The whole essay, not just that excerpt!

@michael_nielsen YES. If you pursue a useful end without joy, you won't be able to do much that is useful. If the end is so important for you that you want to pursue it at any cost, then there's joy in the pursuit.

@michael_nielsen Doing things with clear, beneficial outcomes in mind will tend to get you to local maxima. To get to more global maxima you have to “stuff around” more.

@michael_nielsen This is also true in the context of others watching you. 'Why don't you do the thing with utility?'

@michael_nielsen And sometimes what you love can be lucrative in the long run, because life is unpredictable.

@michael_nielsen Good companion to de Beauvoir (Ethics of Ambiguity): "If the satisfaction of an old man drinking a glass of wine counts for nothing, then production and wealth are only hollow myths; they have meaning only if they are capable of being retrieved in individual and living joy."

@michael_nielsen Doing "what you love" could incidentally coincide, sometimes, with what allows you to earn a living. Otherwise, it's a luxury.