Why I No Longer Work for the Man

As if the answer to that question isn’t glaringly obvious, otherwise known as the surprising truth about what motivates us:

This clip brings together so many of the different things I have been writing about, from the end of economics and incentives inviting abuse, to the emerging attention economy.

I have remarkable skills in writing, teaching, design and programming. There’s no either-or here, I’ve done it all. You would think that such broad experience and proven ability would be a virtual guarantee of rewarding and lasting employment yet in my experience it is almost the opposite.

It’s actually very hard to find jobs that are a good fit for me; nearly impossible to find work that balances all the things I find myself doing, including (but not limited to) writing, editing, interaction design, programming and development of web interfaces, command line tools, data visualizations and awesome bespoke publishing and content management tools. Sounds fantastic, doesn’t it? But most of my work happens in the spaces in-between, my interesting apps are locked behind firewalls, intranets, and login screens. And of course it’s hard to really show all this visibly; my abilities are seemingly impossible for many people in this industry to wrap their heads around. Specialists have it much easier.

Yet if such things are not so easy, that’s fine. Through my strange mashup of experience and knowledge, I have come to the conclusion that the only way I can move forward is to take responsibility for myself and my own future directly. People told me it would be impossible to progress with design, programming and writing. Pick one and stick with it, they said. Well fuck that. I’m not going to stop. Not necessarily for any ideological reason, more that I just can’t help myself. I am simply curious about a massive variety of things, which translates to a need to find out how these things work and experiment by building and doing.

I tried to quit web design three times over the last decade, but found myself going back to it without even consciously realizing that was what I was doing. I tried to quit programming last year to write a novel, but the lure of paid employment clashed with my motivation to create, and I eventually realized that I simply cannot stop writing code.

My overall goal is to become energized and excited from everything that I do, no matter what it is. I strive to gain a sense of balance and satisfaction by engaging in the entire process of creating, launching, and curating creative projects from beginning to end.

I believe that such positive life changes can only happen when I am able to choose when and how I work, what I work on, and who I work with. Collaborating and communicating directly with like minded people, and building direct connections with audiences and clients without intermediaries or the expectations of an employer seems to be the only possible way for me to work that feels morally, creatively and intellectually sound.

This isn’t a new thing. It is something that I have always aimed to do, but for various overcomplicated reasons, my particular journey hasn't led to the fullness of such an opportunity occurring properly in my life until now.

On the 1st June 2010, I will get up in the morning and walk down to one of my favorite cafes in the Wrangelkiez. I won’t have a fixed time to start work, no boss or a manager waiting on me. No stream of emails, IM’s or bug reports whining about someone elses product. Finally – all I will have is my own headspace and my own creative focus.

Now I have the deeper motivation, the space—a great apartment in a great neighbourhood—and the independence to focus all my energy on developing personal projects. To do this properly, all I need is the time, and I feel the best way to make this time count properly involves more than just walking away from a day job - it requires total obliteration of the very concept of having a day job to begin with.

It is a little daunting to abruptly sever the financial security of the design-technology consulting I have been doing. There are all kinds of questions and insecurities and concerns. I’m really not in it for the money but my rent doesn’t pay itself. I will need to start exploring emerging opportunities for supporting income streams from a foundation built on open code, open data, and open content (that’s just how I roll).

I don’t know what the major outcome of this time focus is going to be—but do I know this exactly—making awesome stuff and helping people understand complex things in more simple ways is primarily what I want to be doing, and I intend to be doing this for as long as I can, as far as possible.