Wednesday, January 10, 2024

don't give up your day job

...is what people say when you are trying to break into some kind of rarified creative field where most people most of the time don't make any money. Fair enough, often. 

My present day job started, apparently, on 10 January 2008 so sixteen years ago today. I know enough now to know that it was not much more than a matter of luck and politics that I got the initial job that squeezed me into the institution at the ground floor level from where (whence? is whence a word about a place?) I could apply for something another rung up the ladder and etc. I thank my lucky stars all the time that I got in when I did. I know that I was very fortunate and would probably have given up all ambition to academe soon after if I hadn't got this lifeline. I also know it's not even a matter of 'stick to it and you'll get...' I mean that's even less true now than it was then. I was just super-lucky. I was also incredibly clueless. I was also, I have to say, additionally extremely lucky that I didn't get other jobs that I had applied for before that time, which would have seemed like golden opportunities when I was aspiring towards them but which now seem shabby... I know this all reads like intense smug hubris. It is. But I can't pretend that I got to where I am by immense talent. Just by being talented enough, I suppose. I will always put it down to my parents having a wide range of books in the house. To me, that's the main thing a child needs. That and pets.

I have nothing more to say that doesn't continue to play this highly self-congratulatory tune, so I had better stfu. 


Age 14 Aug 1942 p. 8. I know it's not really relevant to anything but I hate posts to just be words. Maybe it is relevant to something. Maybe I am Professor Dogge I mean why not

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