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Pixels don’t care

warpspire.com

51–60 of 141 posts

Re: Pixels don’t care

#51
What a beautiful blog post. I think too often we lament the anonymity of the internet without understanding that there are some serious upsides, too.

It's almost like a social Turing test: A good person is someone you identify as such based purely on messages written on slips of paper and passed under a door.

Re: Pixels don’t care

#52

I totally agree with the "too young" thing. I'm 15 and been freelancing since I was 12, and this gets in the way all the time . People try to take advantage of you once they realize that you're young(er) than most in the field.

I think it's fantastic that you're here, freelancing and making money. Under the age of 14, though, I think US companies could potentially get into legal trouble hiring you. Under the age of 18 there are laws regarding maximum hours and what hours you can work (so not to interfere with school, etc).

I would agree that you should be paid based on your skill, though, not age.

Re: Pixels don’t care

#55
"For the first time in human history, it’s possible to be represented (almost) solely through the merits of your work."

I enjoyed the piece, but this is overstated. Represented by an agent that protects anonymity, or just working by correspondence only, writers have enjoyed this ability for a long time.

George Eliot and J.K. Rowling obscured their gender and let the work speak for itself.

Re: Pixels don’t care

#56

What a strange claim. "Looking back", he can't help but feel discriminated against due to his height. It couldn't possibly be because of his "no formal eduction, no experience with any big clients", could it?

I had no lower education than my peers, equal or better skills, and did work of the highest quality.

== did you read the whole piece? granted it's easy to perhaps skip the "no" in "no lower" education.

Re: Pixels don’t care

#57
post #3

I had the totally same experience with early online communities (Everything2, Slashdot), and for a long time made a conscious effort of keeping my avatar off the Internet. It's a little utopian, yes, but being able to deal with people based on their ideas, ideals, and quality of work, and develop fast friendships without ever being aware of so much (Great line: "How could the internet know you were gay? 80 years old?…

On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog—or at least, they didn't until Facebook came along.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f8/Internet_dog.j...

Re: Pixels don’t care

#58

I totally agree with the "too young" thing. I'm 15 and been freelancing since I was 12, and this gets in the way all the time . People try to take advantage of you once they realize that you're young(er) than most in the field.

Unless you are a prodigy, you simply haven't had the time yet to become really good at anything. Supposedly it takes 10.000 hours or so of exercise, which would be 9 years at 3 hours daily.

I'm not trying to push you down, and anyone not paying you what your work is worth is definitely taking advantage of you.

Re: Pixels don’t care

#59
post #43

What a strange claim. "Looking back", he can't help but feel discriminated against due to his height. It couldn't possibly be because of his "no formal eduction, no experience with any big clients", could it?

That would be a great argument if my peers had formal education or experience with big clients. None of them did. There is no "point" to be made by my post, rather a description of two vastly different ways I was treated for the same work I was doing during the same point in my life — one online, one in person.

As an anecdote: I'm 5'6", and I don't think this has been a barrier to anything.

I've had to be more careful about my appearance, of course. My clothes fit well, I'm lean, and I work out.

Despite my diminutive stature, men get out of my way, because I look strong and I walk confidently. Men didn't do this until I got strong.

I get looks from girls all the time. They don't seem to care that I'm in about the 2nd percentile, height wise.

Attitude about height is often more important than actual height for a man. Things would probably be easier if I were taller, but being short is far from the insurmountable obstacle it's made out to be.

Re: Pixels don’t care

#60
Late last year, an artist by the name of Captain Murphy dropped a mix tape, "Duality". Duality had phenomenal production quality and very talented rapping. Everyone from "future beats"-type listeners to gangsta-rap afficionados wanted to know who Captain Murphy was.

Turns out, the biggest name in all of modern experimental hip hop, Flying Lotus, was behind the project, along with a wealth of his friends. When asked why he didn't release the music as Flying Lotus, he replied (paraphrased) that he didn't want people to say, "Oh, he's rapping now", and he wanted to be respected more for his talent than for his legacy, or who people thought he was.

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