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.
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 💯
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.
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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.
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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.
For me it’s playing music. I had awesome grades in HS and had a full ride, but I was a way better drummer than pretty much anyone I knew. I played in a bunch of bands, and was invited to join one of the more well-known local bands in my pretty big city. I ended up giving up my scholarship to go try and make it with them. We made a record in a nice studio and went on tour and it was a promising start. By the time I was 20 I had seen most of the US. But even though I loved touring, I hated having to play every night, no matter what I was feeling. Playing original music with my friends always used to make me feel better, but having to do it all the time made it stop having that healing affect on me. Instead of making me feel better it was just another obligation that I had to do, no matter how I was feeling.
I was devastated when I realized that I had nothing to help me through the hard days. And I had a lot of hard days. As it turns out, I had untreated PTSD, generalized anxiety disorder, and type 2 bipolarity. Music was very much one of my go to strategies, and without it my symptoms got way worse. So playing music professionally ended up increasing my symptoms and also got rid of my only successful strategy for living with my symptoms.
We ended up having to take an extended break, during which I went back to school and finished my degree. For the first time since I was 8 I didn’t have my drums set up in my house. And for the first time since I was 15, I wasn’t playing in a single band. Normally I played in multiple bands, because they only practice once a week, and there are 7 nights!! But now I wasn’t playing at all. I had no desire to play. I went out on tour with my friend’s band just to travel and help, I didn’t play. And that was super fun, but I still had no desire to play
I lived like that for two miserable years before I slowly started playing again. But it’s no longer my career, or even a dream of a career, like it used to be. It’s way too important to me for me to ruin it by trying to get rich and live my rockstar dream. And now that I have actual rockstar friends, people who I played with who are in famous bands, I know what the life is like. And it’s really not a fantasy. Those MOFOs work hard, and they’re on the road for months and months at a time.
So that’s my best skill, but I don’t do it for a living. I’ve been playing in bands consistently my whole life, even as I went back to grad school, and then started my professional career as HS science teacher. But it’s been mostly cover bands, which honestly pays way more than I used to make except for our very biggest shows. But it’s not worth it and I’m just not willing to do it professionally. The first band I joined when I moved to my current state, we ended up getting a great reputation, and we ended up getting more and more shows. The other guys were doing this for a living, but I was just trying to have fun learning new songs and playing for people. Eventually I got tired and stopped, and swore off playing for money. This had been the ideal set up, playing with a really good friend, and it still got old. So I stopped playing for money. I did continue playing, but I just didn’t accept payment, and also felt okay calling in if I just want feeling it that day. I gave up $400 bucks or so on one show when we filled up this one little venue where people paid $20 a head. It was a fundraiser for our little hippie church, so I just donated my portion. But for ten years I wouldn’t accept any payment at all.
But it’s hard to say no. The thing is I’m honestly really good. I can play really well in any style, and I’m fucking great with rock and especially fast/heavy rock. So anyone that physically hears me play, if they have a band or even know of someone who has a band, I get asked. I literally went 5 years without playing anywhere at all except for on the band room at the high school where I teach. But then I ended up getting pulled into giving drum lessons by the owner of the music shop where I would buy gear, because he wanted a drum teacher for his own son. And the world needs rock and roll. So I let myself be talked into giving lessons, but only how and when I wanted to. So I took a few students on, and we ended up becoming friends. But then of course one day he needed a drummer to fill in for his regular guy. And shove I give lessons at his place, he knows I have chops. I came to a couple rehearsals, learned their whole set list, and we played a few shows where all I have to do is show up with my throne, my sticks, and my book. I get there and everything is set up for me. I’m a total fucking prima Don, but they want me and I’m just not willing to sacrifice anything at all. It was fun, and they asked me if I’d book some more with them and I said sure, but before I knew it we we’re doing 2-3 shows a week during the summers, which is NOT what I wanted to do with my summers off as a teacher! So I told them they could have me for one show and one rehearsal a month, and that’s it. I’m still violating my rules, but playing once a month gives it enough time between playing the songs so that they don’t hurt my brain anymore. Playing Stevie Wonder 3 times a week sucks. But playing it once a month is tolerable. And I like it when pretty women try to get me to notice them. I’m a single dad and I don’t date, but I do like it when pretty women give me those intense stares while they’re dancing. I swear watching a dude okay the drums while he makes you grind is definitely a lot of womens’ thing. So it’s sustainable, and technically I’m still doing it professionally, but really it’s more of a hobby that I can get paid to perform and teach. (Teaching pays way more than performing, but I physically can’t teach more than three lessons a day so there’s no hope in it for me!)
