After many years of wandering in the
wilderness trying to figure out how to make a living using the skills
and technologies involved with computer animation, visualization and
special effects and not being successful, I have started to entertain
new directions for my career. I am advised in this by many
immensely stupid news articles and boring TED like speeches that "one
must think outside the box", which always makes me think about
the famous Peace Corps dialectic about the glass half empty or half
full. What glass exactly and which box, what are they talking about?
As I suspect that there are others out
there with same existential dilemma, here is an essay listing a few
alternate career directions that look like they might have promise.
To set the mood, please review this
video by a famous scientist explaining to a potential hire the
business plan for his new venture, SPECTRE. The sequence is from Dr. No
(1965).
SPECTRE executive explains business plan to James Bond
As much as I respect Dr. No as a
scientist and admire his efforts to take over the world by blowing up
missiles and extorting money from governments, I do not agree that
all power is based on counterintelligence, terrorism, revenge and
extortion as he so colorfully claims. Revenge is rarely, if ever,
profitable. It is more of an entertaining hobby that can only be
afforded by the wealthy, like yachting, or polo, or controlling the US Senate. Nor do I understand how
counterintelligence can ever be profitable, it is at best a cost of doing certain kinds of business, not a profit center in itself. Terrorism and extortion have always been big money makers though.
Here is a short list of
non-traditional areas that look to me like they have opportunity.
1. Design and Build Submarines for
South American Drug Cartels
There is apparently a long standing,
ever increasing, effort to build submersibles and semi-submersibles
to transport contraband from S. America to N. America and Europe.
All ranges and types of vehicles have been innovated and the S.
Americans have received helpful technical and design advice from the
unemployed nationals of many foreign countries. I believe that
submarines are very important culturally and have been looking for a
way to get involved in this industry. Perhaps in this new market,
submarines for smuggling, an opportunity can be found.
2. Run for Elected Office of A Small
City and Rob Them Blind
The elected representatives of Bell,
California managed to steal about $5M in a few years, and Bell is not
even a well-off community. Admittedly, most of the local governments
in California are already corrupt, and there is no sense in entering
an already crowded field, but it might be worth examining other
states and see if this technique can not be adapted to a new
environment.
3. Bad User Interface Design
America and the world in general seem
to have an insatiable desire for really bad, incredibly stupid, user
interface design. And now that the car industry has jumped in with
both feet, the floodgates of shit are really going to open. One way
to make money at this is to have a consulting design firm to help
people misapply technology and ignore fundamental principles in order
to torture their users. Another way is to review various consumer
electronic / whatever devices and threaten to publish how stupid and
incompetent they are unless the manufacturer hires you as a consultant for a six figure consulting fee.
4. Start a Religion and Write A Book
Its been done many times in the past,
sometimes very successfully. Its tax exempt which is a great
advantage.
5. Go Into Finance, Fuck up, Get Bailed
Out and Award Yourself a Bonus
The state-controlled news media in this country has not
reported it, but Goldman Sachs in the UK is awarding its employees a
modest 8.3 billion bonus this year. That's not a lot of money, but
its pretty good.
This is not an exhaustive list, of course, and there are
many other directions that seem to also have merit, such as art fraud
and arms smuggling, but I wanted to open the discussion and get these
initial ideas out there for your consideration.
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