Passion is infectious
I am so drawn to people who are passionate about something. It's like they are pulling me into their gravity well of reality. I start to care and take interest in what they're talking about, even if I would've never thought twice about it otherwise.
The object of passion doesn't matter that much. Gardening, programming, old cars, sales, reading books, stamp collecting, skincare, interior design, whatever—the right person can hook me on whatever it is.
Passion isn't merely the level of enthusiasm someone demonstrates for a topic or idea. It's hard to fake, but it can be superficial. What they say matters a lot. The people truly passionate about something have common traits. Here's a handful:
- Years (or decades) of experience
- Deep, intimate, experiential knowledge
- Strong empathy and understanding of others in their field, especially their struggles
- Seemingly effortless ability to discuss the topic for any audience
- At least a few great ideas for improvements or innovation
- Unapologetic sense of who is the right fit for their thing (and who isn't)
- Heartfelt appreciation for true masters of their craft
- Attentive to small details, especially ones invisible to the untrained eye
Someone must develop all of these. I can't just read a book or watch a video and acquire these traits. I'd need years of work and attention.
A great recent example of this infectious passion is David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH). He has decades of programming experience, has an amazingly successful bootstrapped business, and developed his own web-app framework (Ruby on Rails) that has achieved widespread usage and adoption.
DHH has taken on building out his own Linux distro, Omarchy, and has been tirelessly evangelizing about it for months now. He was a Mac guy for many years but is now making the jump.
I watched his walkthrough of the distro and a breakdown of why he is switching. I also tuned into his entire six-hour interview with Lex Fridman to get a good sense of what he is like.
Side note: the best description of DHH I've ever read was "angry enthusiasm." That is perfect (and certainly a compliment!).
DHH has pulled me into caring about programming at least a little bit, even though I have never been a programmer in my life. He has spoken so confidently and thoroughly about the topic that my curiosity has been pushed to know just what he is talking about that could make someone so jazzed up. I even installed Ubuntu on my desktop PC to give Linux a try for myself. He literally inspired me to take action.
I'm always on the lookout for more DHHs in any field. Many industries need many more people like him.