[leisuresuit]

I think the corporate world is designed to eliminate any desire of employees to work on their own ideas. Work takes up a lot more of your time and energy than you imagine. Even if you only work 40 hours a week.

In reality you get up, spend 30 minutes getting ready, another hour eating and commuting, more like 9-10 hours a work, another 30min or an hour getting home. After this whole ordeal you don't have any desire to even THINK about anything except relaxing.

On the weekends you're trying hard to find something to do that gives your life some kind of meaning besides the job you have.. something that doesn't include sitting in front of a computer.

The only way you can really work on something of your own is to quit your job and live off your savings. And still it's up for debate how much one person, without any investment can achieve working by themselves. You might be able to make a simple website.. But you won't be able to pay to promote it.

[staunch]

I believe this even consciously occurs to many employers. It's part of the reason why very few companies would be okay with you working 4 x 10hr hour weeks vs 5 x 8hr. Even 4 x 12hr wouldn't make them feel secure.

I suppose it's jealousy and greed. And this exists in almost every culture (from what I know) -- I hope things eventually change. Even Google is guilty of this form of "Evil".

[nostrademons]

Actually, Google does give employees time to work on their own ideas. It's just that they own anything that comes out of that time. Arguable this is just as evil, so your point stands.

I think the solution may be to think of your job as buying you time. Set a baseline salary that'll let you live a simple life with adequate health & safety. For a single guy, that's about $20K/year (= grad student wages); for a married guy with a couple kids, about $40K. If that seems low, remember that 50% of America lives on that.

Then take the difference between your actual salary and your cost of living, and think of it as time. For example, if you graduate with a $60K/year job, set aside 2/3 of your salary as savings, and every hour you work is buying you 2 hours of freedom. When you have enough time saved up to accomplish what you want, quit and "spend" it.

For example, I'm currently saving about 2 hours of time for every hour I work. I'm looking to quit after slightly more than 2 years at my job (that'll be another 6 months or so), at which point I'll have 4-5 years saved up.

I met an innkeeper in Alaska who followed this strategy. He and his wife decided when they got out of college that they'd live like grad students. They worked in the computer field. After 15 years, they each quit their jobs, bought a sailboat, and sailed around the world with their son, stopping at every port they came into. They finally settled in Seward, Alaska (pop. 3000), bought an old building, and fixed it up as an inn.

[staunch]

I think you're right and that is a great strategy. I know programmer who works 6 months in a major world city (it varies) then spends 6 months in Missouri at his cabin on a lake. He's also slowly bought quite a bit of realestate as his nest egg.

Where's your Buying Your Freedom As a Modern Day Wage Slave essay? ;-)

[nostrademons]

I'll wait until I actually have my freedom. ;-) Advice falls rather flat when the advisor is still working his tail off with both a day job and a startup.

[nostrademons]

[deleted, dupe. Oops]