The article opens with "I’ve been an artist my whole life, in various forms -- children’s book illustrator, tattoo artist, and maker of branded images and chara

The article opens with "I’ve been an artist my whole life, in various forms -- children’s book illustrator, tattoo artist, and maker of branded images and characters." so presumably they know at least one artist: themselves. A career like that has probably left them with social circles that include a lot of other artists. That said, yeah, I think the only artist in my circles (I'm a artist myself) who regularly expresses envy of people in tech is the one who's never quite managed to get their career off the ground and is stuck in a series of mediocre clerical support gigs. I sure as fuck wouldn't want to trade "swanning around the parks and cafes of a beautiful tourist destination, working about 20h/week, and paying my rent via Patreon support" for having to go to an office and work on making the FAANGs of the world even richer than they already are.