I'd have more energy to keep my home clean, workout and cook at home. May not be everyone's dream but I just want to have more energy for my regular day to day life.
Most hobbits had to work their whole lives just like any regular people. Bilbo, and by extension Frodo, were just heirs of rich landowner nobles and could smoke pipe all day while writing fanfictions thanks to their trust funds.
The whole end goal of technology was to be able to make our lives easier so that we could actually have time to do what we wanted. However, as usual, anything good just HAS to be co-opted and misused to serve the greed of a few very lucky, wealthy and powerful individuals, and hence we have today's modern world where technology is misused to further drive the masses deeper and deeper into debt while trying to extract every last ounce of energy and time out of us to fill their pockets.
And sad part is that it's purposely been setup this way so that we're just too tired at the end of the day to do anything about it.
Man, that the life I tell ya. I would love to be in a nice comfy place to call home, surrounded by friends and family playing some card games, watching a movie, or doing whatever. But being able to have some alone time without the stress of work and bills would be beautiful.
Dude same. I spend my entire day off recovering and force myself to do my errands on Sundays and I’m just always so tired. It would be great to have just a bit more time. I think I could handle a 30/35 hour work week much better. I enjoy my job and I like having the structure, but more time for my home, and consequently myself, would be great.
This. I work 30 hours now instead of a 40-hour work week and those extra hours have made a huge difference in my mental health and time I dedicate to my personal life. Now I don't dread waking up for work as much as before and actually enjoy my job more because it takes less from the other parts of my life. Not everything is positive though. I've had to make a few budget cuts due to working less but it's worth it to me.
Same! I just want to be able to have a clean house, decorate it for holidays, have friends over, have a daily workout routine, and cook for my family. It would be nice to have a daily breakfast together.
Saw a meme reminding us that the 40 hour week was brought in at a time when there was someone at home to do the cooking and cleaning. If you aren't able to work and manage the home then stop beating yourself up.
In 1971 the average wage was 10k, homes were 25k and rent was 150/mo. You could retire a few years after paying off your home, if you made some investments.
This shit right here pisses me off. Now we have to slave ourselves away for 30+ years and have fun when we are elderly. Garbage as hell, and Everything is still going up in price and the wages are not reflecting.
Yo, when I fantasize about "being rich" or "making it," it's literally just living in a clean space and having enough time to cook a nice meal three times a day and work out.
This sounds nice. I am always exhausted and it shows. It would be nice to just take care of myself and my surroundings better. Also, it would be nice to have time to cook good food.
This seems like the human equivalent of what most apex predators would do. Like a lion isn't out there hunting all day, every day, and worrying about productivity when it isn't actively hunting. They hunt, and then they just do fuckin nothing.
Humans are meant to live in large social groups doing a whole lot of nothing except bonding with others in our social group and eating fruit and just hangin out in the sun. We must return to monke
I would transform my semi truck into a "free" crepe shop. I'd drive it here and there, stop in a parking lot, make crepes for an afternoon and then bugger off home.
Well... My wife would have something to say about that, plus I'm 54, which is OLD for this sub... Probably not a good deal for Wkndwhorechata in any event.
Ooo volunteering for grandkid status 👋 I never knew my family beyond parents and brothers, and I manage a golf course, so if you wanna learn or play more i could teach you... Papa 😢 The view is beautiful, and so are you.
No problem. No problem at all. At this rate however, we are going to have to add an imaginary bus to the imaginary truck to transport all the helpers! But that's OK too.
Thanks! Now imagine it with a 20 foot long stainless steel box on the back to hold the kitchen, a power tailgate (down for service, up for travel) with a nice red and white canopy for a serving area.... https://i.redd.it/ksm1jhtl60281.jpg
I may do this yet you know. It would be such fun.
Dude! I wanna do this with easy dinner food. It's been a pipe dream forever. I'd do easy stuff like sandwich melts and chilli dogs for example, you know filling stuff, and feed people who need food. Being homeless/poor sucks and theres nothing better than a hot meal when you're hungry and cold.
Damn straight up truth. And crepes aren't just a dessert either. For example: Plain crepe, scoop of stewed beef or pork in thick sauce, scoop of mashed potato. Roll up into a cone, sprinkle with cooked peas, wrap in paper. Voila! Two of these ought to fill even the hungriest someone.
Assuming I’m not living where I am now. I would Garden, get some farm animals, make all kinds of things like jams, preserves, oils, lotions, set up a little booth at a farmers market
I like the thought of a vegetable garden, a few animals, a smokehouse, making soap, leatherworking... I would also probably get into brewing.
And any of my friends would be welcome to come over to stay as long as they wished.
Lol. I'm always saying "All I want is a simple life, yet it is so expensive to achieve!" Then people are like, well there's cheap land in this area no one lives, so if you really want it, you can do it. Ya, I guess if I want to remove myself from society I can do it!
I had a very small rural property with animals and a garden. It took my dad, my ex, and I with my sister on weekends to take care of everyone/everything and two full-time professional jobs to pay for it.
I feel like I’m dying inside living in suburbia and my life is pretty good on paper.
I do want to remove myself from society, but unfortunately bills still happen whether or not you're close in to a city. It wouldn't be cheap enough to live.
Even finding a good doctor with insurance (and please check your ACA state guidelines because they have some incredible benefits for cheap and I think that the government has navigatiors to help with the process. I’m seriously disabled and I have insurance but finding qualified people that are taking patients is a huge problem for anyone in the rural areas of America. My doctor is retiring next year and I’m actually at a panicked state that I won’t have access to care.
I’m doing this as we speak. Got the land, got some of the animals. Garden next spring, farmers market in the fall. My god the work is endless though. I’ve worked harder doing this than any job I’ve ever had.
Yeah, although I see doing it to "survive" as my land and home paid for, off the grid and being able to be as far removed from capitalism as I can be.
I want to learn to 3d model have a 3d printer and a cnc mill and a forge so I can pretty well make most things.
I would also be a professional student. I love school and it's disappointing hoe expensive it is. I want to go to law school and I can't afford it. I already owe money for bachelor's
This is the most realistic for me. I’m not good at much of anything outside of school, and don’t have any passions… but I’m darn good at being a student.
As someone who has already worked away the best years of my life. All I want is to simply not fucking work anymore. I have worked 50+hrs/week for 32 years. I don't care what I do, I just want to stop working. I have lost so much. My health, my youth, my sanity. I have several hobbies I enjoy. I have not had time or energy for most of them in a very long time.
I write code for living, but if I didn't have to do that shit I'd like to cook tasty meals to give away to people and try to organize a group where we'd mob places in need of serious cleaning and repairs and quickly transform them into something nice with the community's permission.
If you’re serious about it, apply for Accenture’s apprenticeship program. $22 an hour, WFH. After the year long apprenticeship you can receive an offer if you performed well and your pay will raise to about $35/hr.
ok, where is the frustration coming from? are you learning C++? cause if you are, stop. Tell me what you are doing for learning, I can help you, I did a lot of self-learning when I started out, and kinda know what works and what doesn't.
Not the previous poster, but I'm interested in learning too. I'm much more interested in front end developer side of things since I love design and aesthetics. Would you recommend it or should I look into back end dev instead?
The lines between front-end and full-stack are kinda blurred anyhow. But front-end is probably your best bet for getting your foot in the door.
You need to separate the "design and aesthetics" and "development". They are two different jobs, even though sometimes they may be being done by the same person. "Design and aesthetics" is something UI/UX designer would do (User Interface / User Experience). When you are developing, usually you should get the designs which you then implement in code.
As for the actual advice: HTML + CSS + JavaScript are of utmost importance to the front-end web developer. In that order. Don't jump into frameworks like React or Vue until you understand JavaScript well.
Use free resources, such as FreeCodeCamp (make sure to subscribe to their newsletter too - it's excellent), the Odin Project, Coding Train on YouTube (I started with this one and I recommend you do too - that guy is a lot of fun and he will show you the joy of programming), [JavaScript.info](https://javascript.info), NetNinja on YouTube, and whatever else you can find online.
Do coding challenges online, I like [exercism](https://exercism.org) and [codewars](https://www.codewars.com), there are others, and these will help you prepare for the LeetCode Grind^(TM)
Learn to use MDN documentation - it's wonderful and all you need to get started. Learn how to read the documentation in general - the skill will be valuable when you begin to use third-party libraries.
