‘Find Your Passion’ Is Awful Advice
Olga Khazan,
The Atlantic,
Jul 20, 2018
This article summarizes Carol Dweck's recently published opposition to the idea of 'finding your passion', suggesting that you need to build your passion for your career. The argument is based on a false dilemma, "the difference between the two mind-sets. One is a 'fixed theory of interests' — the idea that core interests are there from birth, just waiting to be discovered — and the other is a 'growth theory,' the idea that interests are something anyone can cultivate over time." This disjunction may be true at birth, but by the time we are looking for careers we have already developed our passions.
So why pose the argument this way? It's to sell mindsets. "People who have a growth mind-set about their own intelligence tend to be less afraid of failure," according to Dweck. Maybe. But fear of failure is not why people don't want to be dishwashers or street sweepers. Having said all that - yeah, you have to choose what you are going to be passionate about. It's just that part of choosing is finding, not just taking what you're given and accepting that.
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