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What do you want to be when you grow up?

People ask children, "what do you want to be when you grow up?" When people ask children, "what do you want to be when you grow up?" children figure out quickly that what they mean is, "what do you want to do for work when you grow up?" These are not the same thing. 

It would be nice if we meant the question asked. Imagine how much this world would improve if, instead of saying "a marine biologist," "an architect," or whatever other job that has far fewer openings than applicants and therefore poses no realistic possibility of providing the career they hope for, children said, "I want to be a generous person." "I want to help people." "I want to inspire others to be the best person they can be." "I want to be patient." "I want to be honorable." "I want to be brave."

People ask adults, "what do you do?" They reply with a description of their profession. "I am a bricklayer." "I'm a teacher." "I'm a physician." It's a shame that we don't ask adults "what have you become?" That'd be pretty weird, but it matters a lot more than your job title.

Why this inversion of things? Maybe, as adults, we have a vested interest in reducing what you have become to what you do. That's why we push this reduction onto children, teaching them that what you are is what you do for money. After all, if you stripped the title and the pay away, what would be left? For most people, not very much at all. 

After my third year of college, I though hard about what I wanted to be, because I realized that what I was would not be defined by what I did. I realized that what I was would not be maskable by what I did. I figured that if I was going to spend 40 to 50 years at something for 40+ hours a week, I'd better choose something that gave me an not just make enough money to support a wife and kids, but also provided an opportunity to make the world a better place by providing an avenue to work on my many flaws and outlets to inspire and support others toward being better than they are.

In retrospect, most jobs are more similar in the latter criteria than I thought, because it is much more about the attitude you carry and the motive you seek than the means you are given in the job you have.

Increasingly, however, more and more jobs are developing rules and practices that prevent people from doing the good that they would otherwise do. That is very sad.