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That might be why in this week’s survey, two-thirds of self-employed people said they’re living anything but the dream. A dream employer for them is not their c

by arn 16y ago

That might be why in this week’s survey, two-thirds of self-employed people said they’re living anything but the dream. A dream employer for them is not their current status of self-employment. Little data given, but this strikes me as one of those hard to measure things. It's like how surveys show that children don't make people "happier" and yet you'll be hard pressed to find any parent that would give it up. Similarly, these 2/3 of people self employed could get a traditional job.... but they don't. I guess it depends how the questions are worded. Could things be better? Of course. Would you give it up? Well, presumably they could. Relevant cartoon: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/working_home http://theoatmeal.com/comics/working_home Edit: also curious about how many people who do work in the companies in the top list actually list their own companies. Grass is always greener sort of effect. What percentage of Google employees consider Google their "dream job"?

maxawaytoolong 16y ago
Himilarly, these 2/3 of people self employed could get a traditional job.... but they don't. This isn't necessarily true. The hacker news world of prep school kids that turn down $200K/yr junior investment banking jobs to work on their Facebook gaming startups sort of warps this perspective. Many, if not most, self employed people are self employed because they would never get hired at a regular job. There was even a time when this was true in Silicon Valley.
- philwelch 16y ago
  The hacker news world of prep school kids that turn down $200K/yr junior investment banking jobs to work on their Facebook gaming startups sort of warps this perspective. There's something that strikes me as odd about this statement; I didn't realize we were all supposed to be prep school kids with the option of having $200k/yr junior investment banking jobs.
serverdude 16y ago
@arn, I agree and you give a lovely example of parents wanting to have children and point to an even lovelier set of cartoons - they totally cracked me up - thank you!!:)

by arn 16y ago

maxawaytoolong 16y ago

Himilarly, these 2/3 of people self employed could get a traditional job.... but they don't. This isn't necessarily true. The hacker news world of prep school kids that turn down $200K/yr junior investment banking jobs to work on their Facebook gaming startups sort of warps this perspective. Many, if not most, self employed people are self employed because they would never get hired at a regular job. There was even a time when this was true in Silicon Valley.

philwelch 16y ago
The hacker news world of prep school kids that turn down $200K/yr junior investment banking jobs to work on their Facebook gaming startups sort of warps this perspective. There's something that strikes me as odd about this statement; I didn't realize we were all supposed to be prep school kids with the option of having $200k/yr junior investment banking jobs.

serverdude 16y ago

@arn, I agree and you give a lovely example of parents wanting to have children and point to an even lovelier set of cartoons - they totally cracked me up - thank you!!:)