Whenever I hear this, I think: Is this just meant to be advice for the elite, gifted few? Or does the author mean that nearly everyone should eschew wage labor?

Whenever I hear this, I think: Is this just meant to be advice for the elite, gifted few? Or does the author mean that nearly everyone should eschew wage labor? If the latter, then who will do all the only-mildly-interesting things in our world? There is a need for people who are willing to get work done. And by work, I mean stuff that's not fun or glamorous, but still important. Yes, you can hand-wave all that away with some vague claims about technology making drudge work obsolete. Except it hasn't yet, and we don't know if it ever will. Besides that, not everyone has the right attributes for self-employment. I suspect that much of what makes traditional employment painful is bad coworkers/bosses. Do we expect these same people to be successful running their own enterprises?