MEDIA 6

Week 4 Reading

I think this week’s reading makes some good points. I really like the comparison between the “craftsman mindset” and the “passion mindset”. The first being about immersing yourself in your field to become the best you can be or “so good they can’t ignore you” being a more practical way to approach entering a creative field. I think this is very relative because it means you’re not left in wonder. By using this approach and sticking to this mindset it is easy to see how by aiming to be the best you can will leave you better off and more self assured in the end. It also allows you to consider what it means to approach entering the industry with the question of how you’re going to earn your job rather than wondering why you’ve chosen this path and essentially leads you to strive toward earning passion in your career.

In contrast to the craftsman method, Newport suggests that the passion method of approaching creative work will leave you with nothing but uncertainty and questions. Approaching work with the idea that you should immediately love your what you do is going to leave you feeling constantly unsatisfied. This is completely relatable to us as entry level media graduates who, for the first couple of years aren’t going to be in jobs that are necessarily conducive to our happiness by are stepping stones to our goals. If we’re constantly trying to have a job we love, instead of focusing on being good at what we do, we’re going to end up endlessly unhappy.