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One thing that I've found interesting about Iceland is that it is the country with the most authors per capita: https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24399599 http

One thing that I've found interesting about Iceland is that it is the country with the most authors per capita: https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24399599 https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24399599 https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/444296-most-published-writers-per-capita https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/444296-mo... But of course most of these authors aren't full-time authors whose income comes chiefly from their books. In fact, the Icelandic Prime Minister recently released a novel: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/28/iceland-pm-releases-novel-reykjavik-katrin-jakobsdottir https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/28/iceland-pm-rel... Having a small and sparse population, Icelanders seem to have a tradition of wearing multiple hats rather than sticking with one specialization. When the men's football team made their first World Cup, the head coach wasn't just a football coach, he also happened to be a dentist: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heimir_Hallgrímsson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heimir_Hallgrímsson It seems like a lot of people lament that more folks can't make it as full-time authors, but I don't really have a problem with that if the demand for their writing isn't there. But if the US were more like Iceland and typical "real" jobs paid a livable wage with reasonable hours, maybe those passionate about writing could still manage to take a shot at it without it being a big deal if their book turned out to be a commercial flop?

gloryjulio 3y ago
> But if the US were more like Iceland and typical "real" jobs paid a livable wage with reasonable hours That's the key issue in general, not just for US. When the system is designed to extract maximum efficiency, there is little room for other stuff
- tw235346nmolk 3y ago
  Maximum efficiency in regards to what metric? (Before you say 'money/the economy', inequality seems to be bad in that respect [1], and that's about the only thing in regards to which US system seems to be highly efficiency ;) [1] https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/sdn/2015/sdn1513.pdf https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/sdn/2015/sdn1513.pdf
  - burnished 3y ago
    I believe that is what they are referring to, 'the system' being highly efficient at allocating process improvements/efficiency improvements to the owners of capital leading to the income inequality you note
  - TimPC 3y ago
    The US is fairly good at creating high GDP per capita. They are 8th behind: Luxembourg, Singapore, Ireland, Norway, Qatar, UAE and Switzerland. Of those nations: Norway, Qatar and UAE are highly dependent on oil profits and Luxembourg is an outlier as an unusually small affluent nation. Ireland is also known to have an inflated GDP due to it's tax hub status resulting in corporations reporting high revenue numbers there even though that revenue is often disconnected from the country. I think most nations would be thrilled to have a GDP per capita of $76,399 USD. When the proceeds are that much higher it takes an awful lot of inequality to make the outcomes worse. One of the biggest issues in the US is that health care is not covered by the government so it costs nearly double compared to most comparable countries and access is subject to all the inequality constraints that universal government programs mostly erase. For example in Canada which has a GDP per capita of $51,987, the split between wages and capital is approximately 90-10 meaning that the average wage (including non-working population) was $46,788. For the US to have the same type of average wage of only $46,788 the share going to capital would have to be 38.8%.
huytersd 3y ago
It’s more than that. In Iceland you’re allowed to just stop working and the government will give you a basic income (along with a recreation stipend!) indefinitely. This gives people so much time for pursuits they’re passionate about.
- coredog64 3y ago
  As usual, I will allow Han Solo to critique your argument. > There’s not enough life on this ice cube to fill a space cruiser.
  - huytersd 3y ago
    That’s why it works I get it and most people wouldn’t want to live in an icy hellscape but if you like spending all your time indoors it’s not so bad.
    - dahart 3y ago
      Contrary to the name, Iceland isn’t an icy hellscape at all. Haven’t you heard the quip about Iceland being green and Greenland being ice? Icelanders like spending time outside, and Reykjavik and most cities and towns are on the coast so they’re not all that cold. https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/iceland/reykjavik/climate https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/iceland/reykjavik/climat...
      - hattmall 3y ago
        I think by most people's standards that's pretty cold. Summer high in the mid 50s. 8 Months of the year with near freezing nightly temps. What inhabited place would you be comparing it to to get "not all that cold"?
        hydrok9 3y ago
        an average low of 0 celsius in the winter is a LOT warmer than Canada, except maybe on the west coast. It's probably warmer than the Nordics too, and maybe Russia.
zthoutt 3y ago
