August 1, 2004
the sex & cash theory
More thoughts on “How To Be Creative”:
7. Keep your day job.
I
78 Responses to “the sex & cash theory”
Hugh MacLeod
I'm a cartoonist.
I sell limited-edition prints.
I wrote a book.
I'm CEO of Stormhoek USA, which markets South African wine in the States.
I also draw private commissions.
Prints |
Opening | Current |
|---|---|---|
Bluetrain |
$900 | |
We Need to Talk |
$650 | |
Portfolio #2 |
$300 | |
NY NY |
$275 |
Sexy & Loaded! Yay!
nice article, interesting thoughts…
It’s so refreshing to hear someone else talking about the exact same situation I find myself in. Noone I know is doing what I do and noone really gets it. Thankyou.
Well.…I just did the big ole diva drama queen thang last week… and all I know is it felt fantastic!
High payin, creative director role.…gone.
Scary brink of nothingness ahead…
The reason your theory didnt work for me is that the day job was 10 hours a day and I was so depleted I couldn’t
find a creative bone left in my body for the evenings or the weekends when i just needed R&R.
The day job neednt be 50 hours a week right?
Anyways LOVE your work and really enjoyed your theory!
Diana
Heh, well diana, rules were made to be broken
Good luck to you!
A very interesting theory, and one I can’t say I disagree with in principle. When I faced the decision to become a full-time illustrator, I went whole-hog. I was such an egomaniacal jerk that I really thought I could just sit and draw all day (re: have Sex) and people would throw Cash at me. It took 13 years, but it finally happened. I do wish I’d heard of this theory earlier… — mh
Don’t get me wrong, I love the cartoons — and it doesn’t matter one iota that they’re on a biz card. Creative? Sure, whatever. The content is what makes them worth looking at.
As for sex & cash theory, there’s nothing revolutionary there. Most people would just call it “hobby & job” instead of “sex & cash”. It’s all about priorities.
Vanselu, thanks for the input.
A. I make no claim to be revolutionary. It’s meant to be common sense, based on my own and others’ personal experience.
B. It’s not just about “Hobby & Job”. It applies to professional creatives and artists as well. I suppose what’s interesting to me is how the pro’s are as affected by it as any amateur.
I think this is just another personal theory … so it shouldn‘t be thought of as a “universal truth”.
It worked for the Wright brothers. Their bycicle company paid the bills for their research (“sex”) but what about Bill Gates?
He dumped the “cash” (studying Harvard, lawyer) for the “sex”. I hope we all agree he did a wise choice, don‘t we ?
Sometimes “sex” implies absolutely no compromises (“cash”, day jobs whatever) so make sure you‘re not taking this theory for granted.
I love my job. It gives me cash AND sex. Sometimes the sex even gets me cash. Beat that.
“cash & sex” no duh.
“You will need clothes, food, and a place to live. Do what it takes to get those things first. With the time left over, do whatever you want.”
That is NOWHERE NEAR what I’m saying, Cosine.
Please re-read and get back to me
i like to be interesting, i like fuck and diferent thing, i like money fast…
I like to be interesting, i like fuck and diferent things, i love games and you touch my body…come in knowme…
There is a man named Mark Savickas. He’s a researcher who studies careers and career development. As people go, this guy is like the gold standard for career theories.
Anyway, he has this lecture he goes over in his classes called “Work and Love.” What you’ve described is the essential message of the Work and Love lecture. You have your Work (cash) and your Love (sex).
So now you can toss around names like Donald Super, or Mark Savicks and talk somewhat comfortably about career and life development theories.
Reminds me of the “Hackers and Painters” essay.
I quit my cash job around 1990, and found myself living with a nutball sexy cartoonist cash copywriter above a hot mexican bakery in Chicago. It was worth it.
opting for the sex side doesn’t mean you still do not find yourself grubbing for cash. Unless you are supported as van gough was with a partron or trust fund or whatever, there is no such thing as choosing not to pursue cash — its just a matter of how much. and if you’re talking about sex with someone other than yourself, having a little cash can really help.
