Beersheba, inspection of Camel Corps by H.E. (i.e., His Excellency) Sir Harold McMichael. Seargent of Camel Corps mounted with line of camels in background, Library of Congress
Passion is a horse in a desert. Horses are not exactly prime transportation in that situation… eventually you'll be walking. A camel, however, is ideal for long desert treks. It can survive great duress and is well-suited to the harsh climate. If passion is to a horse, then good work and craftsmanship is to a camel.
Craftsmanship at first glance seems to be the silver bullet. If we work hard enough, sustainably enough, we can pull through most obstacles. It's true, but there are times in our pursuits when good craftsmanship, the camel in the analogy, can go against us and what we want to do.
If, for example, you tend to be a perfectionist, letting go of a project is kind of tough. There is always one more tweak, one more thing to finish up. Sometimes it's difficult to realize that there are diminishing returns if we go at it too long. Letting go, and being satisfied with the result is a wise energy saving move.
Another consideration is that passion is lightning fast and full of heat. My hunch is that passion needs less attention to detail, and more raw expression of the idea. Getting stuck in the details before even starting a project can be a bad thing. We could lose the heat that drove us to start in the first place. Getting mired in the nuts and bolts before jumping in might mean we miss out on something new. Passion requires a readiness to jump in. The water is cold at first.
My take is that craftsmanship is important to cultivate in any pursuit. As I get older, it really comes down to how much good work I do as opposed to how passionate I am about the work. But it also means being flexible enough to jump into passion when it arrives, and not being afraid to give craftsmanship the day off.
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For those who are interested in how passion and craftsmanship could affect their guitar playing, check out my post on the differences between Jack White and Manuel Barrueco. Jack is to passion while Manuel is to craftsmanship. In addition, I wrote a blog post on the band The National. They take considerable pain to craft a song so it has what I like to call The Funnel Effect: the listener is magnetically pulled in, and has to finish the song.
For those interested in reading more about passion vs craftsmanship, I would suggest the Study Hacks blog. On it, Cal Newport writes often about how relying on passion, following your dreams, etc, is widely stated as the means to a successful career but rarely leads to one. Cal introduces his idea in his blog post The Career Craftsman Manifesto. Highly recommended.