Yesterday I saw a tweet that made me think long and hard about everything I've ever done, as far as I can remember, or care to share, to make a dollar.
Shoveled snow for neighbors
Inexpensive child labor and more money than I could ever spend at 7-Eleven. A win for everyone involved.
Operated Minecraft servers
My friend Ben and I made about two grand doing this back when Skrillex was popular. We spent these profits on Steam games. In retrospect, this was rather sophisticated work for a pair of 13-year-olds. It involved writing Java plugins, renting game servers, buying ad space, elements of community management (TeamSpeak, Skype, online forums, etc.), "intra-metaverse" creative direction, and some digital salesmanship. If this were LinkedIn, I might even get away with calling myself a founder.
Caddied for golfers at a country club
Did this for six years. I didn't particularly enjoy it, but it was an objectively amazing job to have in my youth. Listened to birds chirp every morning, walked miles with the sun on my shoulders, and got paid in cold hard cash. Made lots of friends of all ages. Still don't care for golf but learned how to play poker pretty well, so I got that going for me, which is nice.
Played poker
Texas Hold 'Em is a great game. I figured out that if I could just remain unemotional and infinitely patient, all of the players who cannot do the same gradually transfer their stack of chips to my stack of chips. Remember this technique -- it translates neatly to many things in life.
Streamed on Twitch
My game of choice was Call of Duty: Black Ops III. Peaked at 800 concurrent viewers while defending a very brief world record on the "Shadows of Evil" zombies map the night it released. I really liked streaming and plan to return to it in some form.
Bussed tables at an Italian restaurant
Donated blood plasma
Traded stocks and crypto
Downloaded Robinhood right as the post-pandemic bull market kicked off: a time when it was hard to NOT be making money. Eventually, my genius hypothesises stopped working out and gains washed away. I'm a pretty boring index fund investor nowadays and consider my Robinhood days a nice introduction to financial literacy and a valuable learning experience. Oh, I also bought into ConstiutionDAO, which ultimately failed, but the underlying token then became a memecoin and 1,000x'ed. That was fun, but I know better than to swap for any "tokens" ever again.
Tested students for COVID-19
Shelved books in a library
I used to have the Dewel Decimal System down pretty good for the few months I worked at UIUC's Main Library. The job included lots of podcast listening and some cockroach battles.
Data analytics at ad agencies
My first big boy jobs. This was right after the pandemic, so it consisted of almost 100% remote work which you can bet I enjoyed as a new college grad. (This is easy, it's just like school!) The advertising world escapes the stereotypical minutiae one might imagine when they hear the word "corporate." I sometimes miss it!
Data engineering in gov IT services
Me, now. I enjoy the deeper technical nature of the work. Interesting times to be working with Uncle Sam. Still working remotely. Love visiting DC.
Posting on X.com
This is my latest financial development. I've actually made a respectable chunk of change firing words into the void. Hard to believe sometimes.