfy university graduation requirements). Two examples would be volunteer teachers and doctors working in developing countries.
• Challenging oneself. Competitive activities such as sports and video games could form the basis of a career for a select few (eg. through professional sports or live streaming), but the vast majority of people still happily engage in these activities without compensation.

This is not an exhaustive list, but it's a good start. If you're not sure what you love to do, look to the above for inspiration. Then figure out ways to create value when doing those things you love. If you succeed, you will likely have found a dream career, regardless of its prestige.