Meanwhile I finally have my own band again, where we’re writing our own songs. I know that the other players want to eventually play these songs, and I know people are going to like it because they always like it, and we’re doing something that no one else around here is doing. So we’re eventually going to have to play out. But I still have young kids, and I’m just not that into building a name. I’ll eventually tour with my old band again, and I’ll probably try to take this group on the road and play some big shows here if we ever build up a following with our recorded music (which we’re definitely going to release.) But I don’t want to play music for a living, and I don’t think anyone should do professionally the one thing they really need and they they love more than anything else. If you can deal with it not doing what it used to do, then that’s no problem. But if you depend on it for your happiness then you should probably not try to make it your whole life. I know there are people who can do that, but those people mostly either don’t have a choice because it’s the ONLY thing they can do, or else they have money enough to where they don’t have to make money doing it and can still devote as much time as they want to it.
Preach. I played piano and guitar growing up (no lessons, just dicked around until it made sense) and had a much lesser but similar experience. I worked long hours at work and did volunteer church stuff as the #2 of stage production while playing bass or guitar or running the sound board and also had a band that had an offer for a record deal (which was a shit deal but I digress). Then, in the middle of all that, while I was struggling for food and money at age 24, my mom suddenly died.
I stopped going to band practice and my bandmates weren’t capable of understanding what I was going through so they fired me and at that point I didn’t care. I went through the motions to keep the church stuff together. I didn’t touch my guitar or piano at home for nearly a year. Until one day, I just did for whatever reason. And I recorded a little two track cover (1 acoustic, 1 voice) of Green Eyes by Coldplay (because my mom had green eyes). And I spent maybe an hour mixing it in audacity and then threw it up on YouTube, idk why. Maybe as a little “hey, I think I’m gonna be okay after all” sorta update for my friends and family. I kinda got back into it, but as I’ve gotten busy with having a more successful career and meeting the woman who’s now my wife and moving away from the musicians in my life, I’ve shifted away from it again.
I’ve tried to get back into it at least a little bit, but I’m in an apartment and can’t feel comfortable making much noise, plus my guitar needs some attention and I just can’t muster up the motivation to fix it up myself. I’ve asked my wife to take it somewhere for the TLC it needs for a Christmas gift, but idk if that’s actually gonna happen.
A guy at work seemed to have really similar music tastes to me so I let slip that I play, and I showed him something I threw together in like 2 hours while under the influence. My dumbass texted him a link of it and he showed like half the people we work with, so now everybody knows I’m not just some amateur who learned Wonderwall at 15. And now I feel that pressure to do something with it. Like I’m letting people down by not taking this skill or talent or gift or whatever you wanna call it and sharing it at every opportunity. And that’s a feeling I did not miss. I just wanted a small project to myself so I could feel proud that I wasn’t wasting away on the couch, not to feel like a letdown that my ability was wasted on me. It makes me feel disappointed in myself for halting it while also feeling external pressure from people that I know mean to show support by being interested. I’m paralyzed and I hate that I can’t just do it and finish the project and feel complete and put it down. There’s no closure and I’m terrified that there never will be and it’s like I’m awake with anesthesia and I’m totally powerless as I watch my years tick away with no complete music project to show for all the countless hours of honing my craft.
So yeah, I’m a little fucked up by music too, I guess.
It’s complicated right?!? I’m sorry about your mom, but I’m glad you’ve been able to find some success and a partner in life.
Other people’s ideas of what we should do with our skills are such a pain. I definitely understand why so many performers prefer to remain anonymous!! Good luck to you my friend. I hope you can keep making music in exactly the way that you want to!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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?”
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.
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.
