An interesting point. Is it more interesting to do the work, or to pay for the work? I'd come down on the of doing the work, though I guess if you pay for the

An interesting point. Is it more interesting to do the work, or to pay for the work? I'd come down on the of doing the work, though I guess if you pay for the work, you can be present for the fun bits and absent for the hard slog (the majority). The problem with doing is that it can be hard to make end meet while doing interesting work with long term payoffs. The options I can think of are: 1) Get an interesting job. 2) Fight tooth and nail to the top of the career/academic heap in a boring job and hope you make it to a position of being able to set your own interesting work while you still have brain cells. 3) Find an angel or patron who is prepared to pay for an interesting long shot. 4) Say hang it, and do interesting work while keeping your lifestyle within the modest remuneration you can scape together. 5) Part time work, with interesting stuff making up a full time load. Can anyone suggest other options that might work with dependents?