Passion as Information: What to Do When Nothing Is Lighting You Up Yet

In my mid-20s, Simon Sinek's "Find Your Why" video swept through the office, and everyone around me lit up while I quietly panicked. I'd been told my whole life to follow my passion, and I didn't have one. Around the same time, my team read Good to Great chapter by chapter in a work book club, and I remember doing the math instead of feeling inspired: getting from a 90 to a 100 can cost almost a third of the work that the 80 took, and I didn't want to spend those extra hours on a version of great I hadn't chosen.What feels like missing passion can be information. It tells you "not this, not yet," and it points you toward trying the next thing instead of forcing the thing in front of you. Once I started designing my own roles around what genuinely interested me, Good to Great finally made sense. I wanted to be great at things I'd actually picked. This week's Tessera: pick one thing at work or at home that feels stuck or flat, swap it out for something you wouldn't normally try, and pay attention to whether it draws you in.Read the companion article at https://tesseros.com/tessory-e17-passion-as-informationTimestamps:00:00 The passion myth and following your why02:28 A perfectionist's honest math on effort04:45 Rebuilding a retirement plan around what you control09:11 Automating repetitive templated work with AI10:44 Perspective Flip version two and hosting update