Re:How do you answer, when are you going to get a real job?
by DanielBMarkham on Thursday September 13, 2007 @05:04PM
(#54406)
I'm an old fart (42) who's been working for myself in various capacities for 20 years. I find there are two people that ask the question.
1) The jealous/conformist. They are asking you why you are not participating in the rest of the system as they understand it. A polite smile (as you would give an idiot or child) and a "So far things are going really well. I find I don't really need a regular job" works, because it lets them feel like they know what a "regular" job is an reinforces their value system. It also makes them even more jealous, and that's a nice benefit.
2) People who just don't understand. My mom and stepdad fall into this category. They don't mean anything -- they simply have no concept of how a person could exist without working for some other organization. I've been working on my parents for the entire 20 years, to little effect. With these people, just be patient. An 80-year-old without a computer is not going to understand Web 2.0 no matter what. So it's not like even if you had a "job" they would even understand then. To them, you'll probably always be sitting around playing pong or watching Star Trek TOS and having money for some strange reason.
1) The jealous/conformist. They are asking you why you are not participating in the rest of the system as they understand it. A polite smile (as you would give an idiot or child) and a "So far things are going really well. I find I don't really need a regular job" works, because it lets them feel like they know what a "regular" job is an reinforces their value system. It also makes them even more jealous, and that's a nice benefit.
2) People who just don't understand. My mom and stepdad fall into this category. They don't mean anything -- they simply have no concept of how a person could exist without working for some other organization. I've been working on my parents for the entire 20 years, to little effect. With these people, just be patient. An 80-year-old without a computer is not going to understand Web 2.0 no matter what. So it's not like even if you had a "job" they would even understand then. To them, you'll probably always be sitting around playing pong or watching Star Trek TOS and having money for some strange reason.