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.
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$900 | |
We Need to Talk |
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Portfolio #2 |
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There is one twist to the Sex & Cash theory: The Desperation Theory, in which, by quitting your Cash job, you force yourself into overdrive on your Sex job. It facillitates (demands?) a huge mental and creative evolution your part, but it cuts away the indecisive BS and “I’ll get to it later” mentality that pens most artistic endeavors in as “spare time activities” that never quite reach their potential.
You really can’t get to it later if you have to make your rent every thirty days, can you?
Perhaps… but my experience tells me that kicking into “Desperation Mode” is unsustainable long-term.
Sure, you can do it for a few intense months, maybe a year or two, while you’re still young and relatively impervious to pain.
But it gets old fast. And so, sadly, do you.
ha – i like “big ol’ creative drama-queen moment”
I’ve long thought of this as the “Vincent and Theo” Theo-ry. Vincent Van Gogh would’ve been nothing but a failed preacher and missionary who’d dabbled in the arts briefly without his brother Theo, who lived the straight “money” life and subsidized Vincent with it, in addition to promoting Vincent’s work. They loved each other, they needed each other, they comprised a synergistic powerhouse.
The fact that Theo conveniently happened to be an art dealer begs a further question, though: how many creative folks work hard at the money/Theo gig in order to have weekend time for sex/Vincent…and then completely lack the time and energy to also be their own promoter/manager/publicist? You have to put food on the table and a roof over your head and guitar strings/brushes/dance shoes/whatever in your hands, you have to maintain your vision and creativity (Dorothea Brande had some good tips on how to be both a creative writer and a ruthless editor of one’s own work), AND on some level you also have to be promoter/manager/publicist, which requires a Cash mentality toward the Sex product, not to mention a Sex enthusiasm for the Cash self-marketing. And, if you have a few spare minutes left over, try to be a human being, with responsible links to your community, maybe even a family.
Thesis: the World we must inhabit, the Is. Antithesis: Art, which explores possibilities, the Could Be But Ain’t. Synthesis: Expression/Manifestation, which conveys What Ain’t into What Is and redefines both. And still the trash needs to be taken out and don’t forget your stepdad’s birthday and when are you gonna get married?
Great article and great sub-article on “sex and cash.” I can so relate to what you are writing. I have done a lot of the “sexy” stuff you mentioned in my own field (I called it ego boosts because it didn’t pay any bills but it did boost my ego). Someone heard about some of the sexy stuff I did and asked why I was working for the corporation I was in…the answer was simple, it paid the bills.
um.…as a “creative geek” please tell me that at least one of these was supposed to say “Sex”?
“Or geeks. You spend you weekdays writing code for a faceless corporation (“Cash”), then you spend your evening and weekends writing anarchic, weird computer games to amuse your techie friends with (“Cash”).”
Seriously — great article that has been forwarded to our team.
Ed, yes, it was meant to say “Sex”…
‘Scuse the typo, fixed it now
Desperation Mode isn’t intended to be a long-term solution, of course. Desperation Mode is simply the bridge between a Stable Life Funded By Cash and a Stable Life Funded By Sex. It’s the fuel for a long-term fire.
The Vincent and Theo discussion brings up a good point: time. If you can do what you’d like to do while still being productive at your day job, well fancy that. But if you find that something excites you MORE than your day job, to the point that your day job has become an eight hour chunk of your day that’s separating you from what you REALLY want to do, the time has come to find a way to make what you REALLY want to do into something that also pays the bills.
Unfortunately for geeks, the faceless corporation will have made you sign a form saying they own any anarchic, weird computer games, or other computer related creative output you may come up with.
Unfortunately for geeks, the faceless corporation will have made you sign a form saying they own any anarchic, weird computer games, or other computer related creative output you may come up with.
Well, it’s great until your business gets thrown overseas (no cash) and you’re forced to find a new line of income. At this point (in my mid-life) I’ve decided to go for sex AND cash. We shall see…
Henry Miller is another good example. He had a lot of sex with women from whom he mooched cash and then wrote about it. Wait a sec…
In my case, it was more like – I had given up the sex for the cash. And the the cash job went away for reasons of general economic devastation, and being unable to find other work, I turned back to sex for solace, and for something to fill the time.
And now I’m making three-fourths of my income from sex. It’s not a good living yet, especially since I have a lot of shoveling to do after two years of serious underemployment…
But it did teach me that the safe job isn’t, so I might as well stick to sex as much as possible, and fill in the gaps as I can.
Reminds me of the “Hackers and Painters” essay.
http://www.paulgraham.com/hp.html
The difference between average computer programmers and the genius hacker types, like the ones that create their own Segways out of spare parts just to see if they can, is that hackers have their day jobs programming for The Man and keep programming at night too, but this time for themselves and for the love of the game.
Yeah yeah yeah… not just Vincent and Theo, but John Lennon and Paul McCartney
OK…i think i’ve gotten it down. I quit my job 3 weeks ago to become a hooker. What’s next once I have this sex for cash thing licked?
Hey! This reminds me of hobby(sex) and work (cash).
Great article!!
Hey! This reminds me of hobby(sex) and work (cash).
