Cold Open

Preview

This chapter is available for free on this page, but it’s also archived here in the Live Edition Blog so that you can read all the chapters in order.


I quit my last job in 2019. And upon hearing that I had no plans to find a new job and that I was simply going back to “working on my own”, my coworkers would immediately say, “Oh, so you’re going to be an entrepreneur then!”

And I remember thinking to myself, “What a strange conclusion to draw… when did I say that?”

Why on earth would I have wanted to be an entrepreneur? Run a company? Manage employees? Be responsible for their livelihoods? I couldn’t think of anything more nightmarish, or anything less freeing. I had not been bitten by the entrepreneurial bug, thank you very much, and it made me shudder to think they would reduce me to something so… basic.

That was six years ago, and a lot has happened since. I launched The Dollhouse Project, was lucky to get featured by a bunch of magazines, produced a miniature roombox for Samsung, moved halfway across the world, did a Masters at RISD, gave a TEDx talk among a bunch of others, wrote a new book on internet memes, received grants for my projects, built a practice around creating experimental artist books, had one of them acquired by museums and libraries, started teaching at RISD, got commissioned to create the kinds of insane projects I’ve always wanted to be known for — such as turning someone into the protagonist of their own miniature mystery (which included getting paid to threaten their cat with kidnapping). And to tie a nice little bow on all of it, cut to today, I’m now the owner of what’s called an “extraordinary ability” visa that serves as some kind of petty proof that all of the above was perhaps worth something quantifiable after all. If I could prove my case — no, my life vision — to the stodgy immigration officer who reviewed my application, surely I was done making my case to the rest of the world. Surely, my life — which was finally finally beginning to look the way I’d always wanted it to — was proof enough that I was doing something right. 

And yet, to this day, I continue to receive versions of that same old question, cloaked in different garb each time, but essentially still asking the same thing. 

“So what’s the plan now? Are you looking for a job?”

Not if I can help it.

“Wouldn’t it be less stressful to have a steady job where you don’t have to worry about where your next paycheck comes from?”

You mean like all those other people who became entirely reliant on their employer and then lost their job in a mass layoff and realized there was no such thing as the “job security” they’d been promised if they studied hard in school?

“Oh cool, you’re teaching now? … What?... Oh. Part-time? Hmm…”

I love teaching part-time — I’m only contractually obliged to teach my courses and then I get the rest of the week to work on all my own stuff. Besides, almost everyone I know who teaches full-time is some version of miserable.

“So, what do you do exactly?”

Just… this.

 
  • This book consists not of chapters, but of reminders.

    Many of them are in fact reminders I would often leave for myself … on my desktop wallpaper, on my Notion dashboard, on post-its around my apartment … reminders that would keep me focused and help me stay the course and not give in to the bullshit advice the rest of the world spews my way every single day.

    And since I’m a good little designer who thinks about things like “user experience”, at the end of this book, you’ll find a handy list of those reminders, gathered on a single page for your convenience. Designed so you can tear it out and put it up in your own home to remind you not to give in to the bullshit advice the rest of the world will spew your way.

    Every. Single. Day.

  • While I’m certain there may be several thematic overlaps, this book bears no particular relation to Daniel H. Pink’s Free Agent Nation (2002), which I discovered shortly after titling my own book and then asking ChatGPT if the name was already taken. It said no, but it did point me to Pink’s book, which I then promptly put on my reading list. And I have every intention to read it before I finish writing this, so that I may confidently tell you exactly what is and isn’t different about this book.

    Fun fact: I myself first learned of the term “free agent” in the context of professional sports. No, not from having even the slightest interest in sports, but rather from reading corny hockey-themed gay romance novels, of which there exists an entire thriving subgenre. You’re welcome.

 
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#1. Find the Thing You’d Gladly Do For Free.