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Risto_Saarelma comments on I'm About as Good as Dead: the End of Xah Lee - Less Wrong
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A warning for people whose main skill is being clever on the Internet.
More a warning to people who aren't taking care of business.
Being clever on the internet, particularly with a developed body of material, should be quite an asset. Yet he has obviously failed to leverage that asset, or any of his other assets, properly.
Main problem - the guy was putting up a front with the people he knew, and was committed to projecting that image more than evaluating his options and taking action to improve his situation.
I had hoped his post would spark more constructive discussion of what to do in his situation, and how to avoid putting yourself in that situation in the first place. His skills and failings seem extreme versions of a lot of people here, including myself.
That's a really good point, especially for those who decide to make their living outside of the common "get safe job" paradigm, which to be fair isn't all that robust (at least in the US), either.
I've noticed myself that the anxiety I feel about losing a key component of my business has decreased immensely over the last few years, even though the risk is either the same or slightly higher. Even as a kid I used to feel strange about that. I was scared of big spiders, so whenever I'd catch one in my bed, I'd be terrified for the next couple of days and then completely dismiss it on an emotional level afterwards.
I'm not sure of how to effectively protect myself against that. It seems obvious to me that the current mapping of motivation/anxiety to risk, i.e. abrupt jumps from baseline activity into overdrive once an arbitrary and often foreseeable threshold is met, is pretty bad. However, beyond developing better habits, willpower and networks and having that bleed into not procrastinating on insurance against boring risks, is there really anything useful to do about it?
To combat anxiety, you need financial security - savings, low expenses, and probably most importantly, some source of revenue you can call on with confidence, even if it's a good deal lower than what you can earn in better circumstances. You need to know that come what may, you won't be living under a bridge.
The thing that struck me about this guy was that he appeared to have some skills - how could he translate them into quick cash?
Wouldn't that be handy? Some market to peddle your wares that you have confidence you could quickly bring in cash? I think that fella needs to find such a market now. Get cash in the door. He doesn't have time to get the career job - he needs cash now. Once he stabilizes his situation, he can work on getting better paying jobs.
My brother in law drives a limo. Somebody always needs a ride, even when the economy is down, and he can spend as much time as he wants trying to find them.
Seems like that guy should be able to find low paying consulting/tutoring work in a hurry. He probably should contact some government/social group about his impending eviction. My understanding is that it's pretty hard to evict someone, and he has a bit more time than he seems to think.