When possible, take jobs that require you to do the work that you want to do. Consider turning down perfectly good or even great jobs that do not directly require that "want to do" work if you can.
reposted in more canonical form over here:<p><a href="http://news.ycombinator.org/item?id=4288957" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.org/item?id=4288957</a>