Logic inspires you because you're getting to do what you want in it, and you're getting to do it on your own time. Ask yourself

Self, would I still love Logic X as much as I do now if I had to spend fourteen hours a day, five days a week, building soundbeds for tampon spots and real estate infomercials for $75 a day?

If the answer is fuck yes, self, I have no self-respect, zero artistic spark and an eagerness to subsist near the poverty line for the rest of my life then you should absolutely grenade your plans and spend the rest of your life twiddling digital knobs. If the answer is LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE then you should probably continue to enjoy composition and music production as a safe-harbor avocation you pursue of your own free will for reasons other than remuneration, because lemme tell ya - the guys who make their living "programming" are few and far between and they're all in Pro Tools anyway, which is substantially less fun to work with.

All props to rezzeJ but he's six years of education down whereas my sum total music education is two quarters' worth of electives and I make a lot more money than he does. Will he eventually eclipse me? No. Because I'm union in the heart of the entertainment industry and those jobs aren't going to rezzeJ and they never will. Will he eventually become much more famous? I certainly hope so. I love and respect passion and champion the artist in all things but odds on, anyone with their jobby-job that regards music as a hobby is gonna come out financially ahead. You can beat the odds. It's been done. It annoys me no end that Death Cab has a new album blanketing the airwaves the week I bail on Hollywood, since I mixed Ben Gibbard's first album when we were both undergrads. There's an example right there where I'm wrong. But Ben Gibbard isn't the only musician I mixed when I was an undergrad and the people who come out ahead? They work HARD and they work OFTEN and they work ALL THE TIME. As Jack Nicholson said after The Shining, "It took me 20 years to become an overnight success."

It's a stupid discussion, though. I'm not sure why people always have it. There's this apocalyptic notion that you choices are "x OR y" instead of "x AND y" as if you can literally spend 16 hours a day doing one thing. Once more with feeling: my sum total music/mixing/production education is two quarters. I volunteered at a club because I got in for free and within a month, it was paying my bills while i got a degree in something that made money. I was hardly the only one. I knew bartenders studying for the bar, waitresses working on their MFAs in fashion design and barbacks with art spaces.

You're supposed to enjoy yourself. That's much easier when you know where your next meal is coming from. Don't be like the bassist I knew with an Einsturzende Neubauten tattoo who played in a reggae band to pay the bills.

Never stop dicking around with music. The minute you start making it a "job," it will begin to lose it's appeal. The musicians we all love the most are still "dicking around" with music. Experiment with it, always. Don't pursue a path that will not allow you to have the time to continue to pursue music.

Whatever path you choose, make sure that you never compromise your authentic self.

I'll say that again, never compromise your authentic self. -Don't pretend that you don't know what this means either. All of you reading this know what it means. There are times when in order to continue down a path you are on, you start to think "I don't want to do this," or "this doesn't feel right." -Guess what? You don't have to do it and if it doesn't feel right, it isn't right.

Listen to that little voice in your head. The good one that clearly lets you know what is and is not fulfilling.

Not sure this helps.

Let's circle back in 10 years and have a hubski post seeing where you are at. Deal?

I started playing around in what was then still called Fruity Loops when I was about 15, now I'm 23 and I just completed a masters in playing about with Logic. I am now starting to get a paid a reasonable amount of money for what freelance sound design and composition I can get. The creative director of the company who are providing most of the sound work I'm doing could open a lot of doors for me when the time is right. This company also happens to be the web agency my brother and old housemate work for. It's who you know...

Essentially, I've had no plan and just done what seems right and/or is available to me at the time. However, I do have the good fortune of having immensely patient, hard working, and financially comfortable parents who have been willing to support me and put up with my bullshit. Don't get me wrong, I'm by no means a spoilt rich kind and ive helped earn my way, but they are the main reason I've been able to go about my life the way I have.

I mean, I'm living back home now after my postgraduate, working part time at my dad's company coordinating software projects whilst i build up my sound portfolio with freelance work. I still consider the decisions you're trying to make now. Who knows if music will even be my main income in a few years time. There's every chance it won't be. I might not even be doing it all. Who knows? But I don't regret the path I've taken and I am enjoying my life.

I know this isn't really advice. It's more just a perspective from someone who was in similar shoes to you are now and in some respects still is.

Do what you love to do. A passion you have as an art might not make you happy in career form. If you want to follow up with music, awesome, but make sure your heading toward a career you think you'll enjoy. Do some research, shadow people in industry, find a mentor before you take the plunge. Do everything you can to be realistic about the negative parts. If you can look at all that and it's still your dream, then go for it.

This isn't advice or a suggestion that it's what you should do, but I'll offer my own personal experience. I didn't have the inspiration to do something like music or art or whatever non-office thing, but I did go the office-wizard route. I'm now in my mid-30s and have been in my career for over ten years. I very much like what I do. I used to say I like what I do but wouldn't do it for free if they didn't pay me. Increasingly I'm not sure that's still true. I personally enjoy the satisfaction from solving a difficult problem, and I'm not sure I'd have that without my job.

Having the stable job also gives me a huge amount of freedom. One of my favorite stories is leaving work in Wisconsin on a Friday and telling my coworkers I (honestly) had no weekend plans. Plans change, and I had lunch in Hollywood the next day with a friend. As long as it doesn't conflict with work (and is legal, and I can afford it), I can do literally whatever I want. Use a week of vacation and go to Europe or Australia or road trip across the US? Done that. That freedom means a lot to me.

As someone living the "do what you love" thing without supportive parents, it's not something I'd recommend.

Woo!

Congrats on 2 years. I joined Hubski during a big change in my life. I'm excited to look back in a few years and see what I was up to and seen what has changed!