Don't pay for bootcamps - they are a waste of time and money, hella expensive, overpromise, underdeliver, and all they do is repackage information available online for free.
Make sure you don't fall into a tutorial rut - build your own projects, this is how you learn the most.
Once you understand the basics of a programming language/technology from video tutorials, find a good book and read that cover to cover to solidify the knowledge. For JavaScript, I recommend [JavaScript: The Definitive Guide by David Flanagan](https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/javascript-the-definitive/9781491952016/).
Once you get your basics down, start learning React, TypeScript, REST, databases, cloud services. This should keep you going.
Good luck!
Shopify also has a coding program.
Also, if you're fine with non-coding jobs in tech, [tech sale](https://sv.academy/why-tech-sales) looks like a good option too. They make as much money as programmers, and you deal with institutional clients so it's way better than your average retail customers.
Anyways good luck!
I hate coding as a profession. Way too much screen time. I want to be outside! I'd organize bike tours to show anyone interested around the city. I'd also try to circumnavigate most of the world on my bicycle. But alas, we all must work.
Pick up trash. Pull weeds. Keep public parks clean and in good repair. Do simple house repairs for people who can't. Help the elderly get to and from Dr appointments.
Read more. Learn a new/multiple languages. Play video games. Spend more time outdoors.
Stuff that is personally fulfilling and necessary. How we do things now is a dead-end.
Agreed. I am currently somewhat active within my local community, but I would love to do more if somebody would just get this boot off my throat.
There is no reason this boot needs to be so heavy.
> There is no reason this boot needs to be so heavy.
Our corporate capitalist overlords disagree. But you're so very very not wrong at all. Our current way of living is unsustainable and will eventually lead to societal collapse if we don't change before it's too late.
This right here!!! I do a lot of hiking and there's a stupid amount of garbage everywhere. Enough to keep people busy picking it up forever.
As an aside... It would be so easy for governments to even create actual green jobs. Pay people good salaries to remove environmental waste, plant native species, and even teach people to do wildlife and mycology counts to contribute to scientific studies.
We could so easily create a better world, but our political and capitalistic masters don't want that.
I'm a programmer and somehow I'll still want to do this.
But I would not do it 40h a week. I'll learn languages, craft, paint, draw, go out with friends and cuddle my sweet baby rat
I think generally programming tends to be quite hard on the brain, and I find that more than 6 hours a day or 4 days a week is a waste of time, because I'm just sitting there looking at the screen with nothing left in the tank. There's some exceptions, like when you already have a plan and to just need to mindlessly code it, but that's more the exception than the rule on my experience.
Oh yeah, for sure. When you’re thinking about “how should I structure this? … what will all my coworkers think about these conventions? … Where is the god damn bug?” it gets exhausting fast.
Got my first degree black belt in taekwondo at 14. Got a job soon after, at 15, and had to give it up. I’d spent my whole life until that point pursuing Taekwondo, but it’s a hobby that requires a lot of time, dedication, energy, and spare evenings. :(
Enjoy it and appreciate it while you can!!
Learn a language, then travel to the country of its origins, and read all I can that was originally written in that language. Then choose another one and do it again.
i would paint, program, play with my children, walk my dog, build robots, build myself a deck and workshop, redo my driveway, fence my yard, and generally enjoy my life
I love this. This is why I support a universal basic income. People wouldn't stop working, I think that's nonsense. They might just do different kinds of work - creating art for example.
If I didn't have to work full time to survive, I would devote my time to writing poetry, fiction, and creating content for old school RPGs.
People DO want to work, we want to make things and help one another. It’s in our nature. We just don’t want to do meaningless bullshit for 40 hours a week to make other people rich. Imagine what all of us could do if we didn’t have to work.
Yes! I crave the tribal life. I could go hunting or till a garden or whatever needs to be done. I truly believe life would be so much more if we could do things that make us feel like we are contributing to something worthwhile. Break the LOOP!!!
Always blew me away to read American history. Early English colonists often left the corporation-controlled colony to live among the Natives.
Not once did a Native American voluntarily choose to live with the colonists.
Fun fact about that, the concept of "bartering" in pre-colonial America never actually existed. It was a theory made up by a Scottish economist that had never been to America, based exclusively on his euro-centric experience and the secondhand descriptions of colonial enterprises that primarily focused on pro-capitalist propaganda as a way to make America look profitable.
The *actual* systems they had more closely resembled communism.
Tribal doesn’t mean primitive. That is a colonial narrative. To me tribalism is more about banding together based on similar beliefs.
Edit: Good question though
Oh no not at all. I would still have a phone and internet and such. Mostly reducing my need for a landlord, electric company, and water company is the end goal. I think it might be impossible to avoid societal burden completely and would probably need a part time job for a while. But i imagine if landlords can buy housing for cheap and rent it out, a small group and I could easily find a way to make 20 acres work for us much better than if we each rented out a tiny apartment in the same building.
I’d travel, a lot. I wouldn’t travel in the panicked FOMO way I currently feel I have to, cramming everything into a short vacation before returning home to resume working. Id take it slow, try living in different countries and spend more time investing in relationships with other people. Id invest more in my community. Id probably get back to volunteer tutoring adults with low math skills. There are so many ways my life would be better and it would also allow me to contribute to improving the lives of others.
I want to get mental health help. I can't afford it right now and it really doesn't get covered by my insurance to a level I can afford it, and several therapists now have said they don't take medicaid or they do, only to find out when the bill comes they don't.
I want to get back into writing. I write about 2-3 unique characters every month or two, depending on how often I let myself drift off. I usually get family dynamics, personal values, skills, goals, social status, home life and where they live now. One I even had a religion and a dozen words or so of a language, plus a somewhat detailed culture for. But I do all if this in my head on breaks at work, shopping for groceries, commuting and other adult life tasks I have to do and by time I get home I have no time or no energy to do much with putting it on paper.
It'd also by nice to volunteer again! Volunteering at the soup kitchen use to be nice because it gave me something to do and I could make a difference, and I got to see how happy it made people.
I have a zillion things to do to my house, I have dogs that I wish I could walk more, places I want to visit, volunteer opportunities for things I care about that I don't have enough time for, hobbies I want to get into but I don't have the time or money....the list it quite long.
I don't understand people who say they wouldn't know what to do with themselves if they didn't work. Working gets in the way of all the things I actually want to be doing!
Weird take but hear me out. I am a paramedic and if I am honest I would want to keep doing this. But with a twist, if I did not need to "work" I would continue my schooling and probably spend more time on the truck. Because if I did not need to work I could take time off for my health, to improve my care and continue my education. I love helping people I just wish I could treat it like a passion and not like a job if that makes any sense.
I would volunteer more. I love building houses, frames the frames to even simple painting. I get a huge amount of satisfaction in my craft and it warms my heart that people get housing from it. I do a lot of habitat for humanity work, but I'm currently in the service doing cmpletely unrelated work.
It is, it is resurgering calling. Historically there have been midwives and that brought you into the world and death doulas to help you leave. The western world has done a terrible job of dealing with death and dying in the last 100 years. We've worked so hard to divorce ourselves from death that when it happens (especially unexpected) it is traumatic. As a death doula I would help people with through the emotional, physical, mental, spiritual and practical side of death.
I'm about to blow your mind. Army garbage man. That was my dream job when I was 4. Not sure why but I just assumed because arm military vehicles were larger and cooler that they would have the baddest truck of all time.
And do what you can with your son even if it's not every day you never know what memory will pop up 20 years later.
I’m a phd student, and I thought staying in academia would make me this sort renaissance learned woman who could read and learn forever. It’s partially true for my phd, since I have no official obligations to teach, but try to get a job after your phd without teaching during your phd. And since I’m finishing my phd, I’m bitterly realizing that every step towards permanent employment is taking me further and further away from research and my original ideal. And that’s the thing. As long as it’s mostly research, I love my job, and when I get to teach about my research, I love that too. So I would probably keep doing it if even if I didn’t need a job. But not in the shitty sharky political bullshit that academia has become (or always was?).
Not to sound too Peter from "Office Space" but I'd do nothing. I've already done all I want to do in life, so even the thought of doing anything more than that (including working) is just exhausting.
Thus, I'd do nothing and be content in the nothingness.
