It's rare a piece had resonated with me quite as much as this. It took nearly 11 years of scraping by paycheck to paycheck, flat broke in NYC, and getting fired from the YouTube content farm of a major legacy publisher most people only dream of working for before I could finally admit majoring in English lit was a mistake. Fuck them an…
It's rare a piece had resonated with me quite as much as this. It took nearly 11 years of scraping by paycheck to paycheck, flat broke in NYC, and getting fired from the YouTube content farm of a major legacy publisher most people only dream of working for before I could finally admit majoring in English lit was a mistake. Fuck them and fuck the whole system. You can just walk away and do something else with your life. The workplace will be less toxic and you'll get paid better too.
I really only regret not pulling the plug sooner. It's hard to admit you royally fucked up and threw a decade of your short life in the trash with absolutely nothing to show for it, but ignoring it won't make it go away.
As Freddie points out, writers have options beyond the media content farms. There's good money to be made copywriting and ghostwriting, and, in a way, it's more honest than working for Gawker or Buzzfeed. It lets me make a decent living without debasing myself kissing the backsides of media wankers I can't stand.
I make no such concessions. It was a mistake, full stop. I should have either been an engineer like my old man (and frankly, everyone spent my teen years trying to get me into the saddle) or an accountant like I am now.
The only value I gleaned from it was the wealth of literature and philosophy I was exposed to. That's not nothing, but it should have just been electives. There are far easier and better ways to make a buck. I've worked in construction for 5+ years now and the people here are actually a lot easier to get along with. People look at me like I'm crazy when I say the media was much more toxic workplace.
I did "do something else with my life," during the 2010s, but I regret that while "doing something else" I was on twitter daily for years, hoping that my Medium would get noticed if I shared the right post at the right time. Anyway, I related to what Freddie says here because he's talking about the appeal of the scene... to me, I'd say the sense of a scene made it easy for me to invest a lot of energy that I do think would have been better spent on exploring other career options and also on just hanging out. I thought I was working on a side hustle but I was actually just clinging to an online space where my English major felt more validated than it did in the material world.
Benny, the median age that people decide to become a librarian is 35. And most of us are English majors. I will gladly tell you more if you want to write to me direct.
And I am kind of old fashioned as I started as a librarian and still call myself that, but today's grads are calling themselves digital humanities now and academic library jobs are quite varied. I used to teach at a library school but now I teach at a "School of Information." You would be surprised. I would be rich beyond Jeff Bezos if I had $1.00 for every person who likes to write or read who said to me, "why didn't I think of this sooner?" (well, maybe a little exaggeration.)
There were cybrarians in hospitals circa 1994. I used one to find a cheaper surgical procedure, & incidentally got an incompetent surgeon dismissed by finding current procedures he wouldn't entertain.
I'd like to see the U.S. do what is done in Canada and the UK--the Public Lending Right where authors get payment for the circulation of their books in public libraries. That doesn't happen in the U.S. https://publiclendingright.ca/payments
> hoping that my Medium would get noticed if I shared the right post at the right time
This is Twitter right there. For 4 years of Trump, every journalist fantasized about posting That One Tweet that takes him down, and you can see the results.
I would have loved to get an English lit degree, or a degree in history, but I would have happily used them in my actual career, which was mostly product marketing.
How many great writers studied writing in college? How many great artists studied art in college?
It's rare a piece had resonated with me quite as much as this. It took nearly 11 years of scraping by paycheck to paycheck, flat broke in NYC, and getting fired from the YouTube content farm of a major legacy publisher most people only dream of working for before I could finally admit majoring in English lit was a mistake. Fuck them and fuck the whole system. You can just walk away and do something else with your life. The workplace will be less toxic and you'll get paid better too.
I really only regret not pulling the plug sooner. It's hard to admit you royally fucked up and threw a decade of your short life in the trash with absolutely nothing to show for it, but ignoring it won't make it go away.
As Freddie points out, writers have options beyond the media content farms. There's good money to be made copywriting and ghostwriting, and, in a way, it's more honest than working for Gawker or Buzzfeed. It lets me make a decent living without debasing myself kissing the backsides of media wankers I can't stand.
I make no such concessions. It was a mistake, full stop. I should have either been an engineer like my old man (and frankly, everyone spent my teen years trying to get me into the saddle) or an accountant like I am now.
The only value I gleaned from it was the wealth of literature and philosophy I was exposed to. That's not nothing, but it should have just been electives. There are far easier and better ways to make a buck. I've worked in construction for 5+ years now and the people here are actually a lot easier to get along with. People look at me like I'm crazy when I say the media was much more toxic workplace.
I did "do something else with my life," during the 2010s, but I regret that while "doing something else" I was on twitter daily for years, hoping that my Medium would get noticed if I shared the right post at the right time. Anyway, I related to what Freddie says here because he's talking about the appeal of the scene... to me, I'd say the sense of a scene made it easy for me to invest a lot of energy that I do think would have been better spent on exploring other career options and also on just hanging out. I thought I was working on a side hustle but I was actually just clinging to an online space where my English major felt more validated than it did in the material world.
Benny, the median age that people decide to become a librarian is 35. And most of us are English majors. I will gladly tell you more if you want to write to me direct.
I might take you up on that!! Thanks! :)
And I am kind of old fashioned as I started as a librarian and still call myself that, but today's grads are calling themselves digital humanities now and academic library jobs are quite varied. I used to teach at a library school but now I teach at a "School of Information." You would be surprised. I would be rich beyond Jeff Bezos if I had $1.00 for every person who likes to write or read who said to me, "why didn't I think of this sooner?" (well, maybe a little exaggeration.)
There were cybrarians in hospitals circa 1994. I used one to find a cheaper surgical procedure, & incidentally got an incompetent surgeon dismissed by finding current procedures he wouldn't entertain.
Saved about $16k.
I love that Kathleen is always prepared to dive into the trenches waving the librarian flag. Warms my heart.
I'd like to see the U.S. do what is done in Canada and the UK--the Public Lending Right where authors get payment for the circulation of their books in public libraries. That doesn't happen in the U.S. https://publiclendingright.ca/payments
> hoping that my Medium would get noticed if I shared the right post at the right time
This is Twitter right there. For 4 years of Trump, every journalist fantasized about posting That One Tweet that takes him down, and you can see the results.
I would have loved to get an English lit degree, or a degree in history, but I would have happily used them in my actual career, which was mostly product marketing.
How many great writers studied writing in college? How many great artists studied art in college?
And how many journalists in times past went to journalism school? “Kid, we can teach you to put the paper in the typewriter.”