The Work of the Soul
The most profound achievement is not wealth or recognition, but the ability to engage fully with what fascinates you without calculating its return. When we code, paint, write, or build purely from curiosity and joy, we express a radical defiance against the colonisation of our inner lives by market forces.
The source of our deepest anxiety isn't that we might fail to monetise our talents, but that we've forgotten how to value an experience that isn't instrumental to something else. We mistake the entrepreneur's mindset for ambition itself, unable to recognise the quiet dignity in pursuing mastery with no audience in mind.
What we create when freed from expectation often holds more honest value than what we produce when constrained by markets. The beauty of coding for oneself is that it preserves a sacred space where worth isn't measured by utility to others, but by how completely it engages our own fascination.
Perhaps true freedom isn't having unlimited resources, but having the clarity to pursue what matters without needing to justify its purpose.