Sunday, June 05, 2005
Quitting
Outer Life reveals his quitting fantasy. My fantasy was simple -- I would walk up to my boss and start singing that old Johnny Paycheck song, "Take this job and shove it, I ain't workin' here no more."
I did quit, but I chickened out. No Johnny Paycheck song, no bridges burned. I wrote a diplomatic letter of resignation instead. Quitting was one of the best things I ever did, though. Income is now a fourth of what it was, I eat a lot of peanut butter, beans, and rice, and my book buying is confined to the dollar bin at the bookstore. But I kept my sanity.
Fred Reed has some related thoughts:
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I did quit, but I chickened out. No Johnny Paycheck song, no bridges burned. I wrote a diplomatic letter of resignation instead. Quitting was one of the best things I ever did, though. Income is now a fourth of what it was, I eat a lot of peanut butter, beans, and rice, and my book buying is confined to the dollar bin at the bookstore. But I kept my sanity.
Fred Reed has some related thoughts:
When your expenses are few, your susceptibility to economic serfdom is small. You do not need to work miserably in a pointless job for a boss you would gleefully strangle. Yes, you need money. The first principle is never to work in a job that you cannot afford to quit. This means avoiding any job with a retirement, of which you will become a prisoner. The second principle is to work at something portable that you can do independently and, preferably, without capital.
