This weekend I got to seriously considering whether perhaps I hadn’t better just pack it in and make a fresh start in some less doomed, more remunerative industry—which at present is pretty much anything short of buggy-whip manufacture. Maybe it’s failure of imagination, but to my own astonishment, I realized I was hard pressed to come up with anything else I thought I could stomach doing, at least without another five or so years of schooling. Logically, I should probably find this depressing; instead, I find it oddly reassuring. Anyone who’s found himself misting up to Carl Dennis’ “The God Who Loves You” will have a sense of what I mean.
Amor Fati
June 15th, 2009 · 10 Comments
Tags: Journalism & the Media · Personal
10 responses so far ↓
1 Doug // Jun 15, 2009 at 11:26 am
There’s a Garth Brooks version of that poem, for what that’s worth.
I wish you the best, friend. Try making a career in commenting.
2 Dan Summers // Jun 15, 2009 at 12:21 pm
Based upon your post above, I have called my accountant, and am moving my retirement savings out of the buggy-whip sector.
I am sometimes seized by existential angst, and wonder what else I might have done with my life. (This occurs most often when I am on call, and have to drag my sorry carcass to the hospital at 3 AM.) Thankfully, the sandwich shop downstairs makes really good BLTs, which go a long way toward soothing existential angst.
3 daveheal // Jun 15, 2009 at 5:14 pm
You could always go to law school at night like Stephen Glass. And, you know, skip the ignominious flame out.
4 Greg N. // Jun 15, 2009 at 8:03 pm
Back into think tank world?
5 Andrew // Jun 15, 2009 at 8:30 pm
My supervisor at work had an undergrad, masters, and half a doctorate in philosophy, and decided there was no way he could make a living with it, so he went back and got a masters in computer science and works using that.
Is there anything you have an interest in that could be formalized with a 2-3 year masters program? If you’re willing to work extra hard or use one of those mail order universities, you can get it down to 18 months. TV tells me I can be an NHRA mechanic, a video game developer, or a forensic scientist in no time at all from the comfort of my couch. Surely they’re not all lying, right?
6 Patrick // Jun 15, 2009 at 9:59 pm
I don’t think Westfield Whip Manufacturing Company is going to go under. I can’t say the same for the NYT.
7 asg // Jun 15, 2009 at 10:08 pm
They’re definitely lying about the video game developer prospect. heh
8 Emma Zahn // Jun 16, 2009 at 11:30 am
Scroll down to the next poem.
Why not become one of those?
Think about it. What were early sci-fi writers if not prophets? Not as sure about contemporary writers.
You even have connections and readers already in the field. I saw a link to you at a Fringe site. And isn’t Yglesias’ father a writer/screenwriter?
At the risk of making you even more dysphoric, our society does not really have many places for people with your intelligence outside the hard sciences. The only one that I can think of that has potential for both fortune and fame –entertainment.
So write a short-story, get a Hugo, a Nebula, an Aurora. Turn the story into a screenplay, make a movie and voila, you are rich and even maybe happy.
Whatever you decide to do, you have my very best wishes for success.
9 Julian Sanchez // Jun 16, 2009 at 12:59 pm
I realize this may have come across angstier than it should–it’s just that I’m finally getting around to thinking about what kind of more permanent gig I should be looking for, and in this economy it’s hard not to consider whether journalism is a smart place to be looking at all. And, you know, probably not, but “here I stand” and all that.
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