Great article!!
Lots of good comments here, so I thought I’d add my
Love it. This scenario is often made further necessary because doing what we love (the sex) from the well of our souls/creativity/convictions may never ever be something the market demands, or will even tolerate. The painter may be ahead of his time (sure, his stuff’ll be worth something one day — when he’s dead), the comic may say things that are unsettling, the dancer may want to dance about ugly things instead of beauty. And herein lies the problem. So I think doing the work to fund the time/supplies/angst needed to do the creative stuff will always be the means of surviving as a creative. Of course, if anyone out there wants to be a patron to a Canadian comedian, ignore all this and send me a cheque.
Great article — please keep it archived, I would love to reference it in the future. Thanks a bunch!
Eric spoke thusly: “The situation I’m currently trying to escape is more like this: I’ve always been good at math and computer programming, etc., so it does pay the bills, but it’s got fuck-all to do with my “sex” dreams of a career in writing for video games. ”
And then there are situations like mine, where I’m slowly realising that my “sex” dream of a career in writing for video games, when realised and turned into a 9-late job, becomes “cash” *and all that implies* and I’m wombling about trying to find a new “sex” dream because in the end I’m still just crunching numbers. I’m not sure where this fits in the general theory.
Great article. All your points are well-taken, but Martin Amis is a particularly unfortunate examplar. He famously received a then record advance of $1.1million for ‘The Information’ (in 1995). A good deal of this was spent installing a new set of teeth in his shambles of a mouth. I doubt his advances have gone down substantially since then.
Hey Hugh, great article! For a long time I thought I was the only with this Sex and Cash theory, only I didn’t knew the theory had a name. I am an aspiring actor that went a road less travelled, sacrificing almost 4 important years so that I can maintain a living and still have time to act when opportunity knocks. But I know not many pple will agree this is the way for them, but for me, its nice to know theres quite a few of us out there that follows this maxim.
AFAIK, Vincent Van Gogh only ever sold two paintings in his lifetime.
Why is it a “her” that is waiting table?
i don’t have any smartsey-fartsey comments about the writing.
I just like the cartoon.
a lot.
I found a wonderful compromise in the Sex / Cash battle. A year ago I realized nobody was ever going to give me permission to follow my Sex dream (write a novel). Over the years I had asked — politely even (“May I please have my crayons back?”) but nobody said yes. I didn’t get less work, less responsibilities, additional vacation time, etc. So I decided to make some new boundaries.
I told my Cash gig that I needed to work 3 days a week and outlined how I could do this and still be successful in a role within the corporation. They valued me enough to give it a shot.
I now have the time I need to write. I also had to get used to living on 40% less salary. But it was worth it to go after the Sex dream. My novel is more than 1/2 written now.
What fascinates me is the apparent universality of your observation. I’m about the 10 zillionth person to write in and say “yes! that’s me! I’m secretly a (pop star/writer/inventor/anything glamorous) and the day job is just a front. There’s a parallel debate to be had about freedom and the ways in which our post-capitalist society creates serfdom without any obvious monarchs in the picture.
Your cartoons are absolutely brilliant and I think your blog is one of the most interesting I
what about the person who sells thier body for sex (CASH) but thier real passion, and thier outlet for creativity is the artistic counterfitting of banknotes (SEX)?
Bellman,
“Painters: the contemporary art market has very complex but stringent criteria that still derive from the avant garde theory of the radical artist who places himself outside the bourgeois society.”
Wow. Stringent. Outside society. Since when does kissing a lot of rich people’s ass (a major part of being a successful gallery artist) place one outside of society?
“Dedicate your life”. I’m not even sure what that means. The good artists I know don’t go around going “I hearby dedicate my life”. They just get on with it. Like a job.
Although, granted, the medicore ones I know love a good speech. Especially their own.
And they love, love, love large doses of all that “artist as outsider avant guarde poet warrior sexy compelling truth seeker” horseshit to prop up their lives with, as well. Heh.
Nice set of posts.
The “Sex and cash” theory is also (sort of) bandied around as the “percentage tennis” theory: not every shot can be a winner.
Case, yeah, “pecentage tennis theory”. I like that thought.
So what a good tennis player will do is factor it into his game.
hmm, yes, you’re right about the ‘sex & cash theory” but thank god for freelance, at least — the best of both worlds. i couldn’t live with myself otherwise.
Utterly right on. Any creative person, and I mean creative in the broadest sense of any person who is putting their creative drive to use, can tell the difference, often with a single glance, between a person who’s doing something, and a person whose just wanking in place. Often the wankers are the ones who are most convinced they’ve sacrificed all for their “art”. Often the doers are as heavily engaged in their day job as they are in their creativity.
“Behind many a mediocre poet, I have found a great man. Behind many a great poet, a mediocre man.”
