| from the article: The most common pitfall I see on the bivocational path is when work consumes so much of your time and attention that you don’t have the energy to pursue art in your spare time. One common pitfall of the integration approach is what I call the “bakery trap.” It goes like this: someone likes to bake pies, so they decide to open a bakery. A year in, they realize that they’re spending all their time bookkeeping, managing staff, and trying to market the business—and don’t get to spend any time actually baking. these are really very similar. especially with your followup example of travelling for work and never making it to the beach. because that is actually choosing your work so that it aligns with your hobby, and not making your hobby into your job. that is fine, it's just different from directly integrating your interest with your work. i once worked as a developer evangelist. i got to travel and give talks. i never made it to any beach either, but that didn't matter because going to conferences and hanging out with tech folks was the very thing i enjoyed doing, and here i got paid for it. perfect job. so for integrating, you really have to make sure that the thing you enjoy doing is the very thing that pays you. or realize that while you managed to align your interest with your work you didn't integrate them and you still are on the bivocational path. EDIT TO ADD: and the key for the bivocational path is to set proper priorities. i never let work get in the way with spending time with family, meet with friends or other activities that i'd do after work. don't work over time. don't allow work to become more important than your other activities. if they do, fight back or switch jobs. and if anyone questions your priorities, straight out tell them that your family is your priority. (while you are single, this means building a family and finding a partner, which requires time to spend with your friends and on your hobbies) unless you intent to never get married. then you may need a different excuse. related discussion:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37760706 |