My real dream job would be not needing to have a job

I was basically doing it until AI came along, the only difference is that I'd rather pick what I work on. That is, I'm a software engineer. Now, they want AI agent baybsitters making it hard to find work that doesn't use AI.

I guess if I had to pick a second, it would be some kind of professional student or something that works in teams as someone who has a wide variety of knowledge across topics and domains and can use it together while still doing some kind of software engineering along with it.

I'm also a small-scale farmer where I just sell extra, but I don't know that I would like that as my fulltime job; I certainly wouldn't like the salary.

You probably can. Practice literally rewires your brain.

Maybe astronaut for me? Oh, or professional gymnast. I was pretty good, but practice will not rewire these tendons like you can rewire your brain.

I wanted to be an archeologist.

I would love to disappear into the wilderness and thrive, like Homer sinking into those bushes.

House husband. Maybe i'll get lucky.

Astronaut. I can barely handle carnival rides without tummy troubles now.

owner of a professional soccer team....

sucks because you have to start with millions and then lose most of it before you gain it back

Either a botanist or wildlife rehabilitation. Life sort of turned really shitty really early and I had to get a “less idealistic” college degree so I went with social/behavioral stuff. Literally have become a cog in machine. It did support me and my son his whole life, but when I was recently given the option to start school again… I couldn’t make the decision to switch to something like what I wanted because I already have almost 20yrs working in this field. So now I’m just getting licensed and rooting here for good. I just watch hella documentaries

Man, I just wanna sit at a bench and fix things. More than that, I want to go to school to learn how to design better things. Can’t do either ‘cause I’m broke as hell. Can’t find work doing it because nobody wants someone who just wants to sit at a bench and fix things, it’s always