Thread by @ajlkn

If this is you:

"Wow I've been following your work for a while and it's inspired me soooo much I'm gonna quit my stable 9-5 job with healthcare/benefits/etc and build a kickass web app"

OMFG STOP

Some important facts about me: 👇

1. I've *never* had a real/regular job, nor was I ever forced to. My family wasn't wealthy by any means, but they (literally) put in the extra hours to make sure their kids could focus entirely on getting the education they never did

2. While getting said education, I lucked out and pretty much fell into this line of work while in school, and it actually became profitable enough for me to keep doing it once I got out

3. Right around that time (mid 2000s-ish) I lucked out *again* and caught (and subsequently rode) a few waves/trends that made a decent amount of money, the vast majority of which I shoved into a savings account

4. By the time I was ready to move on to my next thing (early/mid 2010s), I had healthy savings, minimal debt, and could easily focus on that next thing

5. ... and by the time I was ready to begin on the thing that would come after that (Carrd), I had an even *more* stable financial position, *no* debt, zero stress, and could easily focus on a potentially more risky endeavor

Here's the point:

Work ethic/skill/whatever definitely played in a role in getting me here, but IMO more than that was the hand I was dealt (which, let's be honest, was a far better one than I deserved)

That's not to say you can't do way more with way less (MANY have), but don't put folks like me on a pedestal and base lifechanging decisions on semimotivational tweets from a rando with a johnny mnemonic avatar. You're only getting half the story (+ not the half you need to hear)

That said, if you're still into the idea of pursuing a career as a serial side projector, my DMs are always open if you want sober, realistic advice and gif tips

/end

Addendum/full disclosure:

I didn't always feel this way. In fact, a few years into lucking out on those trends (mid/late 2000s) I went from:

"Whoa can't believe I can actually make money doing this"

to:

"Wow I'm a goddamn genius look at meeeeeeeeee"

In other words, as things became more successful I bought into my own hype, reinterpreting what was really just a series of fortunate circumstances into some grand scheme I *must* have intuitively concocted cause hey look at how successful I am *now*, clearly I'm a goddamn genius

= lol no. I was simply riding a wave, not creating one, but my head was too far up my ass to believe it

Of course, things inevitably began to decline (early 2010s) and that was enough to snap me back to reality, do some serious self-reflection, and get my head out of my ass and back into the game (where it *mostly* remains to this day)

Anyway this is neither here nor there, but I just wanted to make it clear my views on this stuff come from actually experiencing the other way of thinking and the total mind fuckery that comes with it

/ actual end (prolly)