"I hate being an employee. I want to work on my own projects on my own terms." Is there a word for people like this? A philosophy?
I feel like most people either don't care about their work and find meaning in other areas of life, or are invested in playing the corporate game and enjoy being in that environment. If you tell them that you don't want to be an employee at a company, they look at you like you're speaking a foreign language.
The problem is there isn't any identifiable group of people who are like this. It's not "anti-work"; I can work just as hard as or harder than anyone given the right circumstances. It's orthogonal to any specific political view. "Independent" is too broad. "Anti-establishment" is focused on external factors rather than intrinsic motivations. It would be useful to have a term where you could say "I am X" and it would immediately bring up all the right connotations.
That's interesting. I never thought I was in a weird minority. I thought most people hate their jobs but do them anyway because they can't think of an alternative.
Maybe that is true.
Maybe the degree to which I hate being an employee is just much larger than it is for most people?
The problem is with programming it's really hard to leave your job at the office. It's a deep thinking job so it comes with you to bed whether you like it or not.
Jon Blow has previously (8 years ago) left a comment elaborating how working a job robs you of your potential. I have it saved in my favorites. I read it often to remind myself the importance of going independent.
There's also this essay by Palladium editor in chief about quitting your job. It was posted a while ago to HN to a mostly negative reception because apparently it's too elitist. It's also one of the pieces I keep re-reading periodically.
Maybe I was being a bit melodramatic. More realistically, a lot of people hate their job and exist somewhere on a spectrum between accepting it and trying to change it. I just happen to be biased toward making more radical changes when things aren't motivating me.
That Jon Blow comment resonates with me a lot. Definitely saved for future reference.
I feel like most people either don't care about their work and find meaning in other areas of life, or are invested in playing the corporate game and enjoy being in that environment. If you tell them that you don't want to be an employee at a company, they look at you like you're speaking a foreign language.
The problem is there isn't any identifiable group of people who are like this. It's not "anti-work"; I can work just as hard as or harder than anyone given the right circumstances. It's orthogonal to any specific political view. "Independent" is too broad. "Anti-establishment" is focused on external factors rather than intrinsic motivations. It would be useful to have a term where you could say "I am X" and it would immediately bring up all the right connotations.