To do great work, you must find it interesting. It is possible to do good work and not be interested in the field. But if you’re interested in something, it’s much easier to be good at it and work on it for long periods.
I’m terrible at anything I’m not interested in. Often, I can get myself interested in something for short periods. This is because I can trick myself into feeling interested. It’s like playing a sport to make friends or date a girl. It’s good for a couple of times but quickly feels like work. And when things feel like work, they become uninteresting.
One can’t look at other people’s interests, adopt them, and do great work. Interests must be adopted out of curiosity, not mesmeric desire. Popular interests are like candy, sweet and delicious but unappealing in large quantities. And to do great work, you need to do it every day. What you choose to work on doesn’t have to be enjoyed by everyone, but it must be enjoyed a lot by enough people.
There is a formula for finding interesting things to work on.
Interesting = curiosity X taste + discipline.
Curiosity
Some people are naturally curious. They need to know and like to learn things. The most interesting people are constantly curious. For most of us, curiosity comes and goes. You can harness it. You need to treat curiosity like a scout. It’s good at exploring ideas and concepts. It enjoys the wild ride and excitement of the unknown. But alone, it’s not enough. There needs to be a purpose to exploration. Constant exploration is wandering without a purpose. There’s a reason why “Curiosity killed the cat” is such a popular saying. Being too curious can paralyze you from ever doing anything.
“Curious enough to explore, smart enough to chart a course.”
The stranger the curiosities, the more interested people get. Strange interests are where great work happens. Strange curiosities are at the edges of knowledge.Curious people have similar characteristics. They like to read, try new things, and ask many questions.
You must be more than curious to find something interesting to you. You need a sort of filter, a way of taking what you find curious and sifting through it to find the intersting. You can come up with criteria to filter out things. But mostly, it’s just taste.
Taste.
What you find interesting must be tasteful. The good news for most is there is such a thing as good taste, and you can develop it over time. If curiosity allows you to spot interesting things, taste is how you select which ones to work on
Developing good taste is simple—study where and what people spend money on. What people spend money on is the best indicator of taste. People don’t spend money unless they want it. This applies to most industries. Inventing novel products is the only exception. Only because people have not bought what doesn’t exist. Good taste is rare. Bad taste is common. So be careful when studying marketing.
The bad news for young people is that taste takes a long time to develop. I don’t know a way to fast-track it. This is because you need to try lots of things. It’s easy to spot the types of work described as “bad taste.” When you spot this type of work, you cringe, look away, or ask how this is legal. These are not the types of work that most find interesting.
Things that are in “good taste” are valuable to others. The simplest test to know if you have good taste is to ask someone to pay for it. So the objective doesn’t have to be to find things that everyone will like. But things that enough people will like.
Discipline.
For something to be interesting, you need to want to work on it. And you need to work on it for a long time. Working on anything for a long time requires discipline. There may be a few people who can do great work but do not find it interesting. This is beyond rare. It’s rare squared.
The goal should be that your interest motivates you. This is a useful statement, but not true. It is also not practical. All work is fractal. The further you get into it, the more complicated it gets. Your interests and tastes will only take you so far. To develop genuine interest, you need to have discipline. You need to be able to do the things you don’t want to.
Tests
A great test for knowing if you’re interested in something is the “do it yourself ” test. Often, I find the things most interesting to me are the things I do alone. The things I’ll do even if no one wants to join me. This is how I know I’m interested in it. If I don’t get motivated to do it unless I have a friend, it’s clear I don’t find it interesting.
Another great test is the “goosebump” test. My arms and neck are a sort of barometer for interesting things. I get goosebumps whenever I meet someone, read, listen or watch something. Goosebumps also happen when I come across exciting business ideas. This is how I know when something is interesting to me.
A third test is the “play” test, which means it needs to feel like play. As a kid, I would play with Lego for entire days without taking a break. As an adult, I can bike or snowboard all day and never get bored. I can spend days designing and engineering solutions for problems I’m fascinated by. I’ll lose track of time doing these things because they feel like play.
The “free” test is also useful for knowing if something interests you. I do lots of things for free. I write, read, and laugh with friends for free. No one pays me to do them. I do them because they are fun and interesting. If you would do your work for free ( you won’t), that’s how you know it will likely be very interesting work for you.
Time
You can’t know what you are interested in without trying it first. Reading about it or watching videos isn’t enough. You must try lots of things. Trying takes a lot of time. Often many years or longer. You can get a reasonable approximation for it. For instance, I know I’m not interested in cave diving. So I don’t try it.
You only have so many shots. So it’s important to choose wisely. It’s important to find what is interesting to you fast. It’s what will give you the highest chance of winning. Sometimes, it just takes a long time. I went 35 years without ever trying mountain biking. Now, at 39, I’m obsessed. I’m good at it, love it, and always do it.
You need to remain open to new and interesting things. You'll never see new things if you’re not listening or reading. If all you ever do is try new things, you’ll never get good at anything. So, you need to give it a fair shot. A good test for determining what is a fair shot is three months. One hundred times, and go until you stop believing in it.