I Would be a Trick Dealer - nirgle.net

So let's say that tomorrow I am suddenly told that I am surplus to labour requirements at work and will soon be laid off. Or the site just can't afford to stay open any longer, due to higher operating costs, or the client found a cheaper outsourcer, something like that. Who knows. Anything could happen. I meet the love of my life in another city and move out there. Fat chance, but never say never. Or in the morning, in the middle of cereal, I get an urgent cable to shut my safehouse down and get yourself out of the country--NOW.

What then? What else could I possibly do if I weren't doing what I'm doing?

Well, I have been gently easing into my master plan to launch a series of increasingly addictive web projects that explode in popularity and end up generating enough revenue to cover operating costs and make me a ton of cash at the same time, with no further work on my part needing to be done. I took a couple weeks off from work about a month ago and wrote the first thousand lines of code for the first project (which will remain under wraps until its alpha period is over of course.) Now that I am back from my vacation, the time I spend advancing this first project toward reality has become rare again. So if I suddenly found myself unemployed, I would be able to throw myself fully into these projects once again, thereby bringing my early retirement date even earlier.

Of course, this wouldn't mean for me what it would mean for most other people. Sure, I would relax, worry a lot less, and work out a lot more, but I would still stay engaged with day-to-day project affairs: making a morning stroll to the server monitoring room to check on various graphs, trim the bonsai trees, etc. That will really be the apogee of my existence as a geek: strolling into the server room, having a peek at a couple graphs, admiring my steadily increasing revenue chart, and then taking the rest of the day off.

But let's be practical here: pretty much everything has been done already for the web (hasn't it?). Things are just copies of old things, and you know, with the law of diminishing returns, that sort of thing, each copycat project is less popular than the one before. So let's assume I don't start an internet revolution (I will, but let's assume I don't), then we'll need to talk about other real life jobs.

I wouldn't mind working at the casino in some capacity, either as a dealer or security guard or cashier in the cage/bank, or even just as a janitor, cleaning the place up for ridiculous amounts of money. I reluctantly admit that I already spend a certain portion of my leisure time there, sitting nondescript at the blackjack tables. And in my tenure as a casual gambler I have observed how much fun the dealers seem to have as they keep the spirit alive at their tables. I think it would an enjoyable job. I would be a trick dealer, too, flipping cards around, spinning chips, and riverdancing on all natural blackjacks. I could definitely dig a card dealing job, even if meant the occasional bout of standing.

I think I also have the capacity to be some sort of lab rat. If I went back to college for a few years and got a diploma (perhaps later a degree, if it didn't require that much more work) in chemical engineering technology, I'm sure there would be plenty of opportunity in the chemical valley for a mind like mine. If word on the street can be trusted, the valley currently consists of an aging workforce that will soon retire, and the freshly emptied positions will need to be filled with new people. I don't consider myself much of a physical person, i.e.: I'm not somebody who would crawl into tanks and pipes and install/repair things, or do anything else requiring being on my feet for that matter. But I could see myself sitting in a monitoring room all day, making surprise glances at the gauges on the panels in front of me, trying to catch them sneaking past their limits. I would be a hard worker like that. What?! Fire in tank 21?! That's a blackjack in the oil section, boys! Move out of the way... give me some leg room... watch these moves!

But the self-profiting web project thing. The graph-watching idea. Code that generates money. That's where my future is.