Finding a better frame than self-employment

oh shit yeah - "self-employment" is a bad frame. I'll still fill it out that way on govt forms where that's the only option, but yeah, damn so what am I? not sure if "feral free agent" is quite it let's explore frame ideas! a mentor used to just say "freelance person" - not bad

Visakan Veerasamy @visakanv · Jul 6, 2021

@meekaale @Triquetrea @m_ashcroft I like to say I'm a feral free agent I reject the terminology of employment entirely cc @Malcolm_Ocean employment is the wrong frame

Jul 7, 2021

but idk, a freelance etymologically is a mercenary warrior, and in more recent times still carries a "for hire" connotation, as opposed to my attitude which is very much more "I do what I want!"

Malcolm Ocean 🏴‍☠️ @Malcolm_Ocean · May 23, 2021

if you ever see me taking what looks like an actual job, this should be your first suspicion of what I'm up to twitter.com/swaglord__420/…

while I'm musing about phrases here: "I am my own boss" is another one people use, but "boss" is clearly the wrong metaphor here since I'm kind of a Rebel in Gretchen Rubin's 4 Tendencies framework, ie

Visakan Veerasamy @visakanv · Dec 21, 2020

@captain_mrs yea nobody can tell me what to do, not even me

I aesthetically very much like the phrase "funemployed" = fun+unemployed but it wasn't designed for my situation and in any case it doesn't evoke the extent to which I am pulled by not just fun but also purpose to do things

the purpose thing though... that feels pretty central!

Malcolm Ocean 🏴‍☠️ @Malcolm_Ocean · Jul 6, 2021

I feel the most kinship with other people who can't help but constantly work on finding and using the best leverage points they can imagine.

another way I could describe myself is as a humble servant to this glorious purpose:

Malcolm Ocean 🏴‍☠️ @Malcolm_Ocean · Nov 8, 2020

May I integrate everything that wants to be integrated as it wants to be integrated.

on which note, "employ" etymologically means ~"fold in", which kind of resonates with the "may I integrate everything" vibe! I'm uhhh "cosmically fractally self-employing"?

oh oops 🤦‍♀️ I actually didn't know what the word "feral" meant. I apparently intuitively associated it with like... rabies? bared teeth but it seems it basically means "de-domesticated": "lives in the wild but is descended from domesticated specimens"

so maybe "feral" fits after all! looks like people have been playing with it a bit

𝖜𝖔𝖒𝖇𝖑𝖊 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖚𝖙 𝖆 𝖈𝖆𝖚𝖘𝖊 @goblinodds · Jun 2, 2021

at last, IT IS DONE

quoting @goblinodds: report for placement https://t.co/8ue00UEJsW

"free agent"? I kinda like free agent. I feel a bit too intertwingled to be a totally free agent, but I guess Visa's also married and there is something about the fundamental liberty of the soul

Visakan Veerasamy @visakanv · Mar 14, 2019

I've actually written about this several times in my own journal(s) as "execute the jailbreak". Everyday life is a kind of psychic prison; breaking from it requires finesse. You're unlikely to be able to do it by chance. You have to know the blueprint, the layout, the guards...

[3 more photos]

so okay, "feral free agent" it is! 😂 ------------- new twitter bio: Systems designer. I'm like a VC for the meaning & relationship economies. #𐃏 Feral free agent 🎶 Singer-songwriter 🎯 non-coercive do stuff app: complice.co