When a hobby becomes a job
Engaging in this quest became far easier for me when I decoupled the idea of "work" from the idea of a "job." Without this constraint, I can take my work more seriously and less seriously at the same time. I can both prioritize the work that matters to me and remain detached from what that work says about me as a person. If I ha
... See morePaul Millerd • Good Work : Reclaiming Your Inner Ambition
I've met so many creators—including outwardly successful ones making a great living—who are unhappy, and who feel trapped. They joined the creator economy to pursue a life of freedom and creativity and connection. So they followed all the rules and Best Practices. They did everything right, yet still ended up constructing a prison for themselves, j... See more
Ungated • The Ungated Manifesto
People need to eat and pay the rent. “An amateur is an artist who supports himself with outside jobs which enable him to paint,” said artist Ben Shahn. “A professional is someone whose wife works to enable him to paint.” Whether an artist makes money off his work or not, money has to come from somewhere, be it a day job, a wealthy spouse, a trust f
... See moreAustin Kleon • Show Your Work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered
The burden of self-promotion isn’t only on creative people, obviously; much like Albers’s 65-year-old mom, we’re all expected to perform this labor now. If we’re fully employed, we know that the comfort of health insurance and a salary could be gone at any moment if our company decides to pivot or lay us off. Tech platforms, too, come and go, and t... See more
Rebecca Jennings • Everybody Has to Self-Promote Now. Nobody Wants To.
A world in which artists think like entrepreneurs, he writes in the Atlantic, is one where “You’re a musician and a photographer and a poet; a storyteller and a dancer and a designer ... which means that you haven’t got time for your 10,000 hours in any of your chosen media. But technique or expertise is not the point. The point is versatility. Lik... See more
Rebecca Jennings • Everybody Has to Self-Promote Now. Nobody Wants To.
free-time activities that used to soothe us and take our minds off work and add meaning to our lives are now presented to us as potential income streams, or ways out of having a traditional job.
Austin Kleon • Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad (Austin Kleon)
Working even a good job cramps your sense of possibility, imposes narrow objectives, and eats away at the little things that could grow into big things if they weren’t so oppressed by the rigors of existing structure. I’ve seen this with my friends, in how they are full of ideas and adventurous spirit a few months after I convince them to quit thei... See more
Wolf Tivy • Quit Your Job
While this balance between the side and the main gig can and does shift across different periods of capitalism, what is really significant to this moment is not just the amount of time spent on side gigs, or hustles, or second jobs, but that hobbies and interests are approached as something that could be or even should be monetised. This is the job
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