Comment by cryoshon | Hacker News Reader

Comment by cryoshon | Hacker News Reader

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>“I just want to read about things that interest me, have conversations, use it all to inform my understanding of the world, and share what I’ve learned.”

yep, this sums up my wants as well. the thing is, people don't pay for that unless you're already established or the thing you want to learn and talk about is hot. and hot things cool, so you'll need to find new interests that people find hot to learn about. etc.

but there's a huge upshot to self employment as i see it that the author didn't mention: you don't have to hide.

you don't have to hide your time from your bosses.

you don't have to hide your interviewing with other places.

you don't have to hide your sense of humor to avoid offending coworkers.

you don't have to hide your wisdom or knowledge for fear of messing up the office political situation.

you don't have to hide your true values anymore; you don't have to pretend to care about the company.

sure, you lose some stability, but who cares. stability is too often another word for stagnation.

I discovered the same concept when being self-driven for an extended period. I would sum it up as saying freelance allowed me to be "my most authentic self" and it was phenomenal.

There's something about employment - sometimes it's the employers, sometimes the culture, mostly ourselves - that leads to a certain form of inauthenticity. Maybe this is what's know as "professionalism"?

However, I did find after this realization that I was able to shape my next career choices around maintaining that authenticity with a high level of success (albeit, not perfectly).

>There's something about employment ... that leads to a certain form of inauthenticity.

It starts with the first damn question of the first damn interaction: "Why do you want to work here?"

Yeah. "I'm hoping you will give me more money for less work/irritation than other options I have, and/or will let me gain experience to land a job somewhere else that asks even less of me while paying me even more money" doesn't go over well, but everyone involved knows that's the honest answer for 9/10 or more of applicants, unless you're one of the rare employers doing something actually interesting or fulfilling on a macro level.

The degree of dishonesty surrounding all business and employment, even in the best cases, makes me really uncomfortable, being so totally at odds with the way I was raised. Some of it's so pervasive that people don't seem to notice until you point it out, then usually try to come up with excuses for it. Coming to terms with all the lying has taken years, and I still don't like it.

It makes me feel nauseous just thinking about it, just the fakeness of it all. And we have to do it to survive. Holden Caulfield irritation of "phoneys" comes to mind.

Interview idea: Honestly and bluntly tell the potential employee the worst things about working for your company, _then_ ask them why they want to work there. I bet you would get some really telling information out of their answer, and if you haven't scared them off maybe they'll be more likely to stick around.

I just want to read about things that interest me, have conversations, use it all to inform my understanding of the world, and share what I’ve learned

Isn't this essentially a definition of leisure time? It's at least salon culture[1].

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salon_(gathering)

Sounds like you've only worked for bad managers and companies, which admittedly isn't too hard to do in one's career.

There are employers that give the best of both worlds.

>There are employers that give the best of both worlds.

sure, i believe it. i may have even worked for one at some point.

but (straying from the original discussion substantially) that just trips other red flags for me, like selling your labor for a pittance while the company gets a disproportionate share of the value from your time spent with them.

Not many, I spent a long period freelancing on short jobs, more than 250 customers and I could count on one hand the number I would want to work for full time.

I've had 2 really great jobs and both were acquired by bad companies.

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