About — Gainful Unemployment
Why this site exists, and how I think about work, projects, and time.
About
This site exists because I wanted to take a more deliberate approach to how I work.
Not in the “quit everything and move to a beach” sense — but in the quieter, more practical sense of wanting to build things that last, make sense, and don’t require constant urgency to survive.
For a long time, I treated ideas as things that needed to be acted on immediately. Domains were purchased. Projects were started. Experiments were launched. Some worked. Most didn’t. A few taught me more than I expected.
Over time, I realized the value wasn’t in the volume of output — it was in understanding why certain ideas kept resurfacing, and what they were trying to say.
What This Site Is For
Gainful Unemployment is a place to think out loud about:- building small, durable projects
- creating income without burning out
- attention, autonomy, and creative momentum
- the systems we work inside of (and around)
- and the long arc of making things on the internet
Some of the writing here is practical.
Some of it is reflective.
Some of it is simply a way to make sense of past work.
It’s not a blog in the traditional sense. It’s closer to a notebook — one that happens to be public.
What This Site Is Not
This is not:- a productivity platform
- a startup in disguise
- a funnel
- a personal brand exercise
There’s no promise of optimization or shortcuts here.
I’m not interested in scaling for the sake of scaling, or turning every idea into a product.
I’m more interested in understanding which ideas deserve time, and which ones are better left as experiments.
Why the Name
“Gainful Unemployment” isn’t about avoiding work.
It’s about choosing it carefully.
It’s about building income in ways that don’t hollow out the rest of life.
It’s about reducing dependence on any one system.
It’s about letting projects grow at a human pace.
Some things here may eventually make money.
Some may remain personal.
Some may simply document the process.
All of that is intentional.
How to Read This Site
You don’t need to read everything.
There’s no prescribed order.
If something catches your interest, follow it.
If not, move on.
This site isn’t trying to convince you of anything.
It’s just a record of what I’m building, thinking about, and learning — as honestly as I can manage.