There is an old saying that if you can find something you love to do, you’ll never work a day in your life. But this is probably bad advice.

Here is a simple graph, from Seth Godin, to help explain:

The problem with fun things (y-axis) is that they’re fun. So lots of people want to do them. And if there’s a small or no market for said fun thing, then it’s probably a hobby. (Hobbies are still important.)

Sometimes you can be fortunate where something that previously had no market eventually has a big market. Take, for example, tinkering with computers in the early days.

This is what Chris Dixon was getting at when he said that what the smartest people do on the weekend is what everyone else will do during the week in ten years.

But if this doesn’t happen or if a big market already exists — and you do want to be successful at something fun — it’ll likely follow a power law.

Meaning, you’ll need to be the very best in the world and it’s almost certainly going to be a “slog”. (Bottom right quadrant.) One example of this would be the phenomenon of “starchitects.”

And that’s pretty much it for the fun stuff. The rest of this graph is for things that are difficult, which means that 3 out of these 4 quadrants are difficult and/or a slog.

This is not nearly as much fun as not ever working.

I am still a young guy, but already I find people of my vintage starting to hate on some of the things that even younger people are into.

I hear people say that they’re not into Snapchat because it’s for teenagers. What’s the point?

I hear people say that they don’t get why anyone would want to rent an urban shoebox. It’s so small. Do you have to hang from the ceiling like a bat when you sleep?

I hear people say that they don’t get how that new app will ever make money and turn into a business. It’s just a toy.

It’s so easy to fall into this mentality, where you think that you’re right and everyone else is wrong. But it can be toxic.

Because what is crazy and fringe today could very well become mainstream tomorrow. And the earlier you can recognize that shift, the easier it is to stay ahead of the curve in business and in life.

I’m not suggesting that we all try and predict the future. Instead I am suggesting that we all try and remain as open as we can so we recognize the shifts earlier.

I think there can be a natural tendency to close up over time – unless you deliberately fight it. We start to believe that there’s a certain way that things should be done. We get busy and don’t want to reinvent the wheel. I find myself falling into that trap sometimes and then I try and fight it. This must be why Steve Jobs told us to “stay foolish.”

In an information and attention economy where the best new ideas win, it pays to keep an open mind.