we can play with semantics all you want, but what happens when you have kids to support?
Don’t work. Be hated. Love someone. (2008)
51–60 of 107 posts
Re: Don’t work. Be hated. Love someone. (2008)
#52Couldn't make it past the sexist bull above the fold.
Re: Don’t work. Be hated. Love someone. (2008)
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
Producing art is far more fulfilling than consuming art.
Shame it never seems like that in the short term though.
It's not that it doesn't seem that way. I think people are generally aware that the benefit is greater, but they're also aware that the cost is greater, so it still loses the subconscious cost/benefit analysis. If it were strictly equal in all other respects but more rewarding, everybody would create stuff. But making a video game is way harder and way more expensive than playing one. (This is similar to the reason people drink soda instead of water. They know water is better in the grand scheme of things, but they also know that water means sacrificing temporary happiness for future happiness, and the future happiness doesn't seem enough to compensate.)
Re: Don’t work. Be hated. Love someone. (2008)
#54On work, I believe Steve Jobs put it better:
"You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle."
Re: Don’t work. Be hated. Love someone. (2008)
#55One of the best articles I've read in a long time. I'm 21 and about to graduate. I totally relate to this and am already trying to adopt this way living into my life. My friends often tell me I'm being unrealistic and I'll soon realise that I need to grow up. My plan is to work part-time when I leave university leaving myself all the time I want to work on my own projects and to socialise. That's what makes me happy,…
I'm 22 and I told a couple coworkers at lunch that I wish I could do my job part time, and that I'd give up half my salary to just have all that free time back. They thought I was crazy.
I for one, wish that we could have one career half the week and a completely different career with no overlap the other half of the week.
Re: Don’t work. Be hated. Love someone. (2008)
#56I don't want to trash this essay but I found it disappointing. I think the reason why is that the author had a great theme -- flip common advice around backwards -- but then let it take over his argument to the degree that the substance was really poor. Very unusual for somebody who is a litigator. It is an example of style over logic. Life is not fair and you should do something you love. Birds also sing, mom is a p…
I'm not sure I fully understood your second paragraph, but I found David Foster Wallace's commencement speech to hit the practical advice nail on the head. The story about shopping after work? Pretty brutal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122178211966454607.html
Certainly conveys some sense of 'day in, day out'. I've dithered about reading a Wallace book, mainly because of the length of them.
PS: Do you not have corner shops in the US?
Re: Don’t work. Be hated. Love someone. (2008)
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
My understanding is that the realistic way a musician makes a living without "making it" is session recording and teaching. What's the equivalent of that for comics?
Assuming your write your own material, the rough equivalent for a comic is getting a writing gig. TV shows, for other comedians, etc. You basically write "session" material as a comic the same way a "session" musician would be a hired gun.
Being a writer for a TV show isn't "making it without making it", it's "making it" proper.
Re: Don’t work. Be hated. Love someone. (2008)
#58I don't want to trash this essay but I found it disappointing. I think the reason why is that the author had a great theme -- flip common advice around backwards -- but then let it take over his argument to the degree that the substance was really poor. Very unusual for somebody who is a litigator. It is an example of style over logic. Life is not fair and you should do something you love. Birds also sing, mom is a p…
I'm not sure I fully understood your second paragraph, but I found David Foster Wallace's commencement speech to hit the practical advice nail on the head. The story about shopping after work? Pretty brutal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122178211966454607.html
Thanks for this article. I think it's much better than the original, though I suppose it is to be expected that a novelist would write a better commencement speech than a lawyer. I have to wonder about taking life lessons from someone committed suicide, but since what he wrote felt true despite challenging some of my own preconceptions (while reinforcing others -- clever!) I suppose it might approximate something like wisdom. I recognized myself particularly in this passage:
Worship your intellect, being seen as smart -- you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out.
Re: Don’t work. Be hated. Love someone. (2008)
#59Work is anything that you are compelled to do. By its very nature, it is undesirable. The speaker draws a dichotomy between work and play, as he defines these terms, with work being things done under compulsion and play being things done based on desire (and especially passionate desire). His theme is a clarion call to shape your life, and the way you make a living, around things you love to do and to avoid dying a s…
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Re: Don’t work. Be hated. Love someone. (2008)
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm 22 and I told a couple coworkers at lunch that I wish I could do my job part time, and that I'd give up half my salary to just have all that free time back. They thought I was crazy.
I for one, wish that we could have one career half the week and a completely different career with no overlap the other half of the week.
I do that. I'm a freelance developer part time, and a freelance musician part time. It's difficult, and way more work than just doing one or the other. You have to constantly guard your ability to do it -- if you let them, people will demand your absolute full time devotion to them. But I've found when you lay out th rules early on, they usually accept that they can't have you body and soul. If not, they weren't a good employer for you anyway.