As someone who has a full time job and has self-published a novel I wrote in my spare time, I do not think that supply of books is the issue. In fact, as I went through the process of learning how to self publish, I met many people who write in their free time, including people I know and friends of friends I don’t know. I was actually surprised by how many people there are who have either already self published or who have an unpublished book they work on in their spare time. From my experience, the issue in the US is on the demand side. People here hardly read, and when they do read, it’s usually a super popular book all their friends have read or that Tim Ferris talked about. When I published my book, I was surprised by how many close friends and family bought the book to support me, but have never opened it. And it wasn’t until after I published my book and became more aware of the reading habits of those around me that I realized how little most people read these days. There are a handful of people who read 30-50 books, but if you were to take the median so those people don’t skew the average, I’d estimate that it’d come in around 1-2 books. Probably half of the people in my life don’t read a single book in an average year. While I never wanted to make a living off my book, I’ll admit it was discouraging to see how few people read it cover to cover. I took Mark Dawson’s course and got all of the social ads, lead magnet, etc. setup. The ads did work, but I quickly found out that of the subset of people who do read a lot in the US, most are 60+ and want self-published books to be either $0.99 or free. I had multiple angry old ladies reach out to me through my Facebook ad complaining that they weren’t going to pay $2.99 for a self-published book and that it was upsetting I’d even try. It wasn’t all bad and I did find readers who genuinely enjoyed my book and supporting self-published authors, but these type of people are a very small percent of the population. If the average person read 15 books per year and was ok paying $10 per book to support authors, I think you’d see a lot more self-published books. From my anecdotal experience, there are plenty of people who aspire to write, but we lack a supportive reading culture to fully cultivate authors (even part-time authors). EDIT: I’ll also add that among the people in the median reading 1-2 books per year, most are listening to those books as audiobooks. I’m not one of those people who say listening to books isn’t reading, but for the average full length novel it costs about $10k to get an audiobook made, which is way outside the budget for anyone trying to publish books as a hobby. I paid for an audiobook to be made because I have the income and thought it’d be a fun experience (which it was!), but I will never make enough from the book to cover that expense
6gvONxR4sf7o 3y ago
It would be so great if more professions in the US had part time options. I could make a zillion dollars as a dev for a big tech company, but there's nowhere that pays 80% of that for 80% of the hours. Hell, I don't think I have the option to make 50% of that for 80% of the hours. Salaried careers seem to only have full time positions, and it sucks.
- ses1984 3y ago
  Specialization is at the core of economic profit. Damn you, economics!
- dingnuts 3y ago
  if you have the soft skills (I sure dont lol) I -think- contracting/consulting can be a solution to this? It's not exactly part time, but you work your contract and then take a break before you pick up the next one, which does give you more flexibility with your time. You could eg work six months on, six months off, that way. Maybe. I knew a PE who did this years ago, but I wonder if there's any software engineers on this board who have successfully done this
  - jermaustin1 3y ago
    I usually negotiate my contracts to be 20-30 hours per week of work. This gives me ample time to work on side projects (aka playing ck3) and run my Etsy shop. The soft skills aren't much, you have to remember your boss is also just as social awkward as you, because, they are usually cut from the same software developer cloth. But remaining on good terms with past managers helps a lot. I still have annual dinners with almost everyone I've ever worked with, even if we are all scattered across the US.
- scarecrowbob 3y ago
  "It would be so great if more professions in the US had part time options. " I agree with this, and I've personally led a life that has had many different kinds of occupations (I've been a musician, a teacher, and a programmer- usually all three at once). I've come to the conclusion that a lot of the reason for "full-time" employment has to do with making workers unavailable for other projects. Or, if you prefer, full time jobs aren't there because 40-hours-a-week is how much can be gotten out of a worker, but because that's how much time is necessary to keep someone from getting another job that might interfere with the "real" job. Many folks, especially folks who do weird stuff that requires, if not great intellect or training, familiarity with a specific system (as is the case with software, for instance) aren't actually working a full time load. That's a really common observation, I think. But the way to understand why that continues to happen is that their employment ensures their availability. That may see strange, and on some levels it's simply not correct and certainly not how most folks are thinking about full time employment. But if you push an employer to give you fewer hours, that understanding might make a lot of sense out of why they generally won't allow part-time work- if you've got a side gig, they can't have that take priority over their tasks.
jrmg 3y ago
Iceland is an affluent western nation with its own language, but a population of less than 375,000 people - fewer people than many cities in other countries. And yet these people want books just as much as any other people - perhaps given the nation's culture even more so. For supply (and selection) to keep up with demand, it requires a far higher percentage of the population to write.

