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Recently, Manu shared his struggle of deciding the appropriate fee for the work he does, professionally, or in hobby-related activities. He further mentioned about his feelings for the voluntary contributions people make for People and Blogs [P&B] series. He acknowledge that his work is important but when there is fluctuation in donations—even when the asked amount is very minuscule(1$)—it has an emotional impact on mind.
I can totally relate to him because this problem of money is very similar to a feedback mechanism where the feedback tells whether it is good or not. More money validates that you are doing a good job, while less is often a sign of flaw in your work, even when your work is super important and affecting people in a good way.
Money-mindedness is not for everyone, even if the general conception of the capitalistic era, "to do nothing for free," encourages everyone to act accordingly. I have tried to understand the concept of money from childhood, and it took me almost 20+ years to understand what "a lot of money" means. Luckily, later, as a career path, I chose academics and research, where I did not need to care how much I earned—the remuneration just went to the bank. Now, in my early 30s, I still only have an abstract idea of it, and I still can not tell how much my work is worth it.
Luckily, this dilemma of money is not some-problem in my mind but existed among humans for thousands of years. Yuval Noah Harari in his book Sapiens: Brief History of Mankind beautifully explained the complexity of this concept where money evolved from being barter of everyday goods to modern form as artificial digits in our bank. So in reality, no one can still judge the worth of someone's work. It is just being imposed on us to accept some random values in exchange for service.
The point Manu mentioned about feeling like a fraud when there is always someone better who can provide better value for money is also personal to me. I feel the same about being a loser, or not good enough to do my job, and yet I need to do as much as I can. Based on my experiences, in science it is not unusual to feel being an imposter especially while listening to someone else's research, in a completely unrelated field. But what is important is to learn and do our best, that is what we can offer, at least, in return for remuneration.
Another point he made was about P&B where people donate/contribute. Honestly, this series is so good that it is hard to judge its value. I believe that he is doing it for fun—he later confirmed that for him it is more of a moral responsiblity—because if it is for money, I feel, it's a disrespect to his effort to keep P&B alive. People might contribute if they like or they might not, it does not matter. In the end, what matters is his effort that gives hope to people like me. That constructive effort toward the good of society is invaluable. Of course, on the real grounds, he needs to give priority to living but he should try as much as he can without being worried.
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Posted at: Fri, 28 Feb 2025 20:42 GMT
category: /weblog/posts