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Do you care about the problem?

Mar 2026

Traditional wisdom goes — one should enjoy what one is working on. And it is quickly followed with an advice to change what you are working on if you are not enjoying it. Making the switch is much easier said than done. Mostly, you can't immediately change what you are working on. Inevitably in that case, you need to figure how do you start enjoying what you are working on.

You could also invert this question — first, try to figure what are the pieces about what you are working on that you don't enjoy. And can you eliminate/ delegate all or most of those pieces gradually, so that you are spending lesser and lesser time on parts you don't enjoy. Every job/task will generally have pieces you would not enjoy, and the key is to spend lesser time on those — complete elimination may not always be possible.

The right question probably is — do you care enough about the big picture to push through the (gradually reducing but inevitable) boring parts? If you don't care about the problem, leave. Don't try to optimise your way into caring.