I’ve been told that I’m a good leader. I refuse to get into corporate leadership and instead use those skills to organize unions
This = using your powers for good instead of evil.
That is what a true leader would do!
My cooking. I love to cook, be it simple meals or extravagant dishes, and everyone I know loves to eat my food - which is exactly why I’d never ever do it professionally. I really don’t want to risk losing the enjoyment and relaxation I get from cooking. Being in the kitchen for an hour after i came home from work is my way to unwind after a long day.
Also, cooking as a job fucking sucks. Long hours, low pay, high pressure to get things done fast, and people generally seem to treat each other like shit. Why would you do that to yourself if you had different options?
To the extent of what I know of modern cooking, my country is an outlier. If you walk in a restaurant, there will be one or two dishes ready to serve and from that point forward you can order à la carte.
The first will get you served in a few minutes, the second you get to wait. And there is no point in complaining it’s taking too long, as you’ll get shown the door.
In all my life, the best restaurant I ever went to worked three nights a week, started serving by seven p.m. and closed the kitchen by nine. Last customer out the door by ten thirty, lights out by eleven thirty.
Small room, no menu. If you wanted a specific dish you could request in advance and pay as you’d make you reservation. They would serve around 40 people a night.
Best food and mood I ever had the opportunity and pleasure to enjoy.
I love cooking. Two years ago my wife and I bought a bed and breakfast and it’s been a nice way to make my hobby “professional” while not sucking the joy out of it.
It’s only once a day, and it’s a very small amount of people who you get to actually speak to as opposed to faceless guests in the front half of the restaurant or whatever.
Same here. I’ll spend a couple of hours extra to make more to share with coworkers (who love the desserts I make and are very supportive) but I can’t see myself doing it full time. Maybe a food truck on weekends when I retire
Same. I love trying out different cultures foods, or trying new things with my own cultures. I’ve had people ask me why I don’t do it professionally but reading Kitchen Confidential killed any potential that idea had. I’ve enough mental issues as a graphic designer.
Same. I love the sizzle of grilling meat or the process of sauteeing onions.
I bake. I’m known for making birthday cakes for people.
I just made one November the 15th, and that night I was bombarded with “how much would you charge to bake one of these for-?”
Absolutely not. People are bastards. The instant my baking turns from “thoughtful gift” to something owed, I will be stuck with all the bullshit that entails. No thanks. Delicious, complex, mesmerizing bakes and absolutely zero strings attached thank you very much.
Cooking. I love to cook for my friends and family. I’ve been perfecting my homemade pizza for years. It’s very good and I love to make it for guests.
I’ve had people say I should open a pizzaria, especially since the one good one in town shut down.
Fuck that.
I was a chef for quite a while. I worked my way up from dishwasher to prep cook to line cook to running a dining area to banquet chef to running a program. I burned out because of a boss so fucking awful that I was suicidal for a while right around the time my mom died (it was a whole thing and there’s word vomit with more info in another comment here lol). I completely lost all joy in cooking. That motherfucker killed my passion to cook. It took years to get back to a point where I was excited to cook again.
The best thing I ever did for my passion to cook was quitting the industry to scrub fucking toilets. They say “if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.” Those people don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about, they’re just miserable in a cubicle and speculating about some passion they wish they were capable of, or worse, out of touch wealthy assholes trying to give advice to people they have nothing in common with.
Agreed. Fuck that.
They say “if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.” Those people don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about
Exactly. If you love something, making a career out of it will likely drain your passion. This is why I won’t turn my hobbies into a profession. I hate my job, and I don’t want to risk hating the things I love doing.
I feel this phrase is a pretty sinister one, a tool for the employer to exploit the passion of the employee until they burn out, and making them feel guilty if they don’t do unpaid overtime or something… I don’t know the actual originator of this saying, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it comes from a business owner who exploited their industry.
Totally agree. That pressure was definitely there in food. They thought they were punishing me when they sent me home early and treating me by keeping me there late. Towards the end I did just enough to not get fired and completely shut down once my two weeks notice was given. I now know that I absolutely should’ve just walked out in the middle of a busy moment and fucked that boss over at hard as possible, but I thought I was doing something honorable or some shit.
Everybody out there: you don’t owe your company or boss a goddamn thing. If you have nothing to actually gain from not burning that bridge, napalm the fuck out of it because they’d do the same thing to you the moment it benefited them to do so.
but I thought I was doing something honorable or some shit.
Years ago, when I gave the boss my resignation letter, she asked me to stay longer than the required two weeks so they would have enough time to train my replacement… I was a sucker who stayed for 4 weeks and didn’t even get my last paycheck. I now know this is illegal, but back then I thought if I complained they wouldn’t give me a reference and I would be stuck without a job (low self-esteem makes it really easy for others to exploit you).