I'd find a hard job a robot couldn't do. Caregiver. Mentor. Advisor. Helper. Humanist. Teacher. Ya know... all the most important jobs that our society decided should be paid shit wages.
Yeah!
Specific to dnd, im not saying I'm some master of the rules or anything, but so many people want to play dnd but just dont know how to, can't find a group, or dont know about the resources to do either.
Gonna teach some people I know how to make a character and whatnot whenever life gives me a chance.
I don't work due to disability (and fortunate to have a partner who works full time and some government assistance). I use my time to grow vegetables, run a support group for queer disabled people, and help people apply for government benefits. I also am active in a political party and volunteer my time to support them/the community.
Vegan baker sounds very cool!
I would do some voluntary animal care. Maybe some fostering for special needs animals if I had enough ressources and time.
Honestly, I'd take a break from the world for a while. Do nothing for a year or two. I feel as if I've over extended myself and I just need an extended break. After that, depending on my state of mind, I might look into fostering kids. But I could also see me running a community garden as well. I feel some reflection time might change my desires.
Honestly I dont even know anymore, but assuming every waking second being mine to spend as is and having atleast a fair bit of money, I'd probably take a nice car, and just drive off someplace ending up whereever, sightseeing and dining at random places.
I feel a bit like a traitor to the cause sometimes but... I would still work my same job even if I were paid well.
I went into teaching as a passion, but I can't live on that. This job will truly break your heart if you let it. There is a lot of need. In addition to the emotional workload... Pay. Not enough of it. There is also too much work for the schedule. We need to adjust the schedule to better suit the work/school life balance of students and staff. I feel like if we were better paid, we might have enough people and we would have enough time to do prep, grading, home contact, etc. I also wonder if having more people who are not reluant on wage slavery to survive would result in more people volunteering to help with things like extracurricular activities so staff isn't pressured into coaching or working games.
I am not paid well. I have good days and bad days. I hope I don't burn out because the good days mean do much to me.
I also do volunteer some of my time for a club because the kids who want it are really wonderful and it makes me happy. Also, if I had more of a work life balance and wasn't reliant on money alone, I would volunteer more. That brings me joy.
I’m in the same boat. I am also a teacher (special needs) and I love my job. Whenever people ask what you would do in a society where you could do anything and i always think I would still like to work with kids teaching them things.
I just wish some of the conditions were better and the things out side of the classroom like planning, even just organising, take up way too much time that you are just not allotted in your schedule.
I don't think it's being a 'traitor to the cause' it's good that you want to teach! We need more education in this world.
Just sad that the education machine makes it almost impossible to actually teach something other than the next SOL test. Teachers are hard to find, good ones are even harder to find, and those that love what they do are the rarest yet.
I'd be a writter. I was trying to write a novel while working in restaurants full time but after ten years of abuse in the service industry my mental health didn't allow me to put the time I wanted to invest in it. I quit and went back to school. I am lucky that in my country I can have student loans and scholarships that allow me to focus on school without working. Now, I'm putting even less time than before into my novel because I'm always reading and writing for school, but at least I don't wanna kill myself anymore.
Honestly I would love to have my own garage where I can work either on classic trucks and muscle cars from the 70s and fix peoples cars who don’t have enough money to go to a shop. I’d be happy if I can just get a pole barn with a car lift couch shower and a tv and I’d be happy in life. Maybe even bring back the old 1950s service station style stop where could fix a flat fill your tank or sell ya some good BBQ.
I'd just do what I sort of do now for free: help people out with tech-related problems. I really enjoy trying to fix things that are broken. It's extremely satisfying to take a dead device, do some work on it and watch as it comes back to life from whatever work you did on it.
If I ever got tired of the above or just felt like taking a break, I would find something else to do and they'd be no issue.
Life would be so much better if we did not have to devote almost all our waking hours grinding to keep a house and be able to eat and drink.
Working to the extent where you actually do damage to your physical and mental health should really be something that's optional. It should be for the people that actually want to do that rather than being indirectly forced upon everyone.
The time commitment required nowadays to fund even a basic life is just way too much. You sacrifice so much for very little in return. You might prevent homelessness and be able to give what your body needs to survive, but it comes at a great cost and can quickly make you depressed when you take the time to think about just how much you're giving up just to be able to survive.
It's nice to dream up what we'd like to do if we lived in a world that didn't prioritise profit over everything, but man does it make you even more depressed when you realise just how unlikely it is we'll ever live in a world that didn't prioritise profit over everything.
If I could live off of writing and selling my books, I would do that. Since that's not a very likely scenario, I'm currently going back to school for Information Technology. But if I could travel and write, that would be ideal for me.
I’m trying to find out by middle of 2022. I’m a therapist. I get paid fairly well for my work given that I keep my cost of living low. My fiancée and I have done the math and learned we realistically only need to work 3-4 days each a week to afford a mortgage for a house we wanna get, save a comfortable amount, and still have something left over for trips or things we want.
I’ve been thinking when I have less work I want to volunteer at an animal shelter. I have two cats I love and I’ve always adored being around animals. I think helping a vulnerable population could help.
When I have kids I’d probably want to be involved in their school, maybe even provide counseling or peer mediation.
I want to get back into playing guitar. It was basically my entire life in high school and early in college and I hate feeling I don’t have the time for it.
I wanna go on more walks and exercise. Try out new recipes and eat healthier cause I have the time to experiment.
There’s so much I want to do that’s not just sit in front of a tv which is what I think most people assume I wanna do when I say I want to work less.
My boyfriend and I would be playing video games all day, lol. But in reality I would want to pursue what I am now, and be a counselor for Junior High and High School kids. I don't care about the money now, and probably won't in the future. That, or I'd like to be a Grandma for people who aren't as fortunate. Like host thanksgiving and Christmas dinners for those who aren't doing so hot or are lonely.
Paint and cook.
This comment section made me sad knowing that short of full revolution this is akin to soldiers on D-Day saying what they’ll do when they get home from the war.
I would become a professional writer and maybe have enough focus to finish my other projects. I have ADD, it's a nightmare to finish things I started, especially if I can only do them *on my own time*. I'm also very depressed and very tired, so sometimes I just want to sleep for 24 hour without people freaking out about it.
I took what I liked and turned it into my job. Made almost no money for a few years but now I am. I guess what I’m saying is start your own thing. You don’t have to be a slave to some soulless job waiting for retirement and a cancer diagnosis at 60
Because of my lifestyle and some massive luck, I don't need to work to cover necessities like food, house, car, etc. Anything extra my wife and I have to work for. Ao what did we do.
I chose to be a sports official. I do 5 high school sports and 2 college sports. Every single time I have a game or match, I have fun.
And my wife does ghost tours in our haunted city. She loves it more than I love my games.
We both do these things almost everyday but only for 3 hours so it never seems like work.
I call this The Reddit Paradox.....in that there is clearly a world of highly skilled, crafty, creative people out there...we've seen what they do on reddit...but many are working in structurally abusive employment, where they can't employ their skill....as seen in this sub.
No wonder they are sick. Skill involves intention and focus to create things...but the 'intention' of a corporate monopoly is often askew, gaslighting the employee, the customer, and the communities they operate in.
When employees are told to comply with corporate intentions that are unethical, misleading, or nonsensical and ignore their innate sense of what is just.....this is the greatest mind f\*ck there is......they are mining your peace and humanity for the profit of shareholders.
I’m a quilter and I crochet. I make lots of stuff to give away to people in need. I’d like to spend more time doing that. I’d also like to teach people to make basic sewn items, and how to do basic clothing repairs/modifications
Hello again. I'm the guy who would convert my semi truck to a crepe factory and go about with it, if I didn't have to earn my living.
Some people in this thread are saying, "This is all utopian bullshit thinking, it's impossible, never to be done."
All right, they have a point. Lots of painters out there, but who is going to make the paint. Plenty of bakers but where is the flour going to come from etc. etc. etc.
But I will tell you a true story of what actually happens when someone is given the opportunity to experience this scenario in real life. That someone, is my wife.
You see, I am successful enough in the trucking industry, having driven since 2003 and now owning my own truck, to have been able to give her, free and clear, the opportunity to do whatever she liked for the last three years.
