A loose post about makers and making

I've submitted a few things to Leila's projects in the past (hi Leila) and I've followed her career with interest, or more accurately, a kind of morbid fascination, like watching a tightrope walker without a net. I'm not acquainted with anyone else who is forging quite that kind of path - I know plenty of people who are making less money than they could to do something they love (or at least enjoy), but they usually do so within the framework of existing institutions such as charities, think tanks or public sector bodies. I also know people who are unhappy with what they are doing and want to be more "creative", but don't really know how to make the first step - they are just sort of chasing a fevered image in their heads of a better life, without actually working towards it or making sacrifices.

In the same week that I was more or less making peace with the idea of plying my trade in the lower echelons of the Championship, her post on Final Bullet about doubling down on the route she's chosen had a strange, refracted kind of resonance with me. I came across it this morning and have read it several times.

I take a light interest in maker/hacker/art-tech culture, mostly just by reading Boing Boing, those guys all seem to be roughly on the right side, but I find the relentless, unanchored optimism a little wearing. To read someone from that culture take off that mask and lay out so clearly the economic realities of a congested, under-financed culture (the economics of both money and attention), to criticise not just aspects of the culture but themselves, is exhilarating, almost shocking. I don't how other people in that culture react to this kind of writing, maybe it's not as transgressive as it seems to the casual observer, but like I say I've read and reread it.

I don't really know where I'm going with this, I need to get on with my day. There's no conclusion, it's just something that struck me.

EDIT: I should say that the reason I take a light interest in said culture is because it seems to represent some kind of vanguard or frontier (of what, precisely, I'm not sure), and there is interesting stuff happening there.

UPDATE June 3: I see Leila has not just read but linked to this post! Hi Leila - I'm sorry if I breached any sort of internet etiquette by not contacting you directly about writing this, but it's basically just an anonymous blog about my job search / midlife crisis with an intended audience of about four people. It didn't seem appropriate to comment on your blog post because (as you can see above) I don't really have anything substantial to say, other than that the ripples just sort of reached my pond. Anyway take care and all the best.