What do you do fora living [WARNING: Numbers included]

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morbo wrote:

Self employed. Started a business recently. Wish me luck, it's kinda hard to start from scratch in socialist crapholes (the GOV wants to gut you ASAP and as much as possible, to fill in the leaking welfare holes & pay its army of undead bureaucrats)

Well talk about numbers next year :P

16 months have passed, how are things going man :)

Necro thread!

Anyone notice that the most egotistical and pretentious hyper active posters on the PoE forums didn't comment in this thread?

Even though this thread is necrotic I will answer:

Im working in food industry as normal factory worker.

My earning vary but estimated is about 25 000e. Maybe little less.

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Manocean wrote:

Anyone notice that the most egotistical and pretentious hyper active posters on the PoE forums didn't comment in this thread?

Because they live with their parents and the topic is n/a to them?


I am self employed. Financial services. I am hoping to diversity soon though and start another business.

Have you published more works beyond Blackcloak?

I worked 61 days in my life and that's it.

I help people occasionally though, does that count?

Peace,

-Boem-

That’s awesome. I am 100% hoping you decide to do another limited hardcover publication. I know, I know, it’s not finished yet, but it will be :) I believe in you!

An odd sentiment (hear me out): I have yet to read Blackcloak. I have this tendency to save things for when they will matter most. A friend once gave me a small bag of pistachios, which I left sit for several months until the night I forgot to eat anything, was too late to make a meal, but I really needed a snack. I could’ve eaten them any night before hand, just because, but I knew there’d eventually be a night where I’d be very grateful to have them. Similarly, I have done some light gaming, periodic reading, but nothing like how I used to, not devour, but allow a book to devour me. There’s currently not enough time in a week to commit to the experience your labor deserves. I am (have been, for three years) working double time to build something really great for my family. Your book has a permanent spot in my bookcase*, so that it is there when I’ve earned enough time to rest and allow myself to become wholly consumed by the world you’ve crafted. I seriously look forward to it.

*A bookcase which, by the way, I have way more books than I have shelf space for. It is right next to my complete hardcover Harry Potter series and paperback Ender’s Game series, two institutions of my adolescence.

In re: self actualization: I work nights in a factory. It’s a good blue collar job, with a great company that just keeps growing and growing. The pay isn’t going to get me a retirement for two, but the job has taught me self respect in a way I desperately needed to learn, and it is enough that it paves a clear enough path forward. I’ve developed a niche that is valuable to the company, and I know the work itself is valuable too. We produce joy and fond memories for people all over the country. At some point, I am either going to have to advance or move on, but for now I really appreciate what I’ve got.

As for fulfillment, it is important that you can see the value in your labor, whatever it is you do. There’s more to it, though. Personally, I have suffered a lot in my life (you can tell, I’m a very negative-focused conversationalist), and I have decided that it is my purpose in this world to ease the suffering around me. I don’t take this as a mandate to involve myself in every little problem, fuck that, instead I go out of my way to create a healthier environment around me and invite people to participate in it. No matter where I wind up, even if I’m knocked down a peg rather than climbing a rung up, it’ll be okay because my fulfillment doesn’t come from money, but experiences.

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鬼殺し wrote:

Newps, working on the second right now, having resumed about a week ago and moving at an acceptable pace. Had a long-ass hiatus due to said illness. Second is much harder. First book you tend to pour as much in as you can because you're not sure if there'll be more. You use a lot of your tricks. You draw on a lot of life experiences because that's the easiest way to do it. Whether you know it or not, that first book takes the longest because you've technically been writing it your whole life.

I had a block that I had to talk to someone about (my bestie, not a therapist or anything) to get past. A weird situation where I just couldn't tell what the characters would do. Normally I can. Normally it's like watching things unfold and all I'm doing is recording them. But in this case, the situation was so unnatural I was like...what does she say next? And him?...it all felt really mechanical and forced whenever I'd try. I had to lay it all out verbally with a sympathetic ear before realising in the process I'd described what happens next to my friend, who genuinely had no idea what I was on about but was happy to pour the wine. That was an incredible feeling!

So no, but it's coming. Really moving nicely now. I can't wait because the first third uses a city I built for a bunch of Rpers back in the early 2000s on IRC, so the setting feels very alive and very real.

Hey, you asked.

You may have already used this technique, but in case you haven't -

If you hit that wall writing, and it just seems like nothing is working, try talking it out loud with someone you trust or whose opinion you value. Even if they don't understand the plot/characters/theme, the process of explaining it and explaining the problem can make things more clear in your own mind. They may have a question or a suggestion that lets you look at things in a new light, and then suddenly your inspiration is back.

Good luck on your future books.

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鬼殺し wrote:

I have wrestled with this a lot. A LOT. What makes a good person? What does a person have to do to look in the mirror and say, 'I'm not an embarrassment to my species'? Is it as simple as getting a job and going to that job and paying your taxes? Is it making a family and raising another generation of people who will go through, by and large, what we've been through? Is it being available for loved ones when and if they need us? Is it donating money to charities?

This isn't really philosophical -- I'm not talking about the heavier ideas of good or evil. Perhaps a better term for it would be 'self-satisfaction'. Do we live up to our own standards?

Am I a bad person for not having a job and thus not contributing to a company which in turn no doubt contributes to the overall movements of the world? Do I need that for self-satisfaction? In my case, not really. I've never had a job you'd consider indispensable or character-defining. I always worked hard when I needed to but I was under no illusions I was changing the world for the better, not even one iota.

On the other hand, if a friend is, say, moving house and needs a hand, I'm there. Even though physically I'm far from the top pick, it's important to me to be useful and used by those I care about. That's my self-satisfaction. It is definitely a case of privilege, that I can self-satisfy in a way that doesn't involve money.

But how much do I have to give before my lack of gainful employment is off-set?

That is what I can't figure out.

Not sure if that was a response to your own "i don't work" or to my "i only worked 61 days in my life"?

But as far as logic goes for me on that philosophical front, my family has money enough to sustain me.
Maybe i should mention that i don't drink, i don't party and i don't indulge i am very cheap simply sustaining myself.

So i told my dad when i was 14, "why should i go work and take the job of another human being, possibly with a family and children depending on him, when we can sustain fine without me working"

15 years later and he still isn't capable of giving me an answer to that.

To me "working" in the current society is just "war" between humans while placing the responsibility of the unhappiness a few steps away from yourself.
At least in war, if you want something, you simply crack the skull of the person holding it and look them in the eyes.
In our society, when you take a job, somebody else fails to get a job. Maybe he has children that are unhappy since they can't be provided for, a wife that's upset due to this.

I always think nothing really changes over time, just the visuals and outer layers, but people are still as barbaric as a thousand years ago, they just got good at playing dress-up and distancing themselves from the responsibility of their actions.

Peace,

-Boem-

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Spartacus1337 wrote:

16 months have passed, how are things going man :)

Oh, thanks for asking. Still going on and doing ok. Slightly above of what my average countrymen earn (which is not that much in "south-eastern" Europe), but still far away from any long term financial security. Need to save and invest more ;)

E:

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Boem wrote:

But as far as logic goes for me on that philosophical front, my family has money enough to sustain me.

That's great if you can sustain exclusively from your (family's) wealth. But in case of any governmental assistance, the question then becomes: "why should that other human be taxed more, to pay for me".

If people would ask this question more, instead of the usual "I'm poor, give me stuff", then we would have better societies everywhere (not just in northern Europe ;)). Something along the lines: ask what you can do for your country, not what your country can do for you (isn't it funny that a democrat said these words?)