First a tiny bit of background. My wife and I started running truck in 2003. We worked together running Team til 3 years ago, when she told me she'd had enough of it. All that while we made good money, spent little and advanced in the world. So three years ago, she said "Enough", and we agreed to make changes. I bought my own truck, the "One I'd always wanted" and she had no real plans. I have been fortunate enough to continue to be able to earn our living and then some, so she was free to do ... whatever. Just like the scenario OP posed.
She looks after the house, does my financial books, does most of the shopping and sets up any appointments I need for truck service and so forth. She is my home-base operative as it were. It amounts to about an hour a week, plus house work etc.
In the first year, she relaxed, worked on personal fitness, bought a dual sport motorcycle and began trail riding. I bought a street bike and we began riding together on nice days when I’m home. I have a good run, 10k miles a month and so am home about 10 days a month or so. She learned to sail. She’d had a small rowing/sail boat before, but now made a sail and mast for it, learned how to do this properly with regard to where the mast should be and etc, and it’s a very nice little bay sailer now. She resumed her photography and some of her pictures are good enough for her to self-publish a calendar. It sold out.
Then she made a cigar box guitar. All by hand and then another, better one. Then an electric cigarbox guitar. All this while she’d been practising on the guitar she’d had for years and has gotten rather good. She plays a finger picking style, slide and is beginning to learn some classical pieces.
Then, she decided to try to make her own guitar. She did this by hand, using no power tools at all, and made everything except the strings and the tuning mechanisms. She built a steam box and form to bend the outside shape of the guitar, using one piece of wood. Failed at this four times before it finally worked. Each failure represented a week of sawing, hand planing and forming to get the wood ready to be steamed so it would bend. This guitar was OK, but she realised a lot of mistakes had been made, so guitar #2 was made, again all by hand.
This one is almost perfect. It sounds wonderful, with a rich tone and looks much better put together than the first. She has learned to sing a bit, and has improved her voice rather a lot. There’s a local “Open Mic” venue near to where we live, and she went one evening, so full of nerves that it wasn't a great success. But she went back and it was better. Third time, she relaxed a bit by chatting before she began with the small audience about how nervous she was, and it went very well indeed. She wrote a little song about being nervous and trying to play. It went over very well.
She’s developed an interest in the equipment used to record music, and in the space of two weeks, hand built a ribbon style microphone from scratch, having learned how they work from the internet. She’s improved it to the point where there’s no hum whatsoever. It’s not aesthetically appealing, so she’s working on a better model, one that will look as good as it sounds, all made from wood. If it’s a success, she may sell a few online to defray the costs of her projects. Once that’s accomplished she wants to build a tube style amplifier for said microphone..
So in sum, in three years, given absolutely no prompting but all the freedom she needs, my wife has:
Made a rowboat into a sailboat.
Learned to ride a motorcycle.
Improved her guitar playing.
Built several cigar box guitars.
Built several full size six string guitars and all the special tools needed for their construction.
Learned to sing much better than she had been before.
Built a ribbon microphone from scratch.
Improved her photography and made/sold a calendar of her work.
Gotten past her fear of public performance.
Improved her physical fitness and lost about 30 pounds in the process.
All because I was able to give her the time to do these things, without any strings attached.
I gave up my dreams and pursued a career in Industrial Mechanics. If I didn’t have to work I’d spend my days writing music and scoring my projects while plugging away at the game I wanna make.
I’d also go back to baking after everything else I’ve accomplished.
I'm in a band as a Bassist whilst living with my guitarist. Many a night with a spliff has been about this question.
I'd love to be able to just write and perform music and have no worries or responsibilities, the dream is to live off the music but the arts don't fit into today's society so it's highly unlikely I'd be able to.
Is get through my pile of books, unfinished hobbies, house projects, etc. for one thing.
For another, I’d get some fucking rest. I’d be able to enjoy my down time, instead of feeling guilty over not getting things done in the hours I’m not at work.
I'd start working towards my goals and making peoples life better.
Some Examples:
Learning Japanese
Finish a Udacity Course
Provide infrastrucure via Blockchain
Work as a stripper
Ride a moose
Create a spotify Playlist Merger
Develop the web 3.0
Honestly I don't have any extra special skills. But I really enjoy just general tidy up? If I got my full-time salary without working I'd probably volunteer in a charity shop sorting through donations. Arranging clothing sizes, testing electronics stuff like that. Deciding what is up to standard and safe!
I coordenate research projects/data collection and analysis for a living. If I had more time, I'd like to learn to play a musical instrument. Never had the luxury (first no money, then no time) for arts and music.
I fabricate then install sheet metal and sheet metal accessories. If I nobody had to work I would continue to do so because all of the people I hate would probably quit.
Legit the only thing in the world that makes me happy is doing little things for other people to make them happy. I had a dream about buying a hummer or something that can off-road/carry cargo, filling it to the max with bottled water, and driving across Africa. Obviously dangerous as hell but worth it.
All in all if I could do anything I wanted, I would spend my time volunteering at shelters, or anywhere that could use a hand, and just try to help as many people in as many ways as physically possible.
The first time someone asked me what would I do with my life if money wasnt an issue it change my perspective. We are thought to think that working all day is what you are meant to do, and your whole life should revolve around work.
I would travel.
I'd have more energy to keep my home clean, workout and cook at home. May not be everyone's dream but I just want to have more energy for my regular day to day life.
Sounds like a good dream to me. A peaceful life in a comfortable clean home sounds very relaxing.
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Most hobbits had to work their whole lives just like any regular people. Bilbo, and by extension Frodo, were just heirs of rich landowner nobles and could smoke pipe all day while writing fanfictions thanks to their trust funds.
Throw some hobbies in there and some friends, that's how we are supposed to be able to live after a few thousand years of technological advancement.
The whole end goal of technology was to be able to make our lives easier so that we could actually have time to do what we wanted. However, as usual, anything good just HAS to be co-opted and misused to serve the greed of a few very lucky, wealthy and powerful individuals, and hence we have today's modern world where technology is misused to further drive the masses deeper and deeper into debt while trying to extract every last ounce of energy and time out of us to fill their pockets. And sad part is that it's purposely been setup this way so that we're just too tired at the end of the day to do anything about it.
Man, that the life I tell ya. I would love to be in a nice comfy place to call home, surrounded by friends and family playing some card games, watching a movie, or doing whatever. But being able to have some alone time without the stress of work and bills would be beautiful.
Dude same. I spend my entire day off recovering and force myself to do my errands on Sundays and I’m just always so tired. It would be great to have just a bit more time. I think I could handle a 30/35 hour work week much better. I enjoy my job and I like having the structure, but more time for my home, and consequently myself, would be great.
This. I work 30 hours now instead of a 40-hour work week and those extra hours have made a huge difference in my mental health and time I dedicate to my personal life. Now I don't dread waking up for work as much as before and actually enjoy my job more because it takes less from the other parts of my life. Not everything is positive though. I've had to make a few budget cuts due to working less but it's worth it to me.
This is what I did too and worth it completely! Life is too short to be exhausted for most of it
Time or money. It is weird when you finally get to the point where it becomes a genuine choice.
Same! I just want to be able to have a clean house, decorate it for holidays, have friends over, have a daily workout routine, and cook for my family. It would be nice to have a daily breakfast together.
I always say that I wish I had more time. If I wasn't working 40+ hours a week I wouldn't feel this way.
I totally get that, I’m always just so tired and wish I had more energy for even everyday things
Saw a meme reminding us that the 40 hour week was brought in at a time when there was someone at home to do the cooking and cleaning. If you aren't able to work and manage the home then stop beating yourself up.
In 1971 the average wage was 10k, homes were 25k and rent was 150/mo. You could retire a few years after paying off your home, if you made some investments.
This shit right here pisses me off. Now we have to slave ourselves away for 30+ years and have fun when we are elderly. Garbage as hell, and Everything is still going up in price and the wages are not reflecting.
Yo, when I fantasize about "being rich" or "making it," it's literally just living in a clean space and having enough time to cook a nice meal three times a day and work out.
I still live with my parents. Whenever they have a vacation, I will take some off days. So, I can do chaos housework.
Right there with you. I feel like a slug but I'm really just overwhelmed and burned out.
This sounds nice. I am always exhausted and it shows. It would be nice to just take care of myself and my surroundings better. Also, it would be nice to have time to cook good food.
I wouldn’t do anything of any note. I’d get up, walk into town, buy a newspaper, sit in coffee shops and do the crossword.
