I want to feel secure and stable by having a paying job, and I want to share my gifts in aligned ways with the right people. On my advise me page I ask for help with the former desire. On this page I ask for help with the latter desire.
As I create this page, I notice another desire: “What do I do (that will make money) with my life?” I love how I spend my time, and I want to be paid more and more often.
I'm open to expanding an existing offering, collaborating, finding clients, or developing something new.
Skim, read, or feed this page to your LLM, and give me your feedback, reflections, or advice.
Here's much of what I've done that has made money and/or provided value to others, ordered from least to most enjoyable:
Accounting Job
I did Excel things and filled out documents justifying those Excel things. I worked one unexpected 16 hour Friday and got on Indeed that weekend.
Instagram Posting
I'm glad to practice sharing things I know on camera and expanding my capacity to be seen, but after dozens of reps it continues to be effortful, and I'm not yet willing to optimize my reels for the algorithm. Wait. I could have an agent optimize them for me...
UI Engineering Job
I enjoyed expanding my comfort zone by demo'ing what I'd worked on at company-wide meetings. I also liked collaborating with designers and having a just-right cadence of work to do. I ought to have sought explicit mentorship and a process for improving my technical skills.
Freelance Developer Work
We are now entering the category of me-shaped service. I love making web apps for people I know! I enjoy collaborating with them on improvements based on feedback from them and app users. I love the autonomy of the work and how I own every facet of what I ship.
Essay Writing
I love when I am inspired to write and the feeling of having written something. This inspiration has come to me less frequently lately, though a recent long essay has been well-received. I wonder whether my words will someday surpass the reach of my most popular essay.
Social Media Marketing
I loved doing this for a startup because the work was nothing but brainstorming and writing tweets. The boss and I disagreed on what makes a good tweet :^) but it was fun while it lasted.
Artistic Creations
I love making art: playing with mediums and constraints, enjoying the last 20/80 of a creation as much as the first 80/20, watching my unique styles emerge.
Pedicab Driving
I did this as a youth for some spending cash and got good at chatting up strangers, distracting them from the danger of riding seatbeltless in an open vehicle, and being comfortable with people declining a ride. Good exercise too.
Figure Drawing Modeling
On one level it's just doing nothing. On another, it's a practice in holding still, in being perceived and studied, in being with my thoughts. I have been flattered to be depicted as art.
General Coaching
I'm grateful to be trusted to receive people's preoccupations and worries, their questions and dreams. It is a treasured gift to provide my reflections and questions about what clients have brought to me. I was recently inspired to revise and relaunch my coaching offering.
Social Media Coaching
I helped a friend become more comfortable with tweeting and uncovering things in his life he wants to share publicly. The work felt natural and effortless: being with his resistance, asking genuine questions, and encouraging him.
Portfolio Web App Development
I love making web apps: tools, games, and experiments. I have been particularly inspired to use the social data from Community Archive to make Twesties and Common Tongue. It's fulfilling to craft and share unique experiences.
Twitter Posting
Over 80,000 tweets. Lately I see it as an archive of who I am at a given time. So many moods and postures and gifts and insecurities and manic spells and contemplations and questions are collected there. More to come.
Tantra Practitioner Sessions
This is the most fulfilling work I do: grounded, slow, intuitive, attentive, attuned, loving, present. I appreciate the challenge of this soul-aligned work being uncommon and taboo. I believe it will become more and more accepted throughout my life, but it's not later, it's now. I'm collaborating with another practitioner on an event to teach what we've learned and gained from our respective tantra educations.
There are also personal growth areas that are helpful in discovering what to do with my life:
Noticing and acting on intuitive pings. I have been happy to do this more often. At the time of publishing, I am making things informed by my intuition every week.
Being more proactive, agentic, and ambitious. I tend to feel content regardless of my external circumstances. I help myself to do more and pursue more when I focus on the joys of helping others, expressing myself, and finishing what I start.
Caring less about others' perceptions of me. I sometimes give someone else's perception of me more weight than my own. When I feel unsafe being seen or misunderstood, I can become more focused on how I'm coming across than on what I want to share or do. I want to notice when that happens, return to my own judgment, and let people see me as they do.
What patterns do you notice in what I enjoy and what others value? What might I try next that could bring those things together and earn money?
