work
“What’s the point of having fuck you money if you never say ‘fuck you’?”
Judith Dada • Raising Unfuckwithable Kids in the Age of AI
For artists, side hustles have a much woollier lineage. Generally speaking they know what they want to be doing, whether it’s writing sonnets, painting still lifes or composing operas. What they don’t know, often, is how to pay for all the time, trial, error and experimentation such work inevitably entails. As a result, their hustles have a much
... See moreShoplifting, sex shows and sheepdog-breeding: great artists and the side-hustles they did to get by
Michel de Montaigne may be the most influential essayist in history—even Shakespeare borrowed from his work (taking some passages almost verbatim). But if Montaigne were alive today, this famous essayist might be mistaken for just another slacker living in his parents’ basement.
Okay, let’s be fair. He actually lived in the family castle. But it
... See moreMontaigne and the Origins of Substack
I thought I had to figure out how being a writer would “work” before I could start. What I realize now is that creative careers rarely “work” in this sense. You can’t game it out in advance, like you might with a more conventional career. It’s always a gamble, and no one but you is going to give you permission to take that risk.