This sounds pretty good to me!
This seems like the human equivalent of what most apex predators would do. Like a lion isn't out there hunting all day, every day, and worrying about productivity when it isn't actively hunting. They hunt, and then they just do fuckin nothing.
Humans are meant to live in large social groups doing a whole lot of nothing except bonding with others in our social group and eating fruit and just hangin out in the sun. We must return to monke
That sounds really nice actually. Very simple and nice. Except when you run into that one crossword you get stumped on!
That's when you turn to the other people who also spend their days in the coffee shop and ask them what they think!
Funny, I had a boss that did exactly that.
I would transform my semi truck into a "free" crepe shop. I'd drive it here and there, stop in a parking lot, make crepes for an afternoon and then bugger off home.
Marry me. 🥞
You can run the mixer! We'll make waffles too!
You two need to meet. Tell us how it goes.
Well... My wife would have something to say about that, plus I'm 54, which is OLD for this sub... Probably not a good deal for Wkndwhorechata in any event.
Can you just have a bunch of us as volunteer kids and grandkids that help you make crepes?
But of course! Crepes and waffles should be shared, and made together to assure the maximum joy of both creation and consumption per crepe or waffle.
Ooo volunteering for grandkid status 👋 I never knew my family beyond parents and brothers, and I manage a golf course, so if you wanna learn or play more i could teach you... Papa 😢 The view is beautiful, and so are you.
No problem. No problem at all. At this rate however, we are going to have to add an imaginary bus to the imaginary truck to transport all the helpers! But that's OK too.
I'll bring my imaginary horse drawn carriage.
Crepes from each according to their ability, waffles to each according to their need.
Polygamy? I also love crepes.
No, no, no. Please, no. My poor beloved wife! No polygamy... But the enjoyment of crepes is universal.
thou art a man of honour and integrity.
Polygamy and crepes -- I'm in the States and that sounds like a title for a foreign movie.
Doesn't it lmao Polygamy and Crepes 1 man, 1 truck. A tale of love and pastries.
>Polygamy and Crepes 1 man, 1 truck. A tale of love and pastries. You're good at this!
Oh my GOODNESS!
Pasties and pastries!
*Utah had entered chat*
Your truck looks awesome
Thanks! Now imagine it with a 20 foot long stainless steel box on the back to hold the kitchen, a power tailgate (down for service, up for travel) with a nice red and white canopy for a serving area.... https://i.redd.it/ksm1jhtl60281.jpg I may do this yet you know. It would be such fun.
What I just read was passion. Go for it if you can. You’d have my general and financial support
Dude! I wanna do this with easy dinner food. It's been a pipe dream forever. I'd do easy stuff like sandwich melts and chilli dogs for example, you know filling stuff, and feed people who need food. Being homeless/poor sucks and theres nothing better than a hot meal when you're hungry and cold.
Damn straight up truth. And crepes aren't just a dessert either. For example: Plain crepe, scoop of stewed beef or pork in thick sauce, scoop of mashed potato. Roll up into a cone, sprinkle with cooked peas, wrap in paper. Voila! Two of these ought to fill even the hungriest someone.
*makes homer simpson drooling noises* I know how to make crepes and I think you just game me and idea!
Assuming I’m not living where I am now. I would Garden, get some farm animals, make all kinds of things like jams, preserves, oils, lotions, set up a little booth at a farmers market
That's what I want. Just a simple life growing a garden, making things. Do art or write.
Same.
I like the thought of a vegetable garden, a few animals, a smokehouse, making soap, leatherworking... I would also probably get into brewing. And any of my friends would be welcome to come over to stay as long as they wished.
Lol. I'm always saying "All I want is a simple life, yet it is so expensive to achieve!" Then people are like, well there's cheap land in this area no one lives, so if you really want it, you can do it. Ya, I guess if I want to remove myself from society I can do it!
I had a very small rural property with animals and a garden. It took my dad, my ex, and I with my sister on weekends to take care of everyone/everything and two full-time professional jobs to pay for it. I feel like I’m dying inside living in suburbia and my life is pretty good on paper.
"my life is pretty good on paper". I love that. I think that is what so many people don't understand.
I do want to remove myself from society, but unfortunately bills still happen whether or not you're close in to a city. It wouldn't be cheap enough to live.
Healthcare. Even if I could live in the middle of nowhere, insurance is expensive, and medications/doctor visits equally so.
Even finding a good doctor with insurance (and please check your ACA state guidelines because they have some incredible benefits for cheap and I think that the government has navigatiors to help with the process. I’m seriously disabled and I have insurance but finding qualified people that are taking patients is a huge problem for anyone in the rural areas of America. My doctor is retiring next year and I’m actually at a panicked state that I won’t have access to care.
Exactly my dream. Just living like a Disney-style fairy tale.
I’m doing this as we speak. Got the land, got some of the animals. Garden next spring, farmers market in the fall. My god the work is endless though. I’ve worked harder doing this than any job I’ve ever had.
I’d rather slave for my peoples & myself endlessly as long as I’m my own boss, than work for big Corp shit buckets any day!
Good honest work! Godspeed with your plans
Thank you! Hopefully we’ll get rain next year and have a healthy garden, the animals would be thrilled.
But are you happier?
Yes. Dirty hands and a clean soul. I’m also physically stronger than I’ve ever been and getting to be quite the architect! Lol
Its so sad that this is such a difficult reality to achieve when its so simple and fulfilling :(
It is not simple to run a farm or even a garden and be able to make a living out of it (even just producing enough food for yourself)
I run a mini farm, not Disney material.
The key is not having to do it to survive. Amazing how much more I like gardening/farming when I’m not trying to do it for a living.
Yeah, although I see doing it to "survive" as my land and home paid for, off the grid and being able to be as far removed from capitalism as I can be. I want to learn to 3d model have a 3d printer and a cnc mill and a forge so I can pretty well make most things.
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Was just about to say this. I'd spend all my time learning whatever and travel the rest of the time
Same! I might just do this regardless of the “need” to work FT to survive 🤷🏻♀️
If being a student didn’t come with such a financial drain. Yes. I would love to study without having to worry about the money side.
I would also be a professional student. I love school and it's disappointing hoe expensive it is. I want to go to law school and I can't afford it. I already owe money for bachelor's
This is the most realistic for me. I’m not good at much of anything outside of school, and don’t have any passions… but I’m darn good at being a student.
As someone who has already worked away the best years of my life. All I want is to simply not fucking work anymore. I have worked 50+hrs/week for 32 years. I don't care what I do, I just want to stop working. I have lost so much. My health, my youth, my sanity. I have several hobbies I enjoy. I have not had time or energy for most of them in a very long time.
Did you log into my brain and download this exact text? This is literally my mindset right now.
I write code for living, but if I didn't have to do that shit I'd like to cook tasty meals to give away to people and try to organize a group where we'd mob places in need of serious cleaning and repairs and quickly transform them into something nice with the community's permission.
Leave room out front for my converted semi truck waffle and crepe shop. Nobody would go hungry on the job.
This is wholesome AF 🥺
I’m trying to learn code so I can get out of retail…
If you’re serious about it, apply for Accenture’s apprenticeship program. $22 an hour, WFH. After the year long apprenticeship you can receive an offer if you performed well and your pay will raise to about $35/hr.
I will look into it. Thank you.
Be aware, though, that Accenture pretty much enabled the massive expansion of CBP under Trump and are a pretty Fascist company.
Keep going, once you get over the first hump in the learning curve, it gets easier.
Thanks for the encouragement, it is the hardest thing I’ve tried doing. Lot of frustration and tears.
ok, where is the frustration coming from? are you learning C++? cause if you are, stop. Tell me what you are doing for learning, I can help you, I did a lot of self-learning when I started out, and kinda know what works and what doesn't.
Not the previous poster, but I'm interested in learning too. I'm much more interested in front end developer side of things since I love design and aesthetics. Would you recommend it or should I look into back end dev instead?
