I just wanna work on stuff I actually care about, you know? Like, not because it makes money, but because it's fun. I love messing around with little apps and websites just because I can. No pressure to grow them or turn them into the next big thing. Don't get me wrong... I totally dig working with other people on cool projects too! But maybe with fewer hours? Or like, work in seasons when I feel like it?

I'm super lucky right now... my job lets me do what I love. I know not everyone gets that chance. But there's something different about waking up and being like "what do I feel like creating today?" Or maybe nothing at all! That's what freedom means to me. Most people have to wait till they're 65+ to get this kind of freedom. But I'm thinking... why wait that long?

Here's the thing... I don't need to be rich-rich. I just want enough passive income to cover my bills and live comfortably. That way I can focus on what really matters: hanging with family and friends, having amazing experiences, and working on stuff that feels meaningful.

Had this realization back in 2016 when I was in my early twenties. Been working towards it ever since. Still got a ways to go, but man, I'm pumped about it! Might write more about this journey later.

I’m a hard-working generalist that’s not qualified for most of the specialist jobs that sail across my radar.

I’ve applied most often to “open position” invitations with what I’m passionate about and good at, and where I think it could be useful if that’s something I’m able to glean about an organization.

Mostly I do not hear back.

This is not great for my confidence, even though I’m at a place in my life where I’m able to recognize that I have a weird collection of distinct and sometimes uncommon strengths that I absolutely know would be a significant and positive force in the right context.

But where?

It’s extremely hard to know where to look. Probably small companies, but not necessarily. Probably web-centric organizations, but not necessarily. Probably closer to me or in a similar culture , but not necessarily.

It could be a place I need to create, which is fine except that I think most things are interesting and I have no idea what to focus on. I have always been focused and energized helping other people solve their problems, which I think is why client work was satisfying for so many years.

I could keep on with freelance client work, but I want new challenges and I’d be at my best working alongside a team.

So let’s do this backwards and I’ll describe the job I would like to have.

I want to wake up with ideas I’m eager to get to and people I’m eager to interact with, and go to bed exhausted and satisfied and ready to do it again. With just the right time away from work that makes me better at it by virtue of being a whole person.

I want to be responsible for helping people use and care for words that improve clarity and coordination.

A communication gardener. A designer-writer-developer that connects the things with intention and continues to care for them. It could be as one person’s sounding board or writing for thousands of people to follow along.

Those words can be code, microcopy, marketing copy, documentation, and even the visual syllables and sentences that need to speak as much as words. Layouts, components, photography, illustration, motion graphics, maybe video. I can be responsible for planning these things, creating these things, coordinating them, documenting them, caring for and updating them, and any mixture of those.

I can help create, and I can help wrangle. Brainstorming, free associating, ideation, drafts, prototypes. Proofreading, linters, raw diligence editing for conformance and consistency. I have a high tolerance for tedium when the end goal is a clear, harmonious whole.

We can call that being a technical writer, or a project manager, a front-end developer, a back-end developer, or a designer, maybe a product owner but I’m not sure—but we probably shouldn’t settle on any one of those specifically because my one cool trick is being able to do all of them pretty well and swoop between roles however it best serves our goals.

And we will want to have clear goals, because otherwise I am lost. If the goals are not clear, I will ask questions. I will help define or clarify them. I will not work without them or ask other people to work with me if we do not have a clear sense of where we’re going.

I will listen to people and they will confide in me and I will try to help them. I will not betray their trust, I will safeguard it by trying to improve things for them because that will help us toward our goals, too. I need you to know this, because if that seems like some kind of threat then you will not want to hire me. If it seems valuable, then I want to work for you.

I will do my work with an uncommon attention to detail while keeping sight of what we’re trying to do. The details always tell the story and they deserve care. You cannot fake a love for details. I do not need it to be my story, but I need the details to support it.

I need to be helping people. Ideally people I can see and talk to individually, to listen to and understand. Having them in mind will strengthen my work, because I will be excited to help them. I need it to be about them first, and not investors or a board or an enthusiastic burn toward acquisition and a payout. I don’t care about that. I care about helping people and making the world better.

I’ve done accounting and payroll and taxes before, and I can again but I would rather focus on energy on whatever helps people most. If you trust me, I will figure out what those things are and I will do them or figure out how we can do them together.

It could be our team, and helping make sure everyone’s confident and on the same page and encouraged to contribute questions and ideas and jokes and dreams.

It could be our readers or customers or whatever we call the people we’re offering something to.

I don’t care about the vacation policy. But I do care about balance and I’m not great at it so you may have to tell me to take a vacation or put Slack down and go for a walk. Those hard sprints can be fun, but I usually need to recover from them. I bring my best brain when it’s balanced. I want your policies, whatever they are, to encourage a balance that will make me the best I can be at my work and my humanity because they’re different facets of the same thing.

I don’t need clear instructions. I need you to tell me where we’re headed together and want to go there with you. Then I need you to show me all the things you can and let me figure out how to help with words and clarity and coordination. Some people think really fast, and I think slow.

I will listen and simmer and investigate and find opportunities and connections. I will help move us along with those things we need to do, and I will constantly check in to tell you what I see and what I’m doing and always be finding the most powerful ways of helping with my curiosity and strange bag of skills. I will be useful and earn your trust in short time, but in six months or a year you will see me at full strength and feel things shift.

Order, harmony, and intention improving slowly and deliberately and with heart.

Salary negotiable.