Confirmation bias

There is a joke that goes something like:

A few days ago I learnt what confirmation bias meant.
Now I see it everywhere 

OK maybe I stick to writing. Where was I? Oh yes, I have always felt people are more comfortable to feel a person was born with certain talents. They are comforted that a person is good at what they do because they found their true calling. The world is full of advisors telling you to look for your passion.

That advice is not helpful. A person will then spend their life looking for their passion. Or believing that the passion is where happiness lies.

I picked up one of my daughters psychology magazines the other day. As i flicked through it I read an article that struck a chord with me. It wrote of research showing random choices lead to preferences. Preferences lead to habits and habits lead us to who we become.

We are all self made but only the successful will admit it.

Les Brown

If I had grown up in the 1920’s would I be a software consultant? I like technology and I love people and the coming together is where my eyes light up. The life we have grew by habit and skill.

Did it hit you then? It did me, like a bolt from the blue! If I am doing what I am doing simply out of a series of preferences and habits. I am able to learn to like something else if I spent enough time doing it.

It always ends up back to my Grandad Dennis who would say to me, ‘if you can’t do what you love then love what you do’. If you love what you do long enough it will become the thing you love to do. Pride in doing a good job provides you with the engagement and satisfaction you crave.