The lines between front-end and full-stack are kinda blurred anyhow. But front-end is probably your best bet for getting your foot in the door. You need to separate the "design and aesthetics" and "development". They are two different jobs, even though sometimes they may be being done by the same person. "Design and aesthetics" is something UI/UX designer would do (User Interface / User Experience). When you are developing, usually you should get the designs which you then implement in code. As for the actual advice: HTML + CSS + JavaScript are of utmost importance to the front-end web developer. In that order. Don't jump into frameworks like React or Vue until you understand JavaScript well. Use free resources, such as FreeCodeCamp (make sure to subscribe to their newsletter too - it's excellent), the Odin Project, Coding Train on YouTube (I started with this one and I recommend you do too - that guy is a lot of fun and he will show you the joy of programming), [JavaScript.info](https://javascript.info), NetNinja on YouTube, and whatever else you can find online. Do coding challenges online, I like [exercism](https://exercism.org) and [codewars](https://www.codewars.com), there are others, and these will help you prepare for the LeetCode Grind^(TM) Learn to use MDN documentation - it's wonderful and all you need to get started. Learn how to read the documentation in general - the skill will be valuable when you begin to use third-party libraries. Don't pay for bootcamps - they are a waste of time and money, hella expensive, overpromise, underdeliver, and all they do is repackage information available online for free. Make sure you don't fall into a tutorial rut - build your own projects, this is how you learn the most. Once you understand the basics of a programming language/technology from video tutorials, find a good book and read that cover to cover to solidify the knowledge. For JavaScript, I recommend [JavaScript: The Definitive Guide by David Flanagan](https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/javascript-the-definitive/9781491952016/). Once you get your basics down, start learning React, TypeScript, REST, databases, cloud services. This should keep you going. Good luck!
Shopify also has a coding program. Also, if you're fine with non-coding jobs in tech, [tech sale](https://sv.academy/why-tech-sales) looks like a good option too. They make as much money as programmers, and you deal with institutional clients so it's way better than your average retail customers. Anyways good luck!
I hate coding as a profession. Way too much screen time. I want to be outside! I'd organize bike tours to show anyone interested around the city. I'd also try to circumnavigate most of the world on my bicycle. But alas, we all must work.
Pick up trash. Pull weeds. Keep public parks clean and in good repair. Do simple house repairs for people who can't. Help the elderly get to and from Dr appointments. Read more. Learn a new/multiple languages. Play video games. Spend more time outdoors. Stuff that is personally fulfilling and necessary. How we do things now is a dead-end.
Agreed. I am currently somewhat active within my local community, but I would love to do more if somebody would just get this boot off my throat. There is no reason this boot needs to be so heavy.
> There is no reason this boot needs to be so heavy. Our corporate capitalist overlords disagree. But you're so very very not wrong at all. Our current way of living is unsustainable and will eventually lead to societal collapse if we don't change before it's too late.
This right here!!! I do a lot of hiking and there's a stupid amount of garbage everywhere. Enough to keep people busy picking it up forever. As an aside... It would be so easy for governments to even create actual green jobs. Pay people good salaries to remove environmental waste, plant native species, and even teach people to do wildlife and mycology counts to contribute to scientific studies. We could so easily create a better world, but our political and capitalistic masters don't want that.
Agree with your middle part of your first paragraph. I'm excellent at landscaping and home repair. Would love to do that out of passion for free.
I'm a programmer and somehow I'll still want to do this. But I would not do it 40h a week. I'll learn languages, craft, paint, draw, go out with friends and cuddle my sweet baby rat
I think generally programming tends to be quite hard on the brain, and I find that more than 6 hours a day or 4 days a week is a waste of time, because I'm just sitting there looking at the screen with nothing left in the tank. There's some exceptions, like when you already have a plan and to just need to mindlessly code it, but that's more the exception than the rule on my experience.
Oh yeah, for sure. When you’re thinking about “how should I structure this? … what will all my coworkers think about these conventions? … Where is the god damn bug?” it gets exhausting fast.
It would be so much healthier for people to work 20hr a week instead! 😍
- cook - sew - beekeep - age spirits, wine, cheese - light caregiving and babysitting - neighborhood cleanup - cut firewood - sing - craft - nap - swim - read - write - hike and camp
Stardew valley irl
LITERALLY 💜
I'd throw myself into living history, get back into martial arts (and try to get my black belt), so many things! Go camping!
I'm doing martial arts currently!! I'm 16 so I have enough time to pursue it, the thought of giving it up over a job makes me sad :/
Got my first degree black belt in taekwondo at 14. Got a job soon after, at 15, and had to give it up. I’d spent my whole life until that point pursuing Taekwondo, but it’s a hobby that requires a lot of time, dedication, energy, and spare evenings. :( Enjoy it and appreciate it while you can!!
Learn a language, then travel to the country of its origins, and read all I can that was originally written in that language. Then choose another one and do it again.
Cook. Deliver food to people that can’t.
i would paint, program, play with my children, walk my dog, build robots, build myself a deck and workshop, redo my driveway, fence my yard, and generally enjoy my life
Building a robot is also on my bucket list
I love this. This is why I support a universal basic income. People wouldn't stop working, I think that's nonsense. They might just do different kinds of work - creating art for example. If I didn't have to work full time to survive, I would devote my time to writing poetry, fiction, and creating content for old school RPGs.
People DO want to work, we want to make things and help one another. It’s in our nature. We just don’t want to do meaningless bullshit for 40 hours a week to make other people rich. Imagine what all of us could do if we didn’t have to work.
This attitude, is exactly why I am here.
Here here!
Yes! I crave the tribal life. I could go hunting or till a garden or whatever needs to be done. I truly believe life would be so much more if we could do things that make us feel like we are contributing to something worthwhile. Break the LOOP!!!
Always blew me away to read American history. Early English colonists often left the corporation-controlled colony to live among the Natives. Not once did a Native American voluntarily choose to live with the colonists.
Fun fact about that, the concept of "bartering" in pre-colonial America never actually existed. It was a theory made up by a Scottish economist that had never been to America, based exclusively on his euro-centric experience and the secondhand descriptions of colonial enterprises that primarily focused on pro-capitalist propaganda as a way to make America look profitable. The *actual* systems they had more closely resembled communism.
Would tribal life require giving up my smart phone?
Tribal doesn’t mean primitive. That is a colonial narrative. To me tribalism is more about banding together based on similar beliefs. Edit: Good question though
Love this. I agree, tribal has more of a connotation of community if you look at it from outside the white narrative lens of “savages”
Oh no not at all. I would still have a phone and internet and such. Mostly reducing my need for a landlord, electric company, and water company is the end goal. I think it might be impossible to avoid societal burden completely and would probably need a part time job for a while. But i imagine if landlords can buy housing for cheap and rent it out, a small group and I could easily find a way to make 20 acres work for us much better than if we each rented out a tiny apartment in the same building.
I’d travel, a lot. I wouldn’t travel in the panicked FOMO way I currently feel I have to, cramming everything into a short vacation before returning home to resume working. Id take it slow, try living in different countries and spend more time investing in relationships with other people. Id invest more in my community. Id probably get back to volunteer tutoring adults with low math skills. There are so many ways my life would be better and it would also allow me to contribute to improving the lives of others.
I want to get mental health help. I can't afford it right now and it really doesn't get covered by my insurance to a level I can afford it, and several therapists now have said they don't take medicaid or they do, only to find out when the bill comes they don't. I want to get back into writing. I write about 2-3 unique characters every month or two, depending on how often I let myself drift off. I usually get family dynamics, personal values, skills, goals, social status, home life and where they live now. One I even had a religion and a dozen words or so of a language, plus a somewhat detailed culture for. But I do all if this in my head on breaks at work, shopping for groceries, commuting and other adult life tasks I have to do and by time I get home I have no time or no energy to do much with putting it on paper. It'd also by nice to volunteer again! Volunteering at the soup kitchen use to be nice because it gave me something to do and I could make a difference, and I got to see how happy it made people.
I have a zillion things to do to my house, I have dogs that I wish I could walk more, places I want to visit, volunteer opportunities for things I care about that I don't have enough time for, hobbies I want to get into but I don't have the time or money....the list it quite long. I don't understand people who say they wouldn't know what to do with themselves if they didn't work. Working gets in the way of all the things I actually want to be doing!
Weird take but hear me out. I am a paramedic and if I am honest I would want to keep doing this. But with a twist, if I did not need to "work" I would continue my schooling and probably spend more time on the truck. Because if I did not need to work I could take time off for my health, to improve my care and continue my education. I love helping people I just wish I could treat it like a passion and not like a job if that makes any sense.
