Happiness from work you love should be measured in weeks, even though you'd prefer immediate pleasure this second. It should also be cool enough that your friends say "wow" when you finish.
Article: How to Do What You Love
How much are you supposed to like your job? Paul Graham marks the sweet spot by defining the two boundaries:
Upper bound: Enjoying your work doesn't mean you'd pick crafting spreadsheets over relaxing with coffee in Bali this second. Almost everyone would prefer immediate pleasure over tackling challenging problems at any given moment.
Therefore, the advice to "do what you love" applies over a longer span. Not what brings instant happiness, but what makes you happiest across weeks or months.
Lower bound: However, your passion for work should consistently surpass effortless leisure. If scrolling social media, snacking, or watching Netflix consistently feels more appealing than your daily tasks, you'll slide into chronic procrastination and produce mediocre outcomes.
Between those bounds lies satisfying work, tasks you gladly return to after rest because they feel meaningful rather than like obligatory punishment.
Here's another filter: Choose activities you not only enjoy but also admire. After completing something, you should genuinely feel, "Wow, that's pretty cool."
For Paul Graham, learning to hang-glide or become fluent in another language is cool because you can objectively measure your progress. In contrast, simply reading books doesn't feel fully productive because there's no clear benchmark of achievement. To feel productive, you must apply or act upon what you've read.
Paul Graham's preferred alternative test comes from Gino Lee: to try to do things that would make your friends say wow.