Comments on: “crofting” as a metaphor for the new world of work?

By: Lorraine

Lorraine — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 11:50:59 +0000

I’m with Deborah Paris — a recovering accountant, don’t practice anymore (though never say never), got too dull, decided to try crofting instead. So now buy properties, and do some internet marketing. My dad is a Scot, going to ask him tonight whether he comes from a long line of crofters!

By: Ray Schiel

Ray Schiel — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 17:19:27 +0000

Thank you for introducing me to this term.
And a book to go with it!

By: Jasmine

Jasmine — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 18:09:05 +0000

I think ‘crofting’ comes naturally to creative people.….

By: Jason Allen

Jason Allen — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 17:47:27 +0000

Barbara Sher wrote a great book a few years ago called “Refuse to Choose.” She calls people like us “Scanners” (let’s hope our heads don’t explode!) because we are always scanning for new opportunities and the next thing.
Write now I’m on her LTTL program of career management:
Learn
Try
Teach
Leave.
Guess which phase I’m on? (Shhh, it’s a secret!)

By: Pete Steege

Pete Steege — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 13:25:22 +0000

I’m in the Salaried world, and admit that I like it. For the past year I’ve been blogging as part of my my feudal contract. I’ve found that it’s a way for me to get some of the joys of crofting within my world. I’m lucky — my blog is an extension of my “day job” and few in the company really understand it. So I’m able to invent, explore, experiment in what feels like art to me.
Just right for a corporate slave with a creative compulsion!

By: Ryan O'Vineyards

Ryan O'Vineyards — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 09:36:56 +0000

I really your thoughts on crofting (as well as Smarter Wine coversations last year). I work in wine too, and you say a lot of things that I like about living and talking to people in ways that surprise even ourselves.

By: britta k

britta k — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 08:24:03 +0000

Hugh, this idea is potentially expansive enough to be the next book. not that you need another project, obviously. but I think a “Crofter’s Guide to Life” or “The Way of the Crofter” or “Cybercroft” would have an enormous impact in the worlds of practicing and wannabee crofters.
(and yes, you just described my life, as I’m building it. just add me to the list.)

By: Mark McGuinness

Mark McGuinness — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 08:05:41 +0000

‘Sure, part of me would like nothing better than just “retiring to the desert and making paintings”, but another part of me likes all the running around in different directions.‘
I can definitely relate to this.

By: elizabeth

elizabeth — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 06:43:35 +0000

Crofting it is! As a professional artist, my work habits are supposed to be as follows: 7am, wake up, make coffee, scroll through emails & Reader. 9am, head to studio, and paint till 6pm, with a 2 hour break for lunch or a gallery meeting. Sleep, repeat, for years on end.
But what if I don’t want to be doing the same thing every day? What if staying in one small orbit — home to studio to gallery — isn’t enough?
Next week I’m headed to Italy to check out some studio space. Next month I’m going to be in an arts festival in Vietnam and will be giving interviews & writing up what other artists are doing. This winter I’ll be researching a book on handmade paper of SE Asia — considered a distraction from “serious art-making” by gallerists.
The days of one job for life (or one city or studio for life) are numbered.

By: xashruak

xashruak — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 06:01:06 +0000

Air travel has become a major part of our society, with industries and individuals depending on air transport for their livelihood. But have you ever wondered what happens to the artifacts of our airborne culture when they’re no longer needed? [url=http://weburbanist.com/2008/10/14/abandoned-airfields-airports-aircraft-airplanes/]More..[/url]
xrtst303a

By: Robert Paterson

Robert Paterson — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 04:08:37 +0000

Lovely Hugh — how most of us live on PEI — I could never go back my family also came from that — mu from the Orkney and my dad from Ayrshire
Rob

By: Jo

Jo — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:59:27 +0000

Yes this is much better term than portfolio career!
Crofting.

By: charles faris

charles faris — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:28:43 +0000

and just like in the good old days we are all out here on our little webcrofts, doing our many things and visiting our friends over on their little webcrofts…

By: Will Rowan

Will Rowan — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 22:51:54 +0000

Hugh
– love it… in spite of the multi-task complexity, crofting has a sense of a simpler life, and of having choice & control over the day’s agenda — even if when there’s 100 & 1 things to do, all appears chaotic & maybe pressured.
It’s my choice of pressure, so I hardly notice.
Will
ancestral croft on Isle of Skye

By: Deborah Paris

Deborah Paris — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 22:34:10 +0000

As a recovering lawyer (as in “I don’t do that anymore) and a full time artist (and Scots heritage on both sides), I can definitely say “Yes”!