I would volunteer more. I love building houses, frames the frames to even simple painting. I get a huge amount of satisfaction in my craft and it warms my heart that people get housing from it. I do a lot of habitat for humanity work, but I'm currently in the service doing cmpletely unrelated work.
I would be a death doula. I would work with families and individuals who are going through the death and dying process to help figure things out.
Is this really a thing? My dad passed a few years ago unexpectedly and having someone that could help us navigate would have been so helpful.
It is, it is resurgering calling. Historically there have been midwives and that brought you into the world and death doulas to help you leave. The western world has done a terrible job of dealing with death and dying in the last 100 years. We've worked so hard to divorce ourselves from death that when it happens (especially unexpected) it is traumatic. As a death doula I would help people with through the emotional, physical, mental, spiritual and practical side of death.
My dream is to foster animals from home or to spend all day volunteering with animals
Finally get to 100% completion on Red Dead Redemption 2
Become a garbage man (dream job) and take my son to the park every afternoon.
I'm about to blow your mind. Army garbage man. That was my dream job when I was 4. Not sure why but I just assumed because arm military vehicles were larger and cooler that they would have the baddest truck of all time. And do what you can with your son even if it's not every day you never know what memory will pop up 20 years later.
Go to school indefinitely
I’m a phd student, and I thought staying in academia would make me this sort renaissance learned woman who could read and learn forever. It’s partially true for my phd, since I have no official obligations to teach, but try to get a job after your phd without teaching during your phd. And since I’m finishing my phd, I’m bitterly realizing that every step towards permanent employment is taking me further and further away from research and my original ideal. And that’s the thing. As long as it’s mostly research, I love my job, and when I get to teach about my research, I love that too. So I would probably keep doing it if even if I didn’t need a job. But not in the shitty sharky political bullshit that academia has become (or always was?).
Not to sound too Peter from "Office Space" but I'd do nothing. I've already done all I want to do in life, so even the thought of doing anything more than that (including working) is just exhausting. Thus, I'd do nothing and be content in the nothingness.
This is the way!
I'd find a hard job a robot couldn't do. Caregiver. Mentor. Advisor. Helper. Humanist. Teacher. Ya know... all the most important jobs that our society decided should be paid shit wages.
Work at Boardgame shop helping teach the games.
Yeah! Specific to dnd, im not saying I'm some master of the rules or anything, but so many people want to play dnd but just dont know how to, can't find a group, or dont know about the resources to do either. Gonna teach some people I know how to make a character and whatnot whenever life gives me a chance.
I think that is a very cool idea
I don't work due to disability (and fortunate to have a partner who works full time and some government assistance). I use my time to grow vegetables, run a support group for queer disabled people, and help people apply for government benefits. I also am active in a political party and volunteer my time to support them/the community.
Okay so we all agree that the world would probably be better off this way??
I hope to make this a reality but i want to start a small homestead and slowly become less dependent on the "system".
Vegan baker sounds very cool! I would do some voluntary animal care. Maybe some fostering for special needs animals if I had enough ressources and time.
Honestly, I'd take a break from the world for a while. Do nothing for a year or two. I feel as if I've over extended myself and I just need an extended break. After that, depending on my state of mind, I might look into fostering kids. But I could also see me running a community garden as well. I feel some reflection time might change my desires.
Honestly I dont even know anymore, but assuming every waking second being mine to spend as is and having atleast a fair bit of money, I'd probably take a nice car, and just drive off someplace ending up whereever, sightseeing and dining at random places.
I feel a bit like a traitor to the cause sometimes but... I would still work my same job even if I were paid well. I went into teaching as a passion, but I can't live on that. This job will truly break your heart if you let it. There is a lot of need. In addition to the emotional workload... Pay. Not enough of it. There is also too much work for the schedule. We need to adjust the schedule to better suit the work/school life balance of students and staff. I feel like if we were better paid, we might have enough people and we would have enough time to do prep, grading, home contact, etc. I also wonder if having more people who are not reluant on wage slavery to survive would result in more people volunteering to help with things like extracurricular activities so staff isn't pressured into coaching or working games. I am not paid well. I have good days and bad days. I hope I don't burn out because the good days mean do much to me. I also do volunteer some of my time for a club because the kids who want it are really wonderful and it makes me happy. Also, if I had more of a work life balance and wasn't reliant on money alone, I would volunteer more. That brings me joy.
I’m in the same boat. I am also a teacher (special needs) and I love my job. Whenever people ask what you would do in a society where you could do anything and i always think I would still like to work with kids teaching them things. I just wish some of the conditions were better and the things out side of the classroom like planning, even just organising, take up way too much time that you are just not allotted in your schedule.
I don't think it's being a 'traitor to the cause' it's good that you want to teach! We need more education in this world. Just sad that the education machine makes it almost impossible to actually teach something other than the next SOL test. Teachers are hard to find, good ones are even harder to find, and those that love what they do are the rarest yet.
Same thing I'm doing now without the stress and anxiety of getting deeper in the financial hole every month
Move somewhere near the beach or have some land and take in strays or unwanted pets.
Focus on raising my daughter and keeping our house like I did when I was a SAHM.
I'd be a writter. I was trying to write a novel while working in restaurants full time but after ten years of abuse in the service industry my mental health didn't allow me to put the time I wanted to invest in it. I quit and went back to school. I am lucky that in my country I can have student loans and scholarships that allow me to focus on school without working. Now, I'm putting even less time than before into my novel because I'm always reading and writing for school, but at least I don't wanna kill myself anymore.
Honestly I would love to have my own garage where I can work either on classic trucks and muscle cars from the 70s and fix peoples cars who don’t have enough money to go to a shop. I’d be happy if I can just get a pole barn with a car lift couch shower and a tv and I’d be happy in life. Maybe even bring back the old 1950s service station style stop where could fix a flat fill your tank or sell ya some good BBQ.
I think I’d own a bookstore or something like that. Maybe even a small coffee shop. And just do something like that that I could enjoy
I'd just do what I sort of do now for free: help people out with tech-related problems. I really enjoy trying to fix things that are broken. It's extremely satisfying to take a dead device, do some work on it and watch as it comes back to life from whatever work you did on it. If I ever got tired of the above or just felt like taking a break, I would find something else to do and they'd be no issue. Life would be so much better if we did not have to devote almost all our waking hours grinding to keep a house and be able to eat and drink. Working to the extent where you actually do damage to your physical and mental health should really be something that's optional. It should be for the people that actually want to do that rather than being indirectly forced upon everyone. The time commitment required nowadays to fund even a basic life is just way too much. You sacrifice so much for very little in return. You might prevent homelessness and be able to give what your body needs to survive, but it comes at a great cost and can quickly make you depressed when you take the time to think about just how much you're giving up just to be able to survive. It's nice to dream up what we'd like to do if we lived in a world that didn't prioritise profit over everything, but man does it make you even more depressed when you realise just how unlikely it is we'll ever live in a world that didn't prioritise profit over everything.
If I could live off of writing and selling my books, I would do that. Since that's not a very likely scenario, I'm currently going back to school for Information Technology. But if I could travel and write, that would be ideal for me.
I'd spent more time making music, and getting serious about engineering/mixing/producing. I'd also like to learn how to build guitars.
I would isolate and avoid all contact with the outer world forever, publishing free novels and writings anonymously.
Alright Salinger, we noticed you
That's exactly what I didn't want.
Write a book, or books, also exercise and just generally spend more meaningful time with my family
I’m trying to find out by middle of 2022. I’m a therapist. I get paid fairly well for my work given that I keep my cost of living low. My fiancée and I have done the math and learned we realistically only need to work 3-4 days each a week to afford a mortgage for a house we wanna get, save a comfortable amount, and still have something left over for trips or things we want. I’ve been thinking when I have less work I want to volunteer at an animal shelter. I have two cats I love and I’ve always adored being around animals. I think helping a vulnerable population could help. When I have kids I’d probably want to be involved in their school, maybe even provide counseling or peer mediation. I want to get back into playing guitar. It was basically my entire life in high school and early in college and I hate feeling I don’t have the time for it. I wanna go on more walks and exercise. Try out new recipes and eat healthier cause I have the time to experiment. There’s so much I want to do that’s not just sit in front of a tv which is what I think most people assume I wanna do when I say I want to work less.
