When I think about what would make me happy, aside from social elements, I think about finishing my book, building my worlds, and running games. Of course, that’s not sustainable.
How does that affect my family, friends, and circles? Not much, and I’m not even talented enough to sell those things.
Then there’s being the son of my parents – being the head of IT, tinkering, and getting things to work; planning and analyzing things. After work, I listen to 2-3 hours of news and technology-related topics. There’s also Chinese studies, certifications, and all the studies…
I’m synthesizing all this and coming up with a strategy to make money as ethically as possible and break the corruption that really bothers me. I hate hearing about corrupt bidding – where the project is fully cooked and wasting 3-4 weeks of manpower just to bid for a project poorly prepared. Again, one corrupt government bid is so pointless; just sell to real companies, not play money for some nepo baby.
Why don’t I feel as happy accomplishing my TTRPG goals when I’m making the company money and having a project-based employee become provisionally regular? I do more good being an IT head, developing products, teaching, building systems, and helping the Philippines catch up than writing my setting or my hard sci-fi that teaches logistics, business, and how our descendants will operate in a future with extreme climate damage yet able to build orbital stations and a moon base. Making space ships where the math was done well, it was 3D modeled, and it was thought through by someone who watched and studied real-world space operations.
I guess one makes me “special” or unique.
One makes me one of millions making a living.
Maybe making a living is depressing because there’s always the constant threat of death and financial ruin. Although being an artist or writer is much scarier – in an age where attention is coveted. No one will make Mastadon work, no one will bring NextCloud here, no one will get all these open-source tech to work together and ensure everyone can make a living supporting it. In a way, this is already the sci-fi dream – making tech work for a large number of people.
On November 12, I’ll visit the Makati office for a handoff. A memo that will be released; I’ll become COO of Comfac on January 1. When that happens, I’ll slowly stop us from doing government bids and focus on maximizing our customer database and market research for the next two quarters and redoing the image of Comfac. We’ll start learning from our mistakes and hopefully get lucky, getting clients for all our open-source tech. We’ll use these more advanced techniques I’ve been applying and learning.
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