- > Throughout this period, Glass supported himself as a New York cabbie and as a plumber, occupations that often led to unusual encounters. "I had gone to install a dishwasher in a loft in SoHo," he says. "While working, I suddenly heard a noise and looked up to find Robert Hughes, the art critic of Time magazine, staring at me in disbelief. 'But you're Philip Glass! What are you doing here?' It was obvious that I was installing his dishwasher and I told him I would soon be finished. 'But you are an artist,' he protested. I explained that I was an artist but that I was sometimes a plumber as well and that he should go away and let me finish."
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2001/nov/24/arts.highe...
- Here's what opening that site without an ad blocker feels like:
https://images2.imgbox.com/cc/f9/gX6o2Jfu_o.png
Must be very conducive to reading
by neonnoodle
1 subcomments
- Top minds are now working hard at eliminating both the profession of writing and the day job.
by tolerance
3 subcomments
- Cormac McCarthy appears to be an exceptional case in this respect. I skimmed through a book about it once. Early on he basically earned his keep through grants and book sales. I think he persuaded one of his old ladies to get a job while he wrote. And apparently he was always writing; pitching one book in the middle of working on another. I guess film and television soon followed.
by atombender
2 subcomments
- Lots of engineers write, too. My favorite example of "very different day job" is Gene Wolfe, who worked as an industrial engineer (he famously worked on the original machine that produced Pringles potato chips), and spent most of his working life as an editor of the magazine Plant Engineering.
R. A. Lafferty worked as a full-time electrical engineer for Clark Electrical Supply Company all his life, though he eventually moved to a salesperson position.
- > Stevens turned down an offer from Harvard following his 1955 Pulitzer because he would’ve been forced to give up his vice-presidency position at Hartford Accident and Indemnity
Source: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetry-news/65332/successfu...
by coopykins
1 subcomments
- Most of the jobs listed seem something you can do on autopilot, while your mind is doing something else, which would make sense for creative minds.
- Trollope eventually got quite responsible work at the post office.
Some writers found consular and diplomatic posts: among the Americans, Hawthorne, Howell, and (James Russell) Lowell; among the French, Chateaubriand and Stendhal.
Louis Auchincloss was a lawyer.
- If this intersection is of interest to you, so might Mason Currey's book Daily Rituals ("On the routines and working habits of 161 inspired minds, from Beethoven to Donald Barthelme, Kafka to Georgia O’Keeffe") which I've enjoyed very much (no affiliation), for similar reasons.
Link: https://www.masoncurrey.com/daily-rituals
by jihadjihad
0 subcomment
- "Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress."
- Chekhov
- Reminds me of "Lifers, Dayjobbers, and the Independently Wealthy: A Letter to a Former Student" by Max Alper, an excerpt from which I really appreciated:
> You’re not a failure by being a dayjobber, Billy, you’re an artist, just like the rest of us. So what if you aren’t some rich kid from the Upper East Side who had the privilege of being stuck in a practice room since Kindergarten? Sure that kid can shred, but do you really want to be that person? You’re playing shows, making records, and selling merch online, all without daddy’s money to hold you down. You’re making it happen without the head start that Richy Rich got the second he was born. Be proud of that! Knowing that the game is rigged is liberating! Just because the music industry lacks meritocracy doesn’t mean you can’t blow these assholes out of the water through your craft. Your experiences outside their bubble will only foster more creativity as a result.
Source: https://klangmag.co/lifers-dayjobbers-and-the-independently-...
HN thread here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36693297
- Melville never got a raise, but also inflation was neglectable.
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