–Neitzsche
I thought I was utterly alone in my struggles and then I find your thoughts Hugh. I work as a janitor for the government(cash) and I’m a single dad of a 13 year old boy. I write and draw my own comic book. I have no illusions about making money or gaining notoriety for my work. My reward is the work itself. When I published my first comic it was my reward for staying on the path. I’ve met many people who were far more talented than me but none of them persevered. There are always excuses for not writing and/or drawing but time is like money, once you waste it ain’t coming back. None of us has limitless time to waste or as Henry Rollins put it ” You could spend your entire life in the nowhere land of self doubt”. Been there done that and got the T-shirt too. Be a self starter and be prepared to fail and accept that there will always be doubters and nay sayers. Remember that the race isn’t given to the strongest but to he that endures. Keep striving.
This is why so many “artists” (sex) in New York City have a trust fund (cash).
rather than a sex/cash balance, or a desperation theory, why not the lucky bum theory?
in a nutshell: do what you wanna, and if you wanna share it and be famous, well.. do it, I guess. and if you wanna be a lazy dreamer who never wants to have to work someone else’s time?
pros: no cares, smoke pot all day and socialize, learn things, and do whatever you dream of on the side. essentially lurk in your favorite cell with dreams of good fortune. Also, you help your local unemployment rates by providing others with your missed opportunities.
cons: no fixed income, sacrificing some desires, having to fit in with a society that ‘can’t take you anywhere’ because you never have any cash.
it is a rough start, especially if you are completely independant. but I’m still here.
A trust fund would be nice. My job is totally non creative but it does provide for the materials I need for my comics. Still, I very much wish to successfully resign but not right now. I’m not sure what “Eight” is trying to say but here goes: I don’t enjoy working someone else’s time but I have to. The discipline needed to get up and go to work everyday has carried over into my creative time. Eight, try working and get some dirt under your nails. Working someone else’s time focuses your mind wonderfully on your creative time.
Where does Van Gogh fit into this?
This reminds me of an article I once read in defense of “dumb jobs,” written by a bartender/writer. His thesis was that there is an upside to having a “dumb job” like bartending or mopping floors (or working in call centers ::waves::) if you have creative ambitions of some sort, because they don’t occupy much of your brainspace, and you are free to think about that knotty plot point, or polish that real clunker of a line in the third stanza, or decide how you are going to fix that dead spot in your painting, while doing your job more or less on auto-pilot.
And of course, because it is just a dumb job, you never take it home with you psychologically, and if at any point a particular dumb job starts to really interfere with your creative process (due, perhaps, to a worse than usual numbfuck of a boss) you junk it and get a different dumb job that isn’t such a pain in the ass and an obstacle to your creativity. Of course, just like the average freelancer, who has in some ways taken the exact opposite approach, you usually have to make some concessions in regards to lifestyle and wealth, but I’m of the opinion most of us have more shit than we need, so making those concessions can teach you how to live light, which isn’t a bad thing anyway.
Van Gough?
Sex: Making paintings.
Cash: Getting his brother Theo to send him money.
Rock on.
I find that doing both the Sex and Cash things is important. My Cash job keeps me in touch with the real world, and exposes me to lots of people and their stories. My Sex job is playing in a classical-music group, and my experience is that many people who pursue this kind of music full-time become very serious and forget the fact that music is supposed to be fun. I think I actually play *better* because I’m not trying to make a living at it — I’m trying to please myself and my audience.
I totally buy this theory, thanks for putting the article up!
I have a part-time job with decent pay and fulltime benefits. As a result I work with a lot of wonderful creative people — writers, painters, dancers and musicians. They are almost across-the-board more interesting than the fulltime arts people I know, because they do what they love because they love it, not to get a grant or a line on the cv, and they’re never re-doing old stuff long after it’s lost its spark because their fanbase loves it.
Grizzley…
Your post was a much needed confirmation to me today!
Thanks!
Spiritually, I believe the idea of the separation of anything from anything else is bullshit. If one is willing to clear the mind of convention and listen to the inner voice, step by step, miraculuously, one will find that the only thing that actually works in life, bringing bliss with it, is a seamless representation of the whole that each person’s essence actually is. “The decisive moment” becomes the one in which, finally, one is unable any longer to choose against itself and its wholeness. This is not to suggest an appearance of peaches ‘n cream cookies will accompany one down the hard trail of reaching this point of Truth, Light, Love.
Spiritually, I believe the idea of the separation of anything from anything else is bullshit. If one is willing to clear the mind of convention and listen to the inner voice, step by step, miraculuously, one will find that the only thing that actually works in life, bringing bliss with it, is a seamless representation of the whole that each person’s essence actually is. “The decisive moment” becomes the one in which, finally, one is unable any longer to choose against itself and its wholeness. This is not to suggest an appearance of peaches ‘n cream cookies will accompany one down the hard trail of reaching this point of Truth, Light, Love.
This article has summed up a lot of where I’ve been in the past. I’m in the really lucky position of going into a “Cash” scenario and finding “Sex”.
I’ve explained all this to my wife, quoted this essay, and my wife has thumnped me.
I shall never use the phrase ‘You see love, I’m happy because I’m getting sex in the office’ again.
Thanks, all, for a highly important discussion.
In response to EKO, who said:
“I actually am a strong believer that if you
I think you are amazingly sexy and loaded!
I am completely turned on by your site!
I feel overwhelmed by your insights and your thought process’…
wow!
i want to gobble you up!
HAHA!
lATER– L