Comment by ghaff
4 years ago
Possibly an unpopular opinion but I'd argue that, in the main, the people creating interesting stuff as a sideline never got rich. Maybe it's a side effect of the startup and side-hustle mentality here but I'd argue that maybe discussions about these sorts of things emphasize monetization too much.
Maybe people who see moderate success turn it in to a full time job, and it stops being a side hustle.
Sure. There are best selling authors who started out writing in the evenings. My point though is that it's a very small proportion of those who try who parlay music/fiction writing/video/etc. into even a median household income full-time job (say $50K/year in the US).
Personally I feel like there are a lot of important and opposing conversations about the interaction between authentic creativity and money.
One of the biggest reasons I’m a proponent of Universal Basic Income is that I want creative people to be able to create without having to fall prey to things like cutting out their medium in order to make sure they can eat and have a place to live.
However: we are currently within a capitalist society, and because of that we have to think of how we can financially enable the art and culture that we want to see more of.
This is a deeply interwoven and complex topic, but at the end of the day I just want to see interesting stuff and know that the people creating it are better because of it.