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The Sex and Cash Theory for Programmers

3. November 2008 20:23 by Scott in   //  Tags:   //   Comments (7)

When I go to work, I do it for my family.  When I come home and work on my hobbies, I do it for my self.  Its called the Sex and Cash Theory. Everyone in the world does it.  Everyone in the world practices it.

I came across this theory from a comment left on one blog posts.  You can always learn something from your posts.  This one was a bit different and needed to be researched a bit and now I will apply it to computer programming.

THE SEX & CASH THEORY: "The creative person basically has two kinds of jobs: One is the sexy, creative kind. Second is the kind that pays the bills. Sometimes the task in hand covers both bases, but not often. This tense duality will always play center stage. It will never be transcended." - Hugh Macleod

I am a multitasking, multi-job programmer who works hard for his money at work and plays hard with code at home.  I am currently working on four projects at home which I get to stretch my creative muscle, while at work I do boring and repetitive tasks to insert and update a database.  How lovely.  Like many other programmers, I am no different.  I work the 9-5 for cash, but when I go home I do my hobbies which will some day allow me to never have to work again.

My sex is working at home on my creative muscle.

My cash is the 9-5 working hours.

Working at home allows me to build my portfolio as a programmer in jobs I believe in.  I wouldn't spend my alone and girlfriend time if I didn't believe in these projects.

Almost all creative people including programmers have to go through it at some time in their lives.  They too practice the Sex and Cash Theory.

  • Its like the actor who waits tables to pay the bills in their small apartment until they get noticed for their great ability.
  • Its like the artist who struggles with their paintings, until they get truly noticed which usually happens after death for artists.
  • Its like the programmer who codes during the day, but hacks pushing out the worlds greatest program at night.  It took a year for this hacker to get their application out, but after being noticed by a VC they finally can stop working for the "cash" and start working full time for the "sex".
  • Its like the open source programmer who works for a big corporation where people buy the software he writes, while at home he gives his services for free to everyone.

What a great life us creative folks have.  It takes what seems to be a half a life time to get noticed and then when you finally do, you are past your prime. I say, practice the theory and someday you might also get noticed.

The Rule: If it turns you on, it's your sex.  Enough said.

My M.O. is spoiledtechie.com along with my four other projects, what's yours?

kick it on DotNetKicks.com

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Comments (7) -

Henry Ho
Henry Ho
11/4/2008 11:30:48 AM #

I admire people like you who find the time to do pet projects aside from work.

What if someone who is already dead tired from working 9-5, and rather spend time to watch TV, or shop, or prepare dinner, with family or significant other?  How do you motivate someone like that to find time working on pet projects in front of the computer after facing the computer all day at work?

Scott
Scott
11/4/2008 1:23:17 PM #

@Henry,
Get rid of all the problems in life.  What I consider a problem might not be to some one else though.  My problems?  I don't own a TV, never wanted one.  Consider it a waste of time and money.  Now a days I spend time with either my family or my computer after work.  My lovely GF prepares dinner and we don't have enough money to go shopping.  If we do go shopping at all, it would be grocery shopping which is a bi-weekly 1.5 hour event for us.

I have no kids, so that definitely helps.  I think what makes me do something after 5 pm is the drive to get out of a 9-5 job.  I would rather have sex than earn a dollar.  <-- Oh boy.

Syam
Syam
11/4/2008 4:15:16 PM #

Nicely said Scott. I totally agree with you. But, I want to point out that I had a brief period of time when I wanted (and had) more 'sex' than 'cash'. It wasn't after a while that I realized that I have to keep it balanced or I would get in trouble. Wink

Put differently:

'Cash' begets 'Sex' and 'Sex' begets 'Cash'.

Unless you finish what you're supposed to at work, you have to work your off-work hours to finish your work.
Unless you keep your brain creative by working on cool-new-stuff, I guess your 9-5 job won't be that much fun.

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