Have you ever read Bukowski before writing this? He worked odd jobs he loathed to support himself. He was fired often. He spent part of his life homeless.

> it is ok to just work to make money, and find meaning in other parts of your life.

That you have to make that clear is a testament to how crazy work and more specifically developer culture is these days.

It seems like people just get stuck with the contradiction that if they are good people, they must care about others, but they don't like doing things for other people.

I've noticed that a lot of people in IT seem to gravitate towards a position in which they have power...to say "no". If you like saying "yes", you will go down a different road. And yes, I know the typical responses to that and why you shouldn't do that.

I'll say this, though. I hate development less than I would one of Rowe's jobs.

Is it to create a piece of (truly) original artistic expression?

Or is it to... put food on the table?

Both are perfectly valid. But -- as you are correct in noting -- quite different.

So, there is a choice available for creative people who don't wish to compromise: They can be fully into their work at the expense of the above cultural norms - perhaps if they are very successful in their niche they can have those things too, but there could be a very long or infinite period of their lives where this is not possible - that's the sacrifice.

I'm so sick of the 'I can't do XYZ because I have kids and a mortgage' talk - well maybe you should have thought about the long term ramifications of kids and a mortgage?

I meant your goal in choosing to do creative work, obviously.

Not in a hierarchy-of-needs sense.

Otherwise, when will you pursue your art? In the next life?