I disagree with the Rand-ian outlook that some people should stick to working at McDonald's expressed by some other commenters. As humans living in the developed world, even the laziest person has enormous advantages. The real question is whether they are nurtured in an environment that tells a person that it's up to them if they are miserable, average or excellent humans.
I really liked typographer Jessica Hische's outlook: "the thing that you do when you procrastinate is the thing that you should do for the rest of your life".
I don't have room in my world for people that would deny someone the shot at being happy doing what they do.
> I really liked typographer Jessica Hische's outlook: "the thing that you do when you procrastinate is the thing that you should do for the rest of your life".
This is hideously shallow and shortsighted advise. The stories of people "making it" are always inspirational, though for every one of those, there are thousands of people toiling away in obscurity with nothing (material) to show for those efforts. If people blindly followed the above, the world would literally be filled with people attempting watch TV, play video games, read books, nap, or just plain do nothing for a living (for example). And, yes, people can try to turn all those into different forms of livelihoods, but how many would actually manage to make a living wage doing that? Less than 1% at the most extreme? Probably.
Further, sometimes you have to do what you like rather than what you love. Or maybe even what you need rather than what you like. I get paid a very nice salary to do something I quite like, but don't necessarily love. The thing I love to do, on its face, pays 10x-15x less than what I do now. I am working at creating a venture that includes what I love and hopefully could ramp up to my wage now, but that takes time and I need to do it smart...because people depend on me.
I do encourage people to take chances when they are young, or when the kids are out of the house, but there is a window of time when your dreams and aspirations are LESS IMPORTANT than the people who depend on you. This is just part of being a mature, non-selfish adult.
So, if you want to chase your dreams and only your dreams (re: happiness), do it in such a way that others are not impacted. If you have a family, or kids, my advise is to not be selfish. If you can do it in such a way that you are not putting them at risk, great. If not, I believe you should wait until such a time that they are self-sufficient.
Although I'd guess you're saying that in jest, it seems what the OCP (original comment poster) is getting at is something that happens to resonate with me. Almost any chance I get, I'm reading articles, thinking about how one thing relates to another, trying to pick up a few more phrases in this language or that, etc. Therefore, I should have, or create, a job where I can share what I know or where I'm looked to for answers (since that's a symptom of my habit). Come to think of it, I wouldn't call what I do procrastination, since I'm rather quite addicted to learning and it really would be a dream job if all I was expected to do is keep learning all day, every day.
The phrase in question reminds me of another that basically says something to the effect of "a person should be judged on what they do when no one is looking." Though, I'm not sure I'd like to know, among possible Redditors, what that is.
edit: As for fingerprinter's response, there are some good points in there (like sometimes having to do what you like instead of what you love) though your argument in general seems dependent on if you have a family to take care of.
I think you might be misleading yourself. Sitting around, reading articles is easy. Everyone does it when they procrastinate. In fact, when I procrastinate, I do the easiest stuff possible. Read an article, think about it, watch videos, write posts, play around in GarageBand/photoshop, look up unrelated programming projects and think about doing them, etc.
Show me a person that writes a chapter for a novel when they procrastinate, or creates nearly finished pieces of art, and then I'll agree that person should reconsider what they are doing.
Everything that happens while you procrastinate is more or less a much easier activity. Don't sell yourself short.
http://www.humblepied.com/jessica-hische/
I really liked typographer Jessica Hische's outlook: "the thing that you do when you procrastinate is the thing that you should do for the rest of your life".
I don't have room in my world for people that would deny someone the shot at being happy doing what they do.