This is great point, that working in some role means 8 hours of experience every day, which you would be unable to get otherwise (if you already have a different day job, and even more so if you have kids).
From the opposite perspective, if you are a community that wants something done, you should find out how to make that a paid job for someone. Because if you do, then you will have a person who gets 8 hours of experience every day. If you don’t… expect low quality, because people will only work on it for a short time once in a while, and even that only after they get home tired from the job that pays their bills.
I wonder what is best if you want to start a job without an employer… something like writing online novels and begging people to support you on Patreon. One option is to do it besides your day job. This is safe, from the financial perspective, but the progress will be slow, for the reasons you mentioned here. Another option is to save some money (enough to live on for a year or two), quit your job, and start working on your new project full-time. There is a risk that you run out of money without making the project profitable enough to pay your bills. But if you have the self-discipline, you can get 8 hours of experience every day, so in a year you will probably do and learn more than you would have otherwise done and learned in a decade. (Of course, if you realize this soon enough, the best moment to start doing something like this is probably during high school.)
From the opposite perspective, if you are a community that wants something done, you should find out how to make that a paid job for someone. Because if you do, then you will have a person who gets 8 hours of experience every day. If you don’t… expect low quality, because people will only work on it for a short time once in a while, and even that only after they get home tired from the job that pays their bills.
Really good point here, and I wish I said this explicitly in the piece. It seems tremendously important for society to allow people to specialize by paying them to do things. I think this point is well-understood in the economics of labor but not often articulated.
Your last paragraph is an excellent distillation of why it can be reasonable (or, at the least, immensely satisfying) to quit your day job and pursue your own project. I never understood my friends who sacrificed high salaries to do this until I realized that they are probably spending quadratically more time doing what they want and learning much more about their desired specialty in the process. While still risky, it does mean that they are likely much more qualified to pivot back to a full-time job in their new area if their own project fails or they tire of it.
This is great point, that working in some role means 8 hours of experience every day, which you would be unable to get otherwise (if you already have a different day job, and even more so if you have kids).
From the opposite perspective, if you are a community that wants something done, you should find out how to make that a paid job for someone. Because if you do, then you will have a person who gets 8 hours of experience every day. If you don’t… expect low quality, because people will only work on it for a short time once in a while, and even that only after they get home tired from the job that pays their bills.
I wonder what is best if you want to start a job without an employer… something like writing online novels and begging people to support you on Patreon. One option is to do it besides your day job. This is safe, from the financial perspective, but the progress will be slow, for the reasons you mentioned here. Another option is to save some money (enough to live on for a year or two), quit your job, and start working on your new project full-time. There is a risk that you run out of money without making the project profitable enough to pay your bills. But if you have the self-discipline, you can get 8 hours of experience every day, so in a year you will probably do and learn more than you would have otherwise done and learned in a decade. (Of course, if you realize this soon enough, the best moment to start doing something like this is probably during high school.)
Really good point here, and I wish I said this explicitly in the piece. It seems tremendously important for society to allow people to specialize by paying them to do things. I think this point is well-understood in the economics of labor but not often articulated.
Your last paragraph is an excellent distillation of why it can be reasonable (or, at the least, immensely satisfying) to quit your day job and pursue your own project. I never understood my friends who sacrificed high salaries to do this until I realized that they are probably spending quadratically more time doing what they want and learning much more about their desired specialty in the process. While still risky, it does mean that they are likely much more qualified to pivot back to a full-time job in their new area if their own project fails or they tire of it.