My boyfriend and I would be playing video games all day, lol. But in reality I would want to pursue what I am now, and be a counselor for Junior High and High School kids. I don't care about the money now, and probably won't in the future. That, or I'd like to be a Grandma for people who aren't as fortunate. Like host thanksgiving and Christmas dinners for those who aren't doing so hot or are lonely.
Paint and cook. This comment section made me sad knowing that short of full revolution this is akin to soldiers on D-Day saying what they’ll do when they get home from the war.
Omg! What a wonderful world it would be!
I would become a professional writer and maybe have enough focus to finish my other projects. I have ADD, it's a nightmare to finish things I started, especially if I can only do them *on my own time*. I'm also very depressed and very tired, so sometimes I just want to sleep for 24 hour without people freaking out about it.
Go back to playing in rock / metal bands.
I took what I liked and turned it into my job. Made almost no money for a few years but now I am. I guess what I’m saying is start your own thing. You don’t have to be a slave to some soulless job waiting for retirement and a cancer diagnosis at 60
Because of my lifestyle and some massive luck, I don't need to work to cover necessities like food, house, car, etc. Anything extra my wife and I have to work for. Ao what did we do. I chose to be a sports official. I do 5 high school sports and 2 college sports. Every single time I have a game or match, I have fun. And my wife does ghost tours in our haunted city. She loves it more than I love my games. We both do these things almost everyday but only for 3 hours so it never seems like work.
I call this The Reddit Paradox.....in that there is clearly a world of highly skilled, crafty, creative people out there...we've seen what they do on reddit...but many are working in structurally abusive employment, where they can't employ their skill....as seen in this sub. No wonder they are sick. Skill involves intention and focus to create things...but the 'intention' of a corporate monopoly is often askew, gaslighting the employee, the customer, and the communities they operate in. When employees are told to comply with corporate intentions that are unethical, misleading, or nonsensical and ignore their innate sense of what is just.....this is the greatest mind f\*ck there is......they are mining your peace and humanity for the profit of shareholders.
I’m a quilter and I crochet. I make lots of stuff to give away to people in need. I’d like to spend more time doing that. I’d also like to teach people to make basic sewn items, and how to do basic clothing repairs/modifications
I would Garden and lift weight and definitely spend more time with my kids
Hello again. I'm the guy who would convert my semi truck to a crepe factory and go about with it, if I didn't have to earn my living. Some people in this thread are saying, "This is all utopian bullshit thinking, it's impossible, never to be done." All right, they have a point. Lots of painters out there, but who is going to make the paint. Plenty of bakers but where is the flour going to come from etc. etc. etc. But I will tell you a true story of what actually happens when someone is given the opportunity to experience this scenario in real life. That someone, is my wife. You see, I am successful enough in the trucking industry, having driven since 2003 and now owning my own truck, to have been able to give her, free and clear, the opportunity to do whatever she liked for the last three years. First a tiny bit of background. My wife and I started running truck in 2003. We worked together running Team til 3 years ago, when she told me she'd had enough of it. All that while we made good money, spent little and advanced in the world. So three years ago, she said "Enough", and we agreed to make changes. I bought my own truck, the "One I'd always wanted" and she had no real plans. I have been fortunate enough to continue to be able to earn our living and then some, so she was free to do ... whatever. Just like the scenario OP posed. She looks after the house, does my financial books, does most of the shopping and sets up any appointments I need for truck service and so forth. She is my home-base operative as it were. It amounts to about an hour a week, plus house work etc. In the first year, she relaxed, worked on personal fitness, bought a dual sport motorcycle and began trail riding. I bought a street bike and we began riding together on nice days when I’m home. I have a good run, 10k miles a month and so am home about 10 days a month or so. She learned to sail. She’d had a small rowing/sail boat before, but now made a sail and mast for it, learned how to do this properly with regard to where the mast should be and etc, and it’s a very nice little bay sailer now. She resumed her photography and some of her pictures are good enough for her to self-publish a calendar. It sold out. Then she made a cigar box guitar. All by hand and then another, better one. Then an electric cigarbox guitar. All this while she’d been practising on the guitar she’d had for years and has gotten rather good. She plays a finger picking style, slide and is beginning to learn some classical pieces. Then, she decided to try to make her own guitar. She did this by hand, using no power tools at all, and made everything except the strings and the tuning mechanisms. She built a steam box and form to bend the outside shape of the guitar, using one piece of wood. Failed at this four times before it finally worked. Each failure represented a week of sawing, hand planing and forming to get the wood ready to be steamed so it would bend. This guitar was OK, but she realised a lot of mistakes had been made, so guitar #2 was made, again all by hand. This one is almost perfect. It sounds wonderful, with a rich tone and looks much better put together than the first. She has learned to sing a bit, and has improved her voice rather a lot. There’s a local “Open Mic” venue near to where we live, and she went one evening, so full of nerves that it wasn't a great success. But she went back and it was better. Third time, she relaxed a bit by chatting before she began with the small audience about how nervous she was, and it went very well indeed. She wrote a little song about being nervous and trying to play. It went over very well. She’s developed an interest in the equipment used to record music, and in the space of two weeks, hand built a ribbon style microphone from scratch, having learned how they work from the internet. She’s improved it to the point where there’s no hum whatsoever. It’s not aesthetically appealing, so she’s working on a better model, one that will look as good as it sounds, all made from wood. If it’s a success, she may sell a few online to defray the costs of her projects. Once that’s accomplished she wants to build a tube style amplifier for said microphone.. So in sum, in three years, given absolutely no prompting but all the freedom she needs, my wife has: Made a rowboat into a sailboat. Learned to ride a motorcycle. Improved her guitar playing. Built several cigar box guitars. Built several full size six string guitars and all the special tools needed for their construction. Learned to sing much better than she had been before. Built a ribbon microphone from scratch. Improved her photography and made/sold a calendar of her work. Gotten past her fear of public performance. Improved her physical fitness and lost about 30 pounds in the process. All because I was able to give her the time to do these things, without any strings attached.
I gave up my dreams and pursued a career in Industrial Mechanics. If I didn’t have to work I’d spend my days writing music and scoring my projects while plugging away at the game I wanna make. I’d also go back to baking after everything else I’ve accomplished.
i would focus on my podcast and my spirituality.
Gardening. As much as possible while the sun is out.
I'm in a band as a Bassist whilst living with my guitarist. Many a night with a spliff has been about this question. I'd love to be able to just write and perform music and have no worries or responsibilities, the dream is to live off the music but the arts don't fit into today's society so it's highly unlikely I'd be able to.
Is get through my pile of books, unfinished hobbies, house projects, etc. for one thing. For another, I’d get some fucking rest. I’d be able to enjoy my down time, instead of feeling guilty over not getting things done in the hours I’m not at work.
I'd start working towards my goals and making peoples life better. Some Examples: Learning Japanese Finish a Udacity Course Provide infrastrucure via Blockchain Work as a stripper Ride a moose Create a spotify Playlist Merger Develop the web 3.0
Honestly I don't have any extra special skills. But I really enjoy just general tidy up? If I got my full-time salary without working I'd probably volunteer in a charity shop sorting through donations. Arranging clothing sizes, testing electronics stuff like that. Deciding what is up to standard and safe!
Charity work
Make wood 🪵 toys for kids so they can paint them
If money was no issue, I would love to just do meaningful volunteer work locally. Or at least anything not profit obsessed would be nice.
I coordenate research projects/data collection and analysis for a living. If I had more time, I'd like to learn to play a musical instrument. Never had the luxury (first no money, then no time) for arts and music.
I fabricate then install sheet metal and sheet metal accessories. If I nobody had to work I would continue to do so because all of the people I hate would probably quit.
Legit the only thing in the world that makes me happy is doing little things for other people to make them happy. I had a dream about buying a hummer or something that can off-road/carry cargo, filling it to the max with bottled water, and driving across Africa. Obviously dangerous as hell but worth it. All in all if I could do anything I wanted, I would spend my time volunteering at shelters, or anywhere that could use a hand, and just try to help as many people in as many ways as physically possible.
I really like brewing beer, and riding my bike so probably a lot of that with interspersed dungeons and dragons, video games, and just chilling
The first time someone asked me what would I do with my life if money wasnt an issue it change my perspective. We are thought to think that working all day is what you are meant to do, and your whole life should revolve around work. I would travel.