If he meant what he wrote he should get a job, seriously.

I love the freedom that being a freelancer gives me and I could write about the hard times but I'd still do it without a bitter aftertaste like this.

Of course everything has its good and its bad sides but this sounds like someone that is very frustrated but that has found nothing better than what he's doing.

Also I notice he's a writer, now writing code and writing books are completely different for the 'average' level. An average coder can bring in quite a bit of money if they play their cards smart (look at me ;)), but an average writer would have a very hard time to make ends meet.

Writing books is more like making music than it is to writing code. And music can be tough too, as long as you don't make it in the 'big league'.

Freelance writing is tough from a financial point of view, and that's something that you presumably know before you pick that particular poison.

I find this piece much more negative than just the facts presented, the undertone is such that I hope people do not take this as the 'average' outlook of freelancers on their work and their work environment as well as their financial situation. It is not representative as far as my experience and the free-lancers that I work with are concerned.

You can't negate the tone of that article with a single line of 'because it's awesome, duh' at the end.

the first few paragraphs are all about how much he loves his work, It sounds exactly like someone who loves what they are doing but wants to point out that it isnt all sunshine and roses for people thinking about doing the same thing.

he is obviously a very good creative writer, you probably need to read it a little less literally.

when I first seen the title I remembers pg's quote straight away "doing a startup is like being punched in the face repeatedly, but a 9-5 job is like being waterboarded"

Doing a startup is much more like running a marathon than it is like being punched in the face.

It's for people with stamina, and the will to fight back.

I've been doing this for many years now and the times that I got 'punched in the face' are relatively small, and most of the times they were simply setbacks that if I had thought a bit longer and had been a bit smarter I could have avoided. Being punched in the face repeatedly suggests that third parties are actively trying to hurt you as an individual, and I can only find two instances of that over the last 15 years, and in both those cases the counter-punch was a k.o., so I don't expect to see repeat performances from that corner.

Entrepreneurs as a rule are not from the soft side of life, they know the value of standing up for themselves.

Going out for funding and being turned down for instance is not being punched in the face, it is a learning experience that tells you that something about you, your product or your presentation needs work, or that the investors you've been talking to are simply wrong.

So you improve and you try again, such is the nature of entrepreneurship and the nature of life in general.

If you can't handle disappointment well then entrepreneurship may not be for you. Think of it as character building.

edit: the disagree by downmod crowd has it today it seems.

I feel compelled to mention that similarly to the OP, I am not having an existential crisis.

Its probably a cultural issue, At least personally I think if you cant have a proper bitch about something, you probably dont love it enough. Same as the british idiom that says you arent friends with someone until you can call them a [Insert crude insult]