An intractable question?
A lot of my friends have been linking to this Onion article: Find The Thing You're Most Passionate About, Then Do It On Nights And Weekends For The Rest Of Your Life
This is... relevant to mah interests?
I'm not sure there's a good response to this. Clearly some people managed to align their passions with what is actually lucrative -- or manage to pursue their passion on nights and weekends until it becomes lucrative. The vast majority don't, however, and therein lies the black humor of this article.
Let's be honest, most passions can never be lucrative. Being a writer might some day make you a livable sum of money. Being a poet, however? Not so much.
Is this ever something that can be fixed? I'm not sure it was ever better at any point in history, unfortunately. Looking back to feudal/Renaissance era, the idle rich nobility never had to worry about this, naturally, but then you had the 80-90% of the population who had no hope of ever rising out of the dirt they planted.
This reminds me: this past weekend I saw A Raisin in the Sun. There's a lot in that play about the conflict between the human urge to better oneself, be generative vs. the need to make a living. The parts I identified with most were in the first act, when Walter Lee is railing against his wife and mother for crushing his dreams, for the fact that he has to go to work as a chaffeur every day just to support his family. The family's social class is as significant as their racial background; poverty means that no one's dreams are getting fulfilled, and when they do come into money, it really becomes a question of who wins the dream jackpot.
I suppose this is where someone like Brust would say that socialism is the answer. I'm not sure I buy that, either.
Incidentally, this article explains well why I feel so strongly about a) trimming unnecessary commitments from my life, and b) (when I can manage it) writing first thing in the morning. Then it feels like you are doing the most important thing first.
There is an upside, though. I dunno about you, but I find it very difficult to get anything meaningful done with unfettered free time. There's something to be said about having structure to your day.
Since that was a pretty drear post, have some pictures of a capybara mothering some dachshund puppies.
This is... relevant to mah interests?
I'm not sure there's a good response to this. Clearly some people managed to align their passions with what is actually lucrative -- or manage to pursue their passion on nights and weekends until it becomes lucrative. The vast majority don't, however, and therein lies the black humor of this article.
Let's be honest, most passions can never be lucrative. Being a writer might some day make you a livable sum of money. Being a poet, however? Not so much.
Is this ever something that can be fixed? I'm not sure it was ever better at any point in history, unfortunately. Looking back to feudal/Renaissance era, the idle rich nobility never had to worry about this, naturally, but then you had the 80-90% of the population who had no hope of ever rising out of the dirt they planted.
This reminds me: this past weekend I saw A Raisin in the Sun. There's a lot in that play about the conflict between the human urge to better oneself, be generative vs. the need to make a living. The parts I identified with most were in the first act, when Walter Lee is railing against his wife and mother for crushing his dreams, for the fact that he has to go to work as a chaffeur every day just to support his family. The family's social class is as significant as their racial background; poverty means that no one's dreams are getting fulfilled, and when they do come into money, it really becomes a question of who wins the dream jackpot.
I suppose this is where someone like Brust would say that socialism is the answer. I'm not sure I buy that, either.
Incidentally, this article explains well why I feel so strongly about a) trimming unnecessary commitments from my life, and b) (when I can manage it) writing first thing in the morning. Then it feels like you are doing the most important thing first.
There is an upside, though. I dunno about you, but I find it very difficult to get anything meaningful done with unfettered free time. There's something to be said about having structure to your day.
Since that was a pretty drear post, have some pictures of a capybara mothering some dachshund puppies.