> You folks do realize that there is more to life than work > right? > If i spent my holidy weekends working on projects...i'd go > frickin' nuts, seriously.
Well here goes... I find my day-job unrewarding and often stressful... No big surprise there, I know... and a lot of people would say "it's work, what do you expect"... But I genuinely enjoy programming... or... to clarify -- I don't find programming deeply fulfilling (actually, I rather dislike if not detest a number of aspects of the job, like planned obsolescence and promoting the technologies I believe to be most involved in the continual deterioration of human contact). Mostly, I dislike feeling that my job is a treadmill... And, this is the feeling I've had from really most of my day-jobs, most of the time... What happens? I get up in the morning, I drive to an office where I'm surrounded by people who have an abject lack of care for my personal well-being (my current job is an exception in this regard), where I'm bombarded 8hrs per day with unreasonable deadlines and usually a collection of clients who're used to being able to continually increase the workload without altering those deadlines _or_ changing my income any. At the end of the day, I walk home with a head-full of hassle and enough money to pay my rent and eat... and that's _IT_... I don't earn enough to save any money toward paying for an attorney to finalize my divorce (or anything else I might need or want)... I get zero equity. And then the job ends for one reason or another (several companies I've worked for have bellied-up) and I'm up the creek because now I have mounting bills and no income and no savings... This is how I'm now $30k in debt for child-support. It's not a choice -- it's not just because I'm lazy or unwilling or even uninterested in paying the child-support (although I do think the monthly amount is insane). But I do get enjoyment (if not deep fulfillment) out of programming. When I'm able to "innovate" and make things happen faster and/or better for myself, and then share that with others, that makes me happy in a "living for the moment" sense. When I work on my own projects also, I'm able to produce work which is by and large not riddled with the sorts of Gordian knotts I find in the applications I work with at my day job, and so I'm able to accomplish a lot more in a much shorter period of time and actually feel quite accomplished, as opposed to the "I've just staved off a massive ass-chewing session" feeling I get after a few hours of a day-job (again -- that doesn't really apply so much with my current job). Now... if I didn't have kids and I weren't $30k in arrears child support, I would be able to save some of the money I earn... Quite a bit actually, as the state demands now $1800/mo in child support from me, which is more than half my income. If I'd never been married, I'd be happy to just invest the extra money I make toward retiring early to a commune somewhere... That not being the case I have two options: 1) continue to work away at the treadmill for other people, repairing bogus garbage and not making any headway toward a life of my own (God, woudln't that be nice), or 2) spend every waking moment working toward some alternative solution which would allow me to earn my own income, independant of a 9-5 salaried job with a company that doesn't care whether I live of die or if I end up living under a bridge, because I represent to them only a replaceable "machine part" for generating their money (not mine). So not being a fan of people who whine about their problems but don't do anything about them, I chose the latter option... the current plan is to develop an array of small-ticket products that I can sell... I'ts not a "wow" plan, but I'm hopeful it will be fruitful anyway. If I weren't I'm not sure what I'd so, since I love my kids too much to kill myself. (Judith: don't worry, I'm just making a point.) My first two long-term plans died due to either a dying industry (that was never really large enough to support my objectives anyway), or my inability to insinuate myself into an environment that would allow me to get investment money. The new plan, while not as fun as the first and not as impressive as the last is I think significantly more realistic as it doesn't rely on my acquiring any kind of investment money or spontaneously creating increased demand in an industry that's losing demand every day. That answer your question? Spiders be damned. s. isaac dealey 954.522.6080 new epoch : isn't it time for a change? add features without fixtures with the onTap open source framework http://www.fusiontap.com http://coldfusion.sys-con.com/author/4806Dealey.htm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Purchase RoboHelp from House of Fusion, a Macromedia Authorized Affiliate and support the CF community. http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=59 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:172336 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
