The notion that creative people aren’t motivated by money, are always happy to be working, and prefer odd gigs to a stable career normalized the precarity and overwork of the post-Fordist world. The successful creative life calls to people like a siren song but fails to materialize for so many, who chalk their failure up to deeper personal deficien

I wanted to make a living with my back and save my brain for writing, which is a beautiful idea, except for the fact that I was tired all the time.