Interesting refinement, and much more realistic, than the “Do what you love, the money will follow” theory. I had always put just the minimum amount of effort I could get away with in the day job (“Cash” thing) just hard enough so I could devote as much time and energy as possible in being an electronic musician (“Sex” thing), thinking that sooner or later the music would ‘pay off’ (become the “Cash” thing) and I’d live happily ever after. It never worked out that way (and, I might add, there were times when I compromised myself in doing the music thing with others that no only did it not pay the bills but it wasn’t all that fun, a double whammy in that regard), so I gave up the music so I could shore up the bill paying part of my life.
Now, even though I don’t have as much time as I’d like for the music thing, I get more out of it because (a) the tools have evolved so much that I can make really great sounding music, and more of it in less time; and (b) I only do it for my enjoyment, not out of some misplaced hope that it will ever pay the bills.
Your XXX vs $$$ theory (and in fact the entire How To Be Creative series) have helped me realize how lucky I am to be able to do what I’m doing the way that I’m doing it. Thanks for that.
SUBVERT THE DOMINANT PARADIGM!
Does it really matter if your tool is cool?
Is “picking the right tool for the job” truly the responsible approach? Is wanting your tools to be cool really a sign of immaturity? Can we and *should* we still be passionate about Java?
i want to be a porn star
Gapingvoid
Go to gapingvoid and read How To Be Creative, Sex & Cash Theory, and All Products Are Conversations.…
This is all very well and good untill you
“reach the stage of no return”
Lets say, you followed some of your fantastic theories and decided to branch out of your normal realm, of say mechanic, and spend four years at university studying graphic design,
So to support yourself during those 4 years you work between studying hoping that when you finshed you could concentrate soley on your sexy job.
Somewhere near the end of your studies, the plane crashed, it became IMPOSSIBLE to keep fixing cars while designing , (dirty hands and clean print outs dont mix)
I reached the “POINT OF NO RETURN”
I reached a point where i realised that the “cash job didnt weigh up, and that it was causing more harm to my creativity than good, it was destroying my will to live, and i advise young artists not to ignore this feeling and quit…before your entire soul is sucked clean…
and you become a former shell of a person…
Most of your examples, had a pretty cool cash jobs, how many had to crawl under a car during pouring rain and replace someones startermotor.
Or clean out filthy toilets, etc.
So i want to point out to artists, that if your smart, and clever you can craft your life to live without out needing a cash job, but you have to be willing to give away many things, (like any self respecting partner)
This point of no return is i think a healthy excercice for all artists, i know one george orwell, most certainly reached the point of no return many times, (see keep the aspistria flying)
or sartre (nausea) or even steppenwolf
most of the characthers of these novels where doing diddly squat.…and had profound realisations and existential delemias…
so … you decide…
Not me, baby.
I always dreamed of living life in haiku instead of blank verse, of being permanently constrained, of perfecting the looks of exasperation that come from endless days of middle management meetings. I wanted to live a life of quiet desperation, a corporate shill, a vacuous empty shell filled with false patriotism for a soulless, faceless corporation.
This isn’t just ironic lip service.
I wanted a tan sedan with the radio permanently tuned to the local lite rock/adult contemporary radio station, a three bedroom semi-detached in Milton Keynes with a small conservatory out back. I wanted a nagging wife, worries about whether I could afford my kids’ braces and a knick-knack shelf full of Hummels.
I wanted to be bald and pudgy, have a wry, resigned cynicism and the survival instincts of a cockroach.
I wanted a liquor cabinet full of middle-shelf whiskey, a handicap of 20 and a normal life. A normal life.
I’ve strived for mediocrity. I have failed.
Well, Nathan Dornbrook, that was really a great post. Not at all mediocre. Wow.
Chingon
the sex & cash theory
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