UseYourGeekery – where the future is.
What you do. What you create. Who you work for. Where you work. Who you work with. All ways to channel your hobbies, fantoms, obsession, geekery, and otakudom into careers. All specific ways to turn what you like into a job and a life.
But there's one more way you can use your interests to create a job, career, and even a new profession. You can base your job, your place of work, your career on where you see the future going.
You're a geek, fanboy, fangirl, otaku. You think about the future, you discuss it with friends, you analyze it. You see the trends in science fiction, you have an idea of what company will branch into gaming, you know where manga themes are going. You know what's coming next because you care about it.
So, be where it's going to happen.
Start that company to provide consulting services based on your unique geek knowledge.
Go and work for that obscure startup that you're passionately sure is going to become the next big thing.
Team up with that author or artist who you're sure has got all the right stuff to make the next big manga or novel or film.
Go build the future.
It may not mean you do the exact job you want,or work with the exact people you want, or live where you want. What it does mean is that you leverage your unique geeky knowledge to go where the future starts and make it happen.
It's not easy of course. It takes time and research. It requires sacrifice and effort. It also puts you at risk of being terribly, embarrassingly wrong.
But it also means that you elect to make things happen. It means that if you're right that it'll pay off in money and stability and changing the world. Building the future is not easy, but its worth it.
So, consider that when you try and turn your interests into a career: what do you see happening next, and how can you help it happen, and be in the right place at the right time?
– Steven Savage