So, to those of you who want the easy path; for each of you that can’t stand boredom and despise work without pleasure, enjoy your brilliance while it lasts.
As you take flight from project to project seeking out only what it is that entertains your for the moment, you will be receiving your reward as you have earned it. You are like the man without a dollar in his bank account until payday comes who then quickly and excitedly cashes his check and spends it in its entirety that very weekend.
Check out this quote from Nietzsche which sums it up nicely:
But there are rarer men who would rather die than work without enjoyment in their work: the fastidious people, difficult to satisfy, whose object is not served by an abundant profit, unless the work itself be the reward of all rewards.
It doesn’t matter how brilliant you started out or how much faster you exited the gates than everyone else, those who consistently get up every morning and direct their energies along a single path, no matter how boring it may be, will eventually pass you on each of the many roads you haphazardly travel.
It may seem that I am suggesting that a software developer pick a single path, a single technology and stick with it for the rest of their life. But, this is not at all what I am suggesting.
Instead, what I am really saying is that to have long term success at whatever endeavor you are currently pursuing—and it can change drastically and many times throughout your life—you must have the wherewithal, the grit, to hunker down and work hard well past the point where the work is enjoyable.
It doesn’t matter what passion you pursue, the passion will fade, and you will be left with cold hard work in its place. At this point many people will mistakenly make the choice to leave that work and assume that it is time to move on, but any person who has ever produced any great work or achievement knows that it is only by pushing through the pain, by continually showing up every day and “paying your dues” that anything of value is ever really achieved.
