Only Do What You Feel Like Doing

It seems this is the best way to live life and become successful in any domain of life:

Only do what you want to do, never do what you don’t want to do.

Why this is good advice

We are lucky enough to live in a society in which there is enough “division of labor” in which you don’t gotta do stuff you don’t want to do. Thank God for the invention of money; a tool to have others do what you don’t want to do (or others who do it better than you), or things you cannot do.

How I best learn

For example, when I was a kid and I was coerced into learning xyz, I never really put in effort or cared. But once I started to study what was actually interesting to me (sociology in college), then my learning rate skyrocketed exponentially.

In praise of being an autodidact

To be an autodidact means:

Self teaching yourself, and you dictate (didact) what is interesting to you!

To me, self-teaching is the only teaching.

My ghetto standing desk at home

How to best teach others

Now, how do we best teach others?

My suggestion:

Empower others to also become autodidacts.

This means guide others, but don’t force them. Give them ideas, tips, and references, but let them go their own way!

How I taught myself photography

I’m a pure autodidact in the field of photography. I strove to seek the truths in photography by myself, which set off my relentless quest for knowledge, self discovery, and truth.

What I’ve discovered is this:

All forms of photography and art are legitimate. Your goal is to simply do what you like, endlessly, without exhaustion, satiety, or disgust!

I’ve never had to “force” myself to blog, to think, to read, or do creative things. But whenever I do “force” myself to do logistical work or communications work, I always procrastinate, fail, and stress myself out and give myself lots of anxiety and lost focus.

Is it possible to live this kind of life?

Of course it’s possible. I proved it. Now the better question is:

What are you willing to sacrifice and give up in order to live this type of life?

In practical terms, if you live a life in which you only do what you want to do, and which you never do anything what you don’t want to do, this is what happens:

You miss out on certain “opportunities” (99% of which aren’t actually worth your time).
Other people get angry at you for being so “irresponsible”.
Other people try to guilt you to not be so “selfish”.

Then what happens? Nothing.