gloryjulio 3y ago

> But if the US were more like Iceland and typical "real" jobs paid a livable wage with reasonable hours That's the key issue in general, not just for US. When the system is designed to extract maximum efficiency, there is little room for other stuff

tw235346nmolk 3y ago
Maximum efficiency in regards to what metric? (Before you say 'money/the economy', inequality seems to be bad in that respect [1], and that's about the only thing in regards to which US system seems to be highly efficiency ;) [1] https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/sdn/2015/sdn1513.pdf https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/sdn/2015/sdn1513.pdf
- burnished 3y ago
  I believe that is what they are referring to, 'the system' being highly efficient at allocating process improvements/efficiency improvements to the owners of capital leading to the income inequality you note
- TimPC 3y ago
  The US is fairly good at creating high GDP per capita. They are 8th behind: Luxembourg, Singapore, Ireland, Norway, Qatar, UAE and Switzerland. Of those nations: Norway, Qatar and UAE are highly dependent on oil profits and Luxembourg is an outlier as an unusually small affluent nation. Ireland is also known to have an inflated GDP due to it's tax hub status resulting in corporations reporting high revenue numbers there even though that revenue is often disconnected from the country. I think most nations would be thrilled to have a GDP per capita of $76,399 USD. When the proceeds are that much higher it takes an awful lot of inequality to make the outcomes worse. One of the biggest issues in the US is that health care is not covered by the government so it costs nearly double compared to most comparable countries and access is subject to all the inequality constraints that universal government programs mostly erase. For example in Canada which has a GDP per capita of $51,987, the split between wages and capital is approximately 90-10 meaning that the average wage (including non-working population) was $46,788. For the US to have the same type of average wage of only $46,788 the share going to capital would have to be 38.8%.

huytersd 3y ago

It’s more than that. In Iceland you’re allowed to just stop working and the government will give you a basic income (along with a recreation stipend!) indefinitely. This gives people so much time for pursuits they’re passionate about.

coredog64 3y ago
As usual, I will allow Han Solo to critique your argument. > There’s not enough life on this ice cube to fill a space cruiser.
- huytersd 3y ago
  That’s why it works I get it and most people wouldn’t want to live in an icy hellscape but if you like spending all your time indoors it’s not so bad.
  - dahart 3y ago
    Contrary to the name, Iceland isn’t an icy hellscape at all. Haven’t you heard the quip about Iceland being green and Greenland being ice? Icelanders like spending time outside, and Reykjavik and most cities and towns are on the coast so they’re not all that cold. https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/iceland/reykjavik/climate https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/iceland/reykjavik/climat...
    - hattmall 3y ago
      I think by most people's standards that's pretty cold. Summer high in the mid 50s. 8 Months of the year with near freezing nightly temps. What inhabited place would you be comparing it to to get "not all that cold"?
      - hydrok9 3y ago
        an average low of 0 celsius in the winter is a LOT warmer than Canada, except maybe on the west coast. It's probably warmer than the Nordics too, and maybe Russia.

