(2004-06-30) Macleod Dayjob

Hugh MacLeod doesn't mind working a DayJob. I'm thinking about the young writer who has to wait tables to pay the bills, in spite of her writing appearing in all the cool literary magazines.... who dreams of one day of not having her life divided so harshly. Well, over time the "harshly" bit might go away, but not the "divided". As soon as you accept this, for some reason your career starts moving ahead faster.

Update: since grown into a tract on Creativity. I am more interested in the subject of how one remains creative, how one retains one's humanity, within the confines of the Rat Race, far more than I am concerned with the subject of escaping the rat-race altogether. Rather than quitting my current job to go off and do something "creative" - write a novel, open a bed & breakfast in Vermont, start a scented candle mail-order business, whatever- frankly I'd prefer just to keep on finding new and creative ways to get more from the job situation I already have.

Update Aug16: more - I think one of the main reasons I stayed in advertising is simply because hearing "change that ad" pisses me off a lot less than "change that cartoon".

Apr'2008 update: How To Be Creative has become a Printed Book deal.