I greatly respect the writer of this article (Tina Brown), however the post left a bad taste in my mouth. I disagree that workers being independent is disempowering (she didn't say it explicitly, but she said people were struggling), or that it has to be annoying for the businesses employing them.

My unsubstantiated hunch is that she's writing this from a mildly older-industry perspective, and that those businesses and workers might be struggling more with this. I have many friends (in admittedly newer industries) who are thriving as independents. Not just financially, but the freedom and opportunity it gives them to travel and challenge themselves is great. Sometimes they take well paying gigs, sometimes they work for peanuts on crazy projects.

I guess I just disagree with the "attitude" of the article. That independence isn't something to "settle" for, but something to strive for. She writes like it's a result of a bad economy, but I think many kinds of work would be headed in this direction anyway, even if the economy were sailing.