Stories like that make me glad when I had the choice as a kid to go to Chef School or to get into Software Eng. I chose Software Eng. At the time it was down to the normal working hours being better for why I chose Tech, but as toxic and exploitive as Tech can be, it just seems to be nowhere near as bad as all of food service.
I still wonder what my life would be like if I had chosen to be a chef, and I still really enjoy cooking.
Haha yes! I love engineering and own an engineering company.
I’m lucky if I can spend 20% of my time doing anything even engineering-adjacent. The rest is figuring out tax law, calling to yell at people to pay their bills, or writing contracts.
I fix stuff. I like fixing stuff. Cars, computers, cell phones, appliances, tvs, small motors, etc. It’s all like a little challenge/puzzle to me. I like doing it. It’s never been in my field of work, but I get asked all the time why I don’t do any of it for $$$.
Well, because I want to keep liking it is why.
This is me 💯
My music, songwriting. I’ve never once had the desire to make money from it. In fact, one of the things that killed my band is I discovered the bass player was charging a cover for what I had assumed were free shows and then keeping it.
I found that being in a band and trying to make money together is a good way to kill a friendship. Just jamming though and having fun? That’s way better.
Same here. I love having fun making music. Being in a band trying to make money was miserable. I do miss having access to a dedicated practice space and recording studio though.
I miss performing a lot, and I’ll probably never really do it again like I did back then
Ah yes, the broke bassists /s to be sure
https://github.com/Dakkaron/Fairberry
I keep getting asked if I’d sell these. But becoming a software engineer by trade has already ruined hobby programming for me, so I will not ever make that hobby into a job.
Haha, I love it! What a fun thing that is, maybe I’ll make one for my partner!
If you do let me know! Just curious how well the building instructions work.
And if you have trouble, feel free to PN me here or write in the discussion section of the GitHub repo.
Massage. I know that if I did it professionally it would become a chore and I would no longer want to massage the people I love.
Fucking
Shortest career of any profession, if what leaks from the business is true to the slightest.
Electronics repair and manufacture. I do this sometimes professionally – however my special talent is doing it with none of the right tools or parts. It’s mostly hilarious and not useful at work, where I need to use the right parts so you can scale to manufacture.
I once fixed a DVD drive using a gas stove. A graphics card with a tube of toothpaste and some rubber bands. A Macbook with half a cardboard box. Today I built a microphone amplifier from a broken Android development board, a IC from a particle detector, and surface-mount resistors and capacitors from a dozen different things. I could probably work as an engineer in Kerbal Space Program :D
I would watch the shit out of this YouTube channel.
Sadly, my irritation with YouTube is fathomless and eternal :P
I can clue you in the the first case though – A faulty motor was unable to eject the drive, and a magnet held it in place. So I used the Curie effect to weaken the magnet by roasting it for a short time and putting it back in. I was very poor in those days so knowing these things was pretty useful.
Is your name Gyro Gearloose?
I did this thing, stretching decades back, where I would publish every project under a different name, then throw away the password.
Even I don’t know everything I’ve done, or all the names I’ve gone by.
Love making complicated, beautiful cocktails for guests. Zero interest in being a bartender at a high-end cocktail bar until / unless I retire.
“Bartender! You know how to make a Red Eye?”
Photography.
It’s fun, but not something I want to do professionally or even as a side-gig.
Full time camera op/editor here. You are correct lol
Writing. Specifically, tech writing. I’ve got an intuitive sense for it, but other than business communication and the occasional bit of internal documentation I don’t have any desire to do it professionally.
I get along great with our tech writer, though, since I’m the only other person at the company who can hold a discussion about the Oxford comma.
You can rip my Oxford comma out of my cold, dead, and grammatically-unambiguous hands.
Your opinion on the Oxford comma?
I’m for it, mostly because that’s how I was taught to write in school.
Faux-IT guy for friends and family. I’d say I’m an “advanced hobbyist” but charging for it/making it a job? No way. Especially not with ADHD. I pick up and drop projects too readily. I couldn’t work in an environment where I have an obligation to fix things I don’t feel like dealing with as opposed to tinkering and creatively helping folks when I feel the energy to.
Also standup/general comedy. I’ve been told I’m very quick witted but memorizing for a stage makes me so anxious. I like to just “perform” when the timing is right and the spark hits.
What do you actually do?
Shooter/editor. Primarily video, some audio (podcast clients), rarely photography. I like what I do overall, but it really takes the wind out of any appeal of treating it as a hobby. I rarely do photography or shooting for myself anymore.
Argentine tango. I like doing it with my partner, but I have zero desire to compete or travel to Argentina or even seek out the best teachers available. I can lead strangers and have enough variety in vocabulary that I don’t get bored. That’s enough.
I can respect that feeling. Especially the competitive part. It feels as if every and anything nowadays needs to become a competition.
