Readit NewsBased on your comment about season 2, is it safe to infer that I can skip it entirely and still enjoy 3?
- Meditation
- Exercise
- Good sleep
- Good diet
- Therapy (when needed).
IMO, I consider meditation the most important. I spend the most amount of my waking time doing meditation. My self introspection is getting better since I'm understanding "myself" more as insight increases. My awareness of my anxieties is more apparent as I practice more. Of course, I do have blind spots, and I realize meditation is not the panacea. But I feel it's helped me the most in the last 5 years.
Ie. if I don’t have the energy to really be fully mentally present for the series, should I not bother?
What people forget in their arrogance is that unions also just bring more leverage back to the table to fight off abuse, setup better conditions, etc. Yes, they can be abused and yes, they can lead to stagnation but without collective bargaining power your only leverage is how easy/difficult you are to replace and how abundant acceptable (e.g., do I need to uproot my life?) competitive or acceptable openings are at any given point of time so you can vote with your feet.
It's perfectly OK to embed your idealistic meritocracy within a union as part of your negotiations. You don't have to appease the lazy and 'medicore' if that's your great fear, you can negotiate and codify fair evaluations for these things if your union so wishes this. At the same time you also can negotiate nifty things like: not being on call, not working overtime, making sure theres adequate number of engineers on a project, improving the type of work you do, etc. Unless you're leading a startup where you're on the other side of the table, I don't see how these ideas aren't appealing to you--the opposite is very appealing to your employers.
In general, labor has been on the losing side for decades and there's this degree of condescension that "I am professional making great TC, I don't need those piddly unions" mentality that does nothing but props up continued erosion of standards and expectations of work and compensation in this industry. I've been working in software and tech for quite awhile (my mentor who shared their experiences of such declines since the 60s), and I can assure you it's gotten worse over the years for workers. This industry has been mostly fortunate because of growth outstripping supply that continues to give some leverage, but that may not be the case indefinitely and if that happens, unless you are near the absolute top of the field, you too will continue to see declines in working conditions in this field indefinitely.
As I looked into it further, it was similar to the argument how conservatives don't support certain social services because it'll cause people to be lazy and underperform in society. There is probably some truth to that, and there's always going to be people taking advantage of the system.
I do agree with you that the balance has shifted too much on the anti-union side. I hope these new unionizing efforts help shift the balance back to the middle.
A lot of us here think we would love to but physicists as it is all so interesting but we can't because of our jobs. The greatest physicist since Newton couldn't get a job as a physicist but loved it so much that he spent any spare time he had working on it and thinking about it and obsessing over it.
If you really actually love something you'll find a way to do it, otherwise it's a hobby. Hobbies are good there is nothing wrong with it. But if you really feel a burning desire to do something you'd do it regardless of finances and time because you won't be able to stop yourself from doing it.
There are exceptions like your examples. There are probably others who do have strong passions where they obsess over their art and still want to move to a place where other artist like themselves are.
That's probably why Paris was the place to be if you were an aspiring impressionist painter in the 19th century. Renoir, Monet, etc probably were passionate about their art. And being in close proximity probably helped each other in positive ways.
I went through something similar. I had to choose between chasing my passion or security. I chose security. Things get real when you get older, your body starts falling apart, you need to provide for family, etc.
Even if you choose to follow your passions, the lure of security will come. The author gives an example of writers needing to write pulp novels, courses, copywriting, or any other boring stuff.
And even if you do end up doing your passions and still live comfortably, is it really worth it? Would your passions become monotonous and cause you to seek other passions?
Well, if I had a side gig that raked in $2000 per month steady then I would be a writer for sure. I would just not try to live in Manhattan. Problem of thought money solved.
There is a reason why artists go to places like NY or other HCOL places. There are other people like them. It's probably easier to find inspiration and meet peers at those places.