Hire me and pay what you want, just give me interesting work

No criticism or offense taken at all! I think these discussions are incredibly valuable for the participants and observers to help them decide what they want to do if/when they have a pile of money in front of them.

Interesting thought experiment! Let's take it one step further. Can the "pay what you want" value be negative?

As a manager I would be responsible for providing you with a steady stream of interesting or meaningful work. I would have to structure the work to fit around your flexible schedule, shield you from doing the parts you don't like, and change it up if you start getting bored. But I would not be able to rely on your output for anything mission critical.

How much would you pay me to provide this service to you?

(Please take this as tongue-in-cheek not as a snarky comment, it genuinely is an interesting thought experiment despite the obvious issues it raises).

There will always be times when you don't have anything that you've been told to work on.

That is not the same as having nothing to do.

At a certain "senior" level (in terms of attitude rather than job title) you're expected to be a self-starter and think of things to do for yourself. Once you can do that you have no excuse for having nothing to do.

There is something in the second paragraph that made me read it four times, I think, until I was able to read the rest of the post. The author somehow manages to turn around the fact of being laid off into freeing themselves from the "golden handcuffs finally". No matter how I read that paragraph, I can't help the feeling that the author misses the point:

the author did not make that decision, the author had no choice

But what's not landing with me: when the author had the choice, because let's face it, nobody cuffed the author to the desk, nobody forced anybody to do the boring tedious work - the author did not make the decision but rather was prolonging in that, what is portrayed, uncomfortable situation.

The rest of the post paints a portrait of a person who doesn't know what they want. No commitments, no responsibilities, one side wants without being explicit what they can give back.

I think that the key to this post is the paragraph starting with "Accepting a job offer is a bit like getting engaged or married:". But it should be rewritten like this:

> I know (I) will have to make compromises to make it work, but I should not go for it unless I am 100% sure and obviously I should not marry someone I don’t know. If I do, chances are I will end up being unhappy for a long time or staying with them for longer than I want, because I will get used to the day-to-day and the “rewards” while still getting to know them. When I begin to have an understanding of who this person really is, I will already be invested and leaving will be hard. Many never leave(, I never left and I was hurt because I was laid off while unprepared). For a company however, it is much easier to stay with someone who is unhappy in their relationship [with the company itself], because it’s a one-to-many relationship. They have many other employees they can rely on, and an underperforming or unhappy employee can be easily shadowed by better or happier ones without the company suffering. Is it starting to feel dysfunctional?

In that context, the last question could be the writing on the wall. I'm sorry if I come across as condescending, this is my interpretation: this portrays a person who openly admits is not able to make a commitment and is uncertain of their qualities.

The rest of the post suggests the person is looking for a quick fix instead of long term solution. Today they may like this, tomorrow that, today they do something for someone who pays $1/h, tomorrow maybe something better comes through so screw that $1/h. "Didn't like it anyway and you knew the rules so it's your fault".

I like author's rules. Assuming they stick to them. It might work for some companies so good luck.

As a side note: I was hoping to find the info if the person can raise invoices. Obviously, paying invoices in cryptocurrency might not land well with local tax authorities.

It's baffling to me why so many in this thread are so cynical, when burnout and bullshit like being a "passionate" engineer are so hyped. Of course you need to do some things you might hate doing in any given job. But, software engineering is a stressful and often times unforgiving drudgery. The vast majority of startups and companies serve the most vapid or ethically questionable markets, or are totally opaque in terms of where your value goes. Every startup ever asks you to "believe in it's mission" and that's typically to acquired (but ostensibly to change the world, through handcrafted advertising). If you do participate in the drudgery of programming for one of these hapless corporate entities or pointless startups too long, especially with no other personal reward than money, the thought to end your life or switch careers might cross your mind frequently. Good job OP, I like the idea.