Can the ends justify the means?

[williamofoccam]

I'm looking for folks to weigh in on the above question with hobbies, interests, and work for those of you lucky enough to have a job doing what you love.  With your hobbies/interests, do you pursue it because you enjoy doing it, because of an end result, or what combination of both?

Maybe this is also dependent on the length of time it would take

Comments

It's only fair...

[williamofoccam]

...that I share as well. I'm just going to pick one to comment on.

I LOVE rearranging and reorganizing our house. I like the initial assessment. I like working out the layout, the feasibility, the utility. The moving of the furniture or changing things from cupboard to cupboard is ok. It's the labor to have the vision realized. Sometimes it can be frustrating, but the end result is pretty rewarding.

I've tried to branch out into landscaping which is good but the labor involved is more annoying because I hate working in hot weather. So if any heavy yard work happens it's in the early spring or fall.

So I'd say it's a little of both the process and the end result for this one.

[greykev]

Reading: means and ends both; reading is relaxing for me, and I enjoy the conclusion of the story.

Gaming: means; it's not about winning, it's about playing well.

art: ends, though I suck as an artist, unless we count painting miniatures.

cleaning: means and ends: I *love* helping people clean / straighten / organize their stuff. I enjoy the process, I enjoy the clean space afterward.

web design: means; I'm never really happy with the end product, but getting the code to work is like algebra; utterly logical and consistent.

cooking: means and ends: though sometimes I find it tedious on both parts.

[williamofoccam]

"cleaning: means and ends: I *love* helping people clean / straighten / organize their stuff. I enjoy the process,"

Ah!! I'm not the only one. :) Good list. I appreciate the input.

[mreauow]

Writing for me is about the process and the end product. I love exploring the characters and world that I creat when I write the first draft. Then I focus on getting the language just right (there's nothing quite like finding the perfect phrase). In the end I have a story to share

[williamofoccam]

Sorry to hear you have trouble finding folks for the chainmail when it's done. You've done some nice head pieces.

You seem to have a good balance of things.

[mreauow]

It's not that I have trouble finding folks for the chainmail. I just don't like having to find folks for the chainmail. The thing for me is that once a piece is done, I want to be done with it. What I need is a partner who likes finding people for my pieces so that when I've finished I can just hand it over and move on to the next piece.

[mistoffo]

Hobbies: writing, performing, directing, seeing plays, tabletop gaming, reading, modern dance, video/computer games, watching movies, mask-making, travel, going to museums, the art of conversation and rhetoric

[williamofoccam]

Cool. If it's any boost toward your efforts, your productions always cause good discussions with us. 'Fat Pig' was particularly... provocative.

Thanks for putting an different twist on the answer to the general question.

[mistoffo]

You sounded like you were hunting for different perspectives, I thought I'd share mine.

Now, I should add that I really miss all the many things that I've put aside for creating art. I miss playing video games, I miss meeting for boardgames with friends, I miss dancing especially.

...

I should take dance classes.

[nomaddervish]

I game because I enjoy it, so I guess that would be means.

I write software because I enjoy it and, when it's a project that I get paid for, so much the better. I guess that would be mostly means again, with some ends.

Crystomere (the online game I'm writing) could be considered a bit more on the ends side, because, although I enjoy the act of working on it, I would really like to eventually have it polished enough to make money off other people playing it. And my greatest interest in it is because I want to play it myself. (The only problem is that I need money now and paying projects have taken enough time away from it that I haven't made any real progress on it since late July...)

[williamofoccam]

The Crystomere project sounds interesting. While the means can be good, it has gone on for so long the end is gaining importance. How long have you been working on it?

[nomaddervish]

On and off since January. I actually chose the July 25 date for my initial testing release on the basis of that being exactly 6 months after I wrote the first code for it. I worked on it pretty solid for a couple weeks before picking up a full-time on-site contract in early February which left me too wiped out to do any coding after I got home. Then a trip to the hospital and the fallout from that (which I really should write about in my journal tonight or tomorrow - I've been putting that one off for way too long) took up all my attention until mid-May. So about three months of actual work on it.

[nomaddervish]

That was me, of course... Switched computers and wasn't logged in on this one...