My original title as submitted here was "A letter to a young poet" — Virginia Woolf (1932)

The tone of letters does allow for a more personal and spiritual take on what is said. As if you were heeding advice from a more experienced close friend of yours.

More reading:
Letters to a Young Poet
Moral Letters to Lucilius

It’s not hard philosophy but I recommend Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke

"Letters To A Young Poet" by Rainer Maria Rilke. There is a new edition of this work that now includes the letters the young poet wrote in response, long thought to be lost. I plan to pick that one up in addition to my Stephen Mitchell translation.

Letters To A Young Poet - Rainer Maria Rilke

"And to speak of solitude again, it becomes clearer and clearer that fundamentally this is nothing that one can choose or refrain from. We are solitary. We can delude ourselves about this and act as if it were not true. That is all. But how much better it is to recognize that we are alone; yes, even to begin from this realization. It will, of course, make us dizzy; for all points that our eyes used to rest on are taken away from us, there is no longer anything near us, and everything far away is infinitely far. A man taken out of his room and, almost without preparation or transition, placed on the heights of a great mountain range, would feel something like that: an unequalled insecurity, an abandonment to the nameless, would almost annihilate him. He would feel he was falling or think he was being catapulted out into space or exploded into a thousand pieces: what a colossal lie his brain would have to invent in order to catch up with and explain the situation of his senses. That is how all distances, all measures, change for the person who becomes solitary; many of these changes occur suddenly and then, as with the man on the mountaintop, unusual fantasies and strange feelings arise, which seem to grow out beyond all that is bearable. But it is necessary for us to experience that too. We must accept our reality as vastly as we possibly can; everything, even the unprecedented, must be possible within it. This is in the end the only kind of courage that is required of us: the courage to face the strangest, most unusual, most inexplicable experiences that can meet us." [etc]

From Rilke - Letters to a Young Poet. To continue reading:
http://www.carrothers.com/rilke8.htm

There are ways out, trust me, you will find them. I honestly think that you could use this moment to just forget how your life has worked so far, and try to look at what your future might be. If you don't feel like talking to someone, I think your best friend might be a book. I would recommend Letters to a Young Poet by Rilke

If we're talking about books that contain a lot of wisdom,Imight suggest reading 'letters to a young poet' by Rainer Maria Rilke. It left a lasting impression and I get back to it from time to time.
Anyone that wants to get a teaser can watch: https://youtu.be/F5tZ8X-EnAg

Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet, especially letter #7, has similar sentiments.

"It is also good to love: because love is difficult. For one human being to love another human being: that is perhaps the most difficult task that has been entrusted to us, the ultimate task, the final test and proof, the work for which all other work is merely preparation. That is why young people, who are beginners in everything, are not yet capable of love: it is something they must learn. With their whole being, with all their forces, gathered around their solitary, anxious, upward-beating heart, they must learn to love. [...]"

http://www.carrothers.com/rilke7.htm

In case anyone else is a bit confused - I had to look this up:

Rainer Maria Rilke wrote a series of letters that were published as "Letters to a Young Poet" in 1929 (posthumously). These were, in fact, genuine letters from Rilke to a young poet (who was the one who eventually published the letters).

Virginia Woolf wrote and published "A Letter to a Young Poet" in 1932 (the OP here), as an epistolary letter prompted by the writer John Lehman (who was ultimately dissatisfied with Woolf's work).

Brain Rules for Baby by John Medina, because it made me a better father; Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, because it taught me of the importance of something that I’d occasionally dismiss as a nuisance; Pain Free and Pain Free at Your PC by Pete Egoscue, because it completely changed the way I understood posture, pain, and how repetition influences my body; and Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke, because it taught me how despite big changes in technology and society and way of living, very little changes when it comes to our personal struggles and concerns; Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, because it helped me realize that in any situation, my attitude is what I always have control over; and 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey because it greatly contributed to my mental framework for how to be productive and for this quote, which is probably my favorite of the past decade:

“In the space between stimulus (what happens) and how we respond, lies our freedom to choose. Ultimately, this power to choose is what defines us as human beings. We may have limited choices but we can always choose. We can choose our thoughts, emotions, moods, our words, our actions; we can choose our values and live by principles. It is the choice of acting or being acted upon.”

Thank you for mentioning this "passion" problem we have. I did a count once, after I nearly became apoplectic after reading yet another job ad that looked for a "passionate" programmer.I counted the number of times Passion was mentioned in job ads for programmers on Find Bacon in NYC. I compared it to the number of times New York itself (where these jobs actually were) was mentioned- and whoo boy! It was something like 4 times as many mentions of the word passion. Wtf does that even mean? That someone foregoes all else like a priest while they code up liked lusts for your company? I worked in the fine arts before, and no one mentions passion... ever. It kind of goes without saying that you have a work ethic if you can play your instrument at a professional level. We all understand the effort that requires. This love of the word passion would be a red flag for me, if it were not like the word "like" used to be for tweens. I sure wish we could all take a break from it and put some actual psiion into understanding what we actually need from employees. The usebof this word speaks to a need to hire young people who have not yet learned their worth and to set boundaries. It is like the hiring equivalent of a middle aged Humbert Humbert trying to lure a sweet young thing with a copy of Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet. Cannwe all please agree to a break from this word?

Why not read Rainer Maria Rilke or Charles Bukowski?

“In the deepest hour of the night, confess to yourself that you would die if you were forbidden to write [code]. And look deep into your heart where it spreads its roots, the answer, and ask yourself, must I write [code]?” -- Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

Rilke apprenticed with the sculptor Rodin in Paris not learning sculpting as Rilke was a writer and poet, rather he learned how to see the world as an artist.

It is so easy to criticize food. This is not different than writing or cinematography. This is the same attack against George Lucas. The Phantom Menance wasn't written for 34 year olds who act like children playing pretend in costumes, its target audience is 7 year olds. And, the movie is about growing up, leaving the protection of the protective mother (although gender roles have changed so now this includes the protective father) and join the adults.

There are probably a lot of people on HN in academia who after publishing popular papers or gained some fame find themselves with targets on their back for criticism.

Anyone dealing with the pressure of criticism should read a very small book that contains 10 letters written by Rainer Maria Rilke to an aspiring poet who went to the same German military school he went to called Letters to a Young Poet. [1]

It starts with:

"I cannot discuss your verses; for any attempt at criticism would be foreign to me. Nothing touches a work of art so little as words of criticism: they always result in more or less fortunate misunderstandings."

I did cook professionally for 17 years. I understand what this chef feels. However, I have learned to not care about what anybody feels or says about my dishes. I do not cook for other people. I cook for myself, because I enjoy the process, intensity, and experience of cooking and the food I make is what I would want to eat. Most of the time I find what I want to eat is also what other people want to eat and in the cases it is not they can move along to next restaurant because I don't care what they think.

[1] http://www.carrothers.com/rilke1.htm