zthoutt 3y ago

As someone who has a full time job and has self-published a novel I wrote in my spare time, I do not think that supply of books is the issue. In fact, as I went through the process of learning how to self publish, I met many people who write in their free time, including people I know and friends of friends I don’t know. I was actually surprised by how many people there are who have either already self published or who have an unpublished book they work on in their spare time. From my experience, the issue in the US is on the demand side. People here hardly read, and when they do read, it’s usually a super popular book all their friends have read or that Tim Ferris talked about. When I published my book, I was surprised by how many close friends and family bought the book to support me, but have never opened it. And it wasn’t until after I published my book and became more aware of the reading habits of those around me that I realized how little most people read these days. There are a handful of people who read 30-50 books, but if you were to take the median so those people don’t skew the average, I’d estimate that it’d come in around 1-2 books. Probably half of the people in my life don’t read a single book in an average year. While I never wanted to make a living off my book, I’ll admit it was discouraging to see how few people read it cover to cover. I took Mark Dawson’s course and got all of the social ads, lead magnet, etc. setup. The ads did work, but I quickly found out that of the subset of people who do read a lot in the US, most are 60+ and want self-published books to be either $0.99 or free. I had multiple angry old ladies reach out to me through my Facebook ad complaining that they weren’t going to pay $2.99 for a self-published book and that it was upsetting I’d even try. It wasn’t all bad and I did find readers who genuinely enjoyed my book and supporting self-published authors, but these type of people are a very small percent of the population. If the average person read 15 books per year and was ok paying $10 per book to support authors, I think you’d see a lot more self-published books. From my anecdotal experience, there are plenty of people who aspire to write, but we lack a supportive reading culture to fully cultivate authors (even part-time authors). EDIT: I’ll also add that among the people in the median reading 1-2 books per year, most are listening to those books as audiobooks. I’m not one of those people who say listening to books isn’t reading, but for the average full length novel it costs about $10k to get an audiobook made, which is way outside the budget for anyone trying to publish books as a hobby. I paid for an audiobook to be made because I have the income and thought it’d be a fun experience (which it was!), but I will never make enough from the book to cover that expense

6gvONxR4sf7o 3y ago

It would be so great if more professions in the US had part time options. I could make a zillion dollars as a dev for a big tech company, but there's nowhere that pays 80% of that for 80% of the hours. Hell, I don't think I have the option to make 50% of that for 80% of the hours. Salaried careers seem to only have full time positions, and it sucks.

ses1984 3y ago
Specialization is at the core of economic profit. Damn you, economics!
dingnuts 3y ago
if you have the soft skills (I sure dont lol) I -think- contracting/consulting can be a solution to this? It's not exactly part time, but you work your contract and then take a break before you pick up the next one, which does give you more flexibility with your time. You could eg work six months on, six months off, that way. Maybe. I knew a PE who did this years ago, but I wonder if there's any software engineers on this board who have successfully done this
- jermaustin1 3y ago
  I usually negotiate my contracts to be 20-30 hours per week of work. This gives me ample time to work on side projects (aka playing ck3) and run my Etsy shop. The soft skills aren't much, you have to remember your boss is also just as social awkward as you, because, they are usually cut from the same software developer cloth. But remaining on good terms with past managers helps a lot. I still have annual dinners with almost everyone I've ever worked with, even if we are all scattered across the US.
scarecrowbob 3y ago
"It would be so great if more professions in the US had part time options. " I agree with this, and I've personally led a life that has had many different kinds of occupations (I've been a musician, a teacher, and a programmer- usually all three at once). I've come to the conclusion that a lot of the reason for "full-time" employment has to do with making workers unavailable for other projects. Or, if you prefer, full time jobs aren't there because 40-hours-a-week is how much can be gotten out of a worker, but because that's how much time is necessary to keep someone from getting another job that might interfere with the "real" job. Many folks, especially folks who do weird stuff that requires, if not great intellect or training, familiarity with a specific system (as is the case with software, for instance) aren't actually working a full time load. That's a really common observation, I think. But the way to understand why that continues to happen is that their employment ensures their availability. That may see strange, and on some levels it's simply not correct and certainly not how most folks are thinking about full time employment. But if you push an employer to give you fewer hours, that understanding might make a lot of sense out of why they generally won't allow part-time work- if you've got a side gig, they can't have that take priority over their tasks.

jrmg 3y ago

Iceland is an affluent western nation with its own language, but a population of less than 375,000 people - fewer people than many cities in other countries. And yet these people want books just as much as any other people - perhaps given the nation's culture even more so. For supply (and selection) to keep up with demand, it requires a far higher percentage of the population to write.