Needleminder

Do what you love for a job,

and you'll never work a day in your life.
-- Somebody

Who actually said this? Google will suggest Mark Twain or Confucius, two people who already bear the weight of all of the world's twee phrases. Does it matter who said it? It's nice to think that it came from a famous and successful person, because it gives you the idea that you, too could be happy like them.

Is there any truth to this little gem we've been told our whole lives?

Guess what, dear dreamers?

The psychological gap between working in a cafe because it’s fun and romantic and doing the exact same thing because you have to is enormous. Within weeks, Lily and I—previously ensconced in an enviably stress-free marriage—were at each other’s throats.
-- Michael Idov

The restaurant was taking its toll on me. I drank too much. I slunk around like a ghost, my chest hurting, my heart rattling weirdly in my rib cage like a stone in a coffee tin. I was grinding my molars throughout the day. At night, my anxiety mutated into something worse. Overstimulated and soaked in sweat, I would thrash feverishly in bed. My thoughts would get caught in a vicious feedback loop, the restaurant playlist repeating over and over in my head, garbled conversations with customers churning endlessly.
-- Robert Maxwell

The most dangerous species of owner, however — a true menace to himself and others — is the one who gets into the business for love. Love for the song stylings of George Gershwin (always wanted a place where they could present the cabaret music they adore), love for the regional cuisine of rural Mexico (and it'll be authentic, too! No frozen margaritas!), love of eighteenth-century French antiques (I need a restaurant so people can see them, see what good taste I have!), love for that great Bogie film they have all that memorabilia from. These poor fools are the chum of the restaurant biz, ground up and eaten before most people even know they were around. Other operators feed on these creatures, lying in wait for them to fold so they can take over their leases, buy their equipment, hire away their help.
-- Anthony Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential

What if you're like, smart?

That's a good start, right?

Generally, every aspect of the publishing and book industries, including writers, agents, publishing employees, librarians, and booksellers are overworked and underpaid. Unless you're Stephen King or already famous, you don't make money off of books. We do it for sheer love of the game.
-- gudgercollege

Can we even afford to be smart?

This month, average reading scores for high school seniors — released by the Nation’s Report Card — fell to their lowest level since 1992. It was the first time that 12th graders had taken the test since the COVID pandemic, and the results showed a widening gap between the highest- and lowest-achieving students.
...
But one of the primary factors is related, I think, to funding — that in our country, funding is tied in many places to property taxes, which leads to inequitable levels of funding for different students. And so students that come from low SES backgrounds are more likely to go to under-resourced schools, as well as to receive less supports outside of school.
-- Samantha Laine Perfas, Harvard Staff Writer

Well, what if you're just already smart? What about academia?

In the field of history, there are more than twice as many Ph.D.s produced each year than there are jobs advertised.
-- Megan Kate Nelson

Contribute to society!

Wouldn't it be a noble job to help those in need?

When I searched for EMT positions in Chicago, American Ambulance has an immediate opening at $18-$20/hour for day shift.
OR
You can go work at Panda Express for $16-$18/hour.
-- sandwichman7896

Then we should lower fast food wages, right?

My father had a medical emergency yesterday (he is stable and recovering). The EMTs, alongside my mom, saved his life. I’m guessing they saved 5 or 6 more during their shift yesterday. Average EMT starting pay is $28k a year, not enough to afford a standard Chicago 2br apartment.
-- Jason Coupet

I can't afford to live like this. Maybe I should give up my dreams and pursue cancer research, something actually important.

I see you’ve posted this in several places and will no doubt get a lot of different thoughts. There are many reasons that this is not a good idea. Chief among them is that it is a long road to climb where you will spend years and years making far less than 100k. Also as much as there is a societal thought that we don’t have enough researchers, this is not true. There is a huge glut of researchers, and the bottleneck is funding, either federal or commercial, and we are currently in a cycle of industry downtown where every day in this and other biotech subs you can see thousands of people being laid off. Do not make this switch thinking there is some glory in grinding away your years in a thankless and oversaturated field.
-- updootorbust

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PBS is funded by public television stations.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB; stylized in all lowercase as cpb) was an American non-profit corporation created under the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 to promote and help support public broadcasting in the United States.[3][4] The corporation's mission was to ensure universal access to non-commercial, high-quality educational, cultural, and other content and telecommunications services.[5]

PBS is funded by public television stations.

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