Reminds me of this piece about 'do what you love' (DWYL) from Jacobin. By keeping us focused on ourselves and our individual happiness, DWYL distracts us from the working conditions of others while validating our own choices and relieving us from obligations to all who labor, whether or not they love it. It is the secret handshake of the privileged and a worldview that disguises its elitism as noble self-betterment. According to this way of thinking, labor is not something one does for compensation, but an act of self-love. If profit doesn’t happen to follow, it is because the worker’s passion and determination were insufficient. Its real achievement is making workers believe their labor serves the self and not the marketplace.Superficially, DWYL is an uplifting piece of advice, urging us to ponder what it is we most enjoy doing and then turn that activity into a wage-generating enterprise. But why should our pleasure be for profit? Who is the audience for this dictum? Who is not?
Another problem with DWYL (and a way it can tie into classism) is that it creates a culture where one is expected to love what they do. Even if you are DWYL outrageous hours and inadequate compensation are still negative, and they are even more negative when you work a soul sucking job you hate.