Awful article with some good points. As @mk points out dispensers of for profit self-help can only profit on someone who has a deficiency they can provide a remedy for. What better way then to create that deficiency in the ready?

I'd like to run through the points one at a time. I'm going to ignore the hyperbole and abrasive tone of the language, to the best of my tolerance, in favor of the core idea of each point.

1 - Truth about time vs value assuming your skill scales. As What's a $4,000 Suite Worth? illustrates you can be a master in a field that just doesn't scale. The author dismisses any non-scalable skill set as 'dummie'.

2 - Gaining experience from a job generally means two things when people use this phrase: apprenticeship and/or resume building. Apprenticeship is valuable. If you are in a skilled profession the upper level of knowledge advancement may seem to not exist. The "learn a lot then stagnate" doesn't apply. If you are writing self help the ceiling may be lower. On the other hand resume building is valuable primarily within the context of at-will employment.

3 - Complete nonsense. Just an attack on the reader's emotions.

4 - A good point few consider. In essence you are paid for your time/value by an employer and you pay the employer to provide all it's services to you. However, these are services that have value. Aside the obvious value in benefits, accounting, equipment, and such there is less obvious "tribe" value. Not everyone does sales, yet a company sells to clients. Not everyone produces widgets, yet there are widgets to sell. And so forth. Even seemingly non-contributing cost sinks like investors provide value: would the employer even exist otherwise?

5 - No arguing that multiple passive income streams is more secure than a single income stream from at-will employment. Establishing those streams now... that's where the "too risky" meme comes from. It comes from the reality most people face: continue at-will employment or 'take the leap'. Trade one casino game for another.

6 - No time to delve into the complex topic of the military hierarchy that most companies operate with. I'll just say that it's not inherently evil and even provides a service (see analysis paralysis.

7 - Complete nonsense. Just an attack on the reader's emotions.

8 - Complete nonsense. Just an attack on the reader's emotions.

9 - Amazing, a valid non-economic point! Some jobs have more freedom than others. Some jobs have more freedom than self employment (via access), but most don't.

10 - Complete nonsense. Just an attack on the reader's emotions.

Now that 6 one sided, but valid, considerations and 4 nonsensical emotional pot stirrers have been provided the reader is in the perfect emotional state for the sale.

edit: One of my Father's best advice to me is to work for myself. I'm fairly anti-employment. This article still is garbage. :)

Aside from Hubski, I do research, which I really enjoy. Getting funds can be tough, especially in these times, but I enjoy the freedom and ability to be creative that it offers.

Also, I can drink coffee, stare at a wall and think, and it's part of what I get paid do to.

I'm personally skeptical of guys like Steve, however. The thing about self-help merchants is that their success is selling self-help advice, which might not work well outside of teaching people how to succeed by selling self-help advice. IMHO they often subtly make you feel deficient, so that you look for the answers outside of yourself, and thus to them. I think most people either have the personality to be bold and take risks, or create, or they need to go through a transformative experience to gain it. Or, some people just like the quiet life with routine.

I agree with mk as to his description of Pavlina. I don't see Steve having great success in anything except self-help, and as the old saying goes, to make a million dollars, write a book about how to make a million dollars and sell it to a million suckers.

The passive income stream idea is great, but it's harder to do it successfully than people think. Of course that shouldn't discourage you, but don't expect to find a magic bullet that everyone else somehow missed - if it was easy, everyone would be doing it :)

I personally look up to Derek Sivers, founder of cdbaby. His blog has some great advice about life.

As for my work, I'm happy with what I do. It's intellectually challenging and I get paid reasonably well.

I enjoy my career, quite a bit. It allows me to travel (regionally), it provides for my family and I make my own hours and work from home. I see my "director" maybe once every other month and because I actually like the guy, I don't mind. I'm a salaried employee but I can receive additional compensation based on a bonus structure, which is nice. I get what I put in. The company I work for is consistently in Forbes' top 20 to work for.

I also get the ability to provide new ideas to my organization and they actually listen and I have the ability to move up in the organization. -Both important things.

Because I make my own hours and set my own appointments, my job affords me time to spend on things that are important to me: My family, making music, hubskiing etc.

When I was younger I thought it was cool to complain about your job but now I couldn't be more grateful for the career I have. I love it.

I disagree with much of his advice. Jobs can help you grow tremendously, it has a lot to do with the individual (and the job).

Whether you have a job, a career or a "passive income source", (which by the way many careers have) the following quote is a good source of inspiration. It was told to me by my grandfather and below is how he translated it to me from the German he originally read it in:

I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was duty. I acted and behold, the duty was joy. -Tagore

I actually enjoy Pavlina's advice but as is most good advice, it is easier said than done.

Maybe I'll stick to the "normal job" paradigm for a while after I graduate, who knows, but not for long anyways.

Be careful with this line of thinking. The thing about a normal job is that it comes with a normal paycheck, which is highly addictive. When I graduated from college I got a job as an engineer. It was boring as fuck, and I hated it. The upside was that I was making way more money than I ever had in my life. So I quit in less than half a year to go back to graduate school. I could see that if I kept this up I would buy shit, accrue debt obligations, and before long I would need the money instead of enjoy the money; thus, I would be stuck. Grad school is long and you almost starve but in the end, I have an awesome job that I love and get paid ok, too. Finding a way to monetize doing what you love is the key to being happy, I believe. I don't really feel like I have job; I feel like I get paid to play in the sandbox all day long (and drink coffee and stare at the wall, too).

(Didn't really know who exactly to reply to, so guess I'll comment to the post!)

I understand that many are skeptical about people like Steve. Though I can't help but feel that he is (or at least was, in his earlier articles) genuinely interested in helping people by sharing his knowledge. I'm quite gullible though, so I could be completely wrong too. Haven't read much other self-help stuff, but I've always felt that Steve provided me with tools so I can look for answers myself, instead of reaching out to him for answers. Maybe that also depends on what exactly you read from him though.

His intentions aside, he has been a real eye-opener for me. I'm still pretty young and don't have much life experience besides, well, school and studying. He has sort of woke me up and made me realize that there is so much more to life than studying and working, that you are the one responsible for what your life looks like and how you live it, and that you really do have the power to get what you want from life. Whereas before I would feel rather grim and unmotivated thinking of what I'd do with my life. Of course, other things like TED also contributed to this turnaround, but Steve's site was the first time in my life that I'd been really rocked out of my daily routine for quite some time to reflect deeply about life and what I wanted from it.

I do agree that he has a pretty one-sided view here. Seems like I kinda unknowingly jumped his wagon on this one. He throws any kind of job into the "this is absolutely bad and undesirable" pile while many jobs can also be very fulfilling, satisfying, and a source of wonderful experiences, like doing research as mk mentioned. You just need to find that job which does these things for you.

Maybe what I was trying to say with "not wanting a normal job" was that I don't want to live my life working a job that doesn't satisfy me on a personal level and restricts me from doing the things in life I'd love to do. Or any job that bores me. So many people fall into this trap and work at jobs that demotivate them, stress them out and make them unhappy.

....or, Steve, you could just get a job that you like :P

Seriously though, one thing about a 'normal job' that I like is the hours that it forces me to spend focused on a particular task. Actually getting the things my clients (and me) want completed takes hundreds of man hours and usually several million dollars. In order to make sure things run smoothly, it's paramount to spend a lot of the day getting all your ducks in a row. 80% of the time, there is only one way to accomplish this. Sit your butt down and work.