"Life without enquiry is not worth living for a man", think that's Socrates.
Good luck, I remember doing a 3 months internship at Agilent Tech yeeaaaarrss ago where at the end I was like - "No way am i ever working in this Dilbert socially backwards environment" Not to say it was a bad place, just not for me.
Since then, I've had 6 or 7 real jobs, in 4 or 5 different industries, travelled round the world, asked loads of questions, tried loads of things and still not satisfied.
It's a tough one, everybody's different and very few people figure 'it' out, hence why you most advice is stupidly simple, short and unhelpful like 'be yourself', 'do what you love', etc... the list goes on.
"Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don't."
My 2 cents:
- try everything while still young and while your responsibilities are small, and monthly nut is small. It's much more difficult to have a mid life crisis when you need $4000 a month for mortgages, cars and kids.
- don't chase the $$$ - you'll never be as good as the guy who's doing it cause he loves it
- most people aren't satisfied with what they do, which is why books by Tim Ferris and Chris Guillebeau sell so well, they sell the 'dream'
- as far as happiness... others have already said this, purpose tends to help, as well as self expression, the ability to create something is pretty fulfilling too
- ignorance is bliss
when you said "enjoy playing with the latest Apple product, watching TV":
I'd suggest trying out UX Design / Front End Development
UX Design is becoming more and more important, and so is front end development as browsers are getting faster and faster.
Apple has amazing user design, maybe that's what you love about their products, how they feel.
- get good at javascript / html / css
- build a few things in backbone.js
- dig into user design
- redesign some current applications into what you'd like them to look and feel like
Good luck, I remember doing a 3 months internship at Agilent Tech yeeaaaarrss ago where at the end I was like - "No way am i ever working in this Dilbert socially backwards environment" Not to say it was a bad place, just not for me.
Since then, I've had 6 or 7 real jobs, in 4 or 5 different industries, travelled round the world, asked loads of questions, tried loads of things and still not satisfied.
It's a tough one, everybody's different and very few people figure 'it' out, hence why you most advice is stupidly simple, short and unhelpful like 'be yourself', 'do what you love', etc... the list goes on.
'Wear sunscreen' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTJ7AzBIJoI
there is a good line in there
"Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don't."
My 2 cents:
- try everything while still young and while your responsibilities are small, and monthly nut is small. It's much more difficult to have a mid life crisis when you need $4000 a month for mortgages, cars and kids.
- don't chase the $$$ - you'll never be as good as the guy who's doing it cause he loves it
- most people aren't satisfied with what they do, which is why books by Tim Ferris and Chris Guillebeau sell so well, they sell the 'dream'
- as far as happiness... others have already said this, purpose tends to help, as well as self expression, the ability to create something is pretty fulfilling too
- ignorance is bliss
when you said "enjoy playing with the latest Apple product, watching TV":
I'd suggest trying out UX Design / Front End Development
UX Design is becoming more and more important, and so is front end development as browsers are getting faster and faster.
Apple has amazing user design, maybe that's what you love about their products, how they feel.
- get good at javascript / html / css
- build a few things in backbone.js
- dig into user design
- redesign some current applications into what you'd like them to look and feel like
http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/concept-design-facelift-notable...
- build a UX / front end portfolio
- watch these talks
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2012/12/22/talks-to-help-you...
http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/
http://www.alistapart.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_experience_design
GOOD LUCK :D