Higher Education... worth it? Favorite memories?

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Which leads to the question... are you all doing what you want? What do you want to do? Do any of you periodically return to existential crisis because of the ridiculously over-complex systems we currently must navigate and contradictions we must face?

Yes! Even when I didn't like particulars of the job in question, I really enjoy my career and it would probably be the actual one I could pick if I could do anything. I'm telling you, the machine that gets the eggs out is MAZING.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Trust me, I have tuned down hundreds of offers from people asking me to write a magazine or book article for free -- of course they'll be selling the product and making money off of my content, but they never word it like that. "You'll be getting paid in exposure" is the biggest racket of all time.

One thing I wanted to mention because I have been updating Caltrops with your content is that I have never run an ad that paid me on Caltrops (I did inline an image in the forum for some game Ben likes once, but I did that without the developers ever noticing, I don't think). I can't say I have "never made a dime" from Caltrops because on two occasions in 18 years I received anonymous donation that was enough to cover the hosting of the site, which has been around $150 a year. The Register.com expense is something like $45 a year, so I am very much "in the hole" but that is ok, I like that it is one of the few places left with no ads whatsoever.

If it ever made money I would, of course, try to pay you.

[Flack]

Trust me, I have tuned down hundreds of offers from people asking me to write a magazine or book article for free -- of course they'll be selling the product and making money off of my content, but they never word it like that. "You'll be getting paid in exposure" is the biggest racket of all time.

One thing I wanted to mention because I have been updating Caltrops with your content is that I have never run an ad that paid me on Caltrops (I did inline an image in the forum for some game Ben likes once, but I did that without the developers ever noticing, I don't think). I can't say I have "never made a dime" from Caltrops because on two occasions in 18 years I received anonymous donation that was enough to cover the hosting of the site, which has been around $150 a year. The Register.com expense is something like $45 a year, so I am very much "in the hole" but that is ok, I like that it is one of the few places left with no ads whatsoever.

If it ever made money I would, of course, try to pay you.

Hah, yeah, I wasn't under the impression you were over there doing the backstroke in a swimming pool full of Caltrops gold coins.

I typed a couple of detailed examples here but am replacing them with this more generic paragraph so as not to specifically call out any ghosts from my past. Off the top of my head I can think of at least one author, one newspaper owner, and one magazine who (at different times) hit me up for free content. None of these were Little Rascal style "gosh, let's get together and put on a show" operations. These were publications specifically established for the purpose of selling a product, with the intention of using free submissions as the source of their content. They all share/shared the same business model which, if you drew it out on paper, would have them on the left, dollar signs on the right, and a big meat grinder in the middle with free articles falling into it, feeding the machine.

Here's a great comparison. Imagine someone came up with a business that did home computer repair, and when they started getting clients they just hit up all their friends and asked them to go fix people's computers for free. "Come on man, you work on your own computer all the time, it's not like this is costing you anything. Think of the exposure! People will think you are great at fixing computers!" Then the owner charges the customers $100 and when the money comes in they just spend it. And if the techs ask about getting paid the owner says "sorry man, there are expenses to running a business!"

I still write things for free and send them out all over the place because I enjoy writing. I just have to be more selective about how I spend my time. I guess my original point was that if you want to write free articles for newspapers and magazines then there will be a high demand for your work because you can't beat the price. And if you are looking to get paid as a writer, competition goes up and opportunity goes down.

[loafergirl]

Seems Flack would rather be writing. I was a Creative Writing Major in HS before dropping out, always loved it, love reading now, but don't have any confidence that I could make a career of it. [...] Which leads to the question... are you all doing what you want? What do you want to do?

Would I be a be a writer if it paid my current salary? You betcha. Unfortunately I can't afford to do it, and so I'll have to continue to feed that hunger by writing things on the side... like movie reviews on forums.

Or this response... =)

It was a good read. I knew someone (from a BBS) that used to be a reporter in Dulles for a while, I imagine there's a fair amount of reporting around DC though.

[loafergirl]

The "college experience" can be replicated by going to any bars near a college. Thats literally it.

Ya missing out on that tasty DORM FUCKEN!

Who needs a sock over the door handle when you lived at "the den of teenage sin"?

[loafergirl]

The writing and cartoons are a nice hobby for me but I doubt I could make it pay, as the Mark Twain quote goes. I like making train parts and forklift parts and the company likes me liking to make parts.

My husbands been working on a graphic novel cartoon series... ever done anything like that?

[AArdvark]

The Dr Tacos / Frankenstein drama currently happening in The Troll Room is the closest I've attempted. Franky, its becoming work, I don't have as many opportunities to drink while drawing if I'm to keep the output from slowing down to nothing.

[loafergirl]

The Dr Tacos / Frankenstein drama currently happening in The Troll Room is the closest I've attempted. Franky, its becoming work, I don't have as many opportunities to drink while drawing if I'm to keep the output from slowing down to nothing.

What happened to your wine of the month club?

[AArdvark]

I can't be putting out one panel a month, that's way too slow. I feel guilty if I miss three days in a row. Everyone is eagerly waiting for the next installment and I don't want to disappoint.

[Jizaboz]

Most the dudes at my last job had degrees in journalism. The only time this applied in the IT field was for "UI design", but man did those front end dudes knock it out of the park when faced with some lack of design file BS. I had job in journalism at 21 in 1999 that sort of helped solidify my thoughts on how politics work at the media level.

[Flack]

The only thing my degree got me was more work. I became the de facto spellchecker and the go to guy for writing communications and documentation. The fairly cynical look would be that I spent a lot of money on a degree that got me more work assignments and no raise.