Getting Paid To Do Your Hobby

I count myself alongside The Beatles and Tiger Woods – not because I have anything close to the raw talent of any of them – but because we’re all paid to do our hobby. Like them I’m extremely fortunate of course and today I was reminded of how much I love doing what I do. Sure there are some things I don’t enjoy like doing my expenses but that’s a small price to pay.

Why was I reminded today? I had the opportunity to present to a room of a few hundred librarians about technology. On the one hand you could be forgiven for thinking these folks are on the brink of redundancy with the ubiquitous access we have to information via the Internet. I take a different view though and think these are just the types of experts we need in the era of information overload. They’ve spent years sorting, indexing and cataloguing stuff. I had a great time presenting to them and sharing this view. I also expressed my view that they need to think about the experience they deliver with information – and showed things like the Hard Rock Memorabilia site and WorldWide Telescope as examples. I think they were genuinely surprised and seemed to enjoy this perspective.  I hope they did anyway!

Getting back to my point about my hobby though – the more I work at Microsoft, the more I realise my job is to simplify technology and make it relevant for people. I consider it a privilege to have the chance to do this to a willing audience in the city of your birth. As I walked around the streets of Liverpool at 8am this morning I was reminded of how much I love this place – it oozes history and is full of stories. Stories is how I try to simplify technology and make it relevant so maybe some of the storytelling nature of Liverpool rubbed off on me.

I’ve come a long way to do my hobby but it’s good to be back here. I love this place and I love what I do. I’m very lucky I know. If you do have the chance to turn your hobby in to your job grab it with both hands. It’s incredibly fulfilling.

have a great weekend folks