Try Not To Get A Job
During a meeting on basic income in the UK in 2015, Brian Eno has identified the need to earn a living as the biggest obstacle to generating intelligence in creative communities. He talked about how he advocates for students not to have jobs:
Try not to get a job. That doesn’t mean “try not to do anything”. It means “try to leave yourself in a position where you do the things that you want to do with your time, and where you take maximum advantage of your whatever your possibilities are”.
In the YouTube comments, user @yourmomsdaddy9130 replied:
I’ve been a musician since the age of 14, and i’ve always worked the day job to make ends meet. The best advice I can give is to live as cheap as possible: small apartment or house, old used or no car if you can make that work, lowest amount of bills possible, and then work as little as possible so you spend most of your time at your craft. I learned this from reading Aleister Crowley.
I couldn’t find the book, but I like the idea of the connection between frugality and creativity. When you don’t have much, it’s easier to get bored. And when you’re bored, there’s room in your head for new things to sprout.
If happiness is the ability to interact with the world in one’s own way through creative practices, not having a job means not having to maintain things that do not contribute to creativity. Hence, happiness comes from caring less about such things.
The idea of not having a job sounds utopian, unless you inherit a fortune or suddenly find a new deposit of rare resources. The idea of not having a job sounds utopian, unless you inherit a fortune or suddenly find a new deposit of rare resources. But the attitude toward work itself can certainly be challenged. Here’s an insightful tip from Moxie Marlinspike:
Reply via Email or MastodonMy career advice usually falls within the framework of doing the absolute minimum amount of work necessary to prevent starvation, and then doing something that’s not about money, completely outside of supporting structures, and not simply a matter of “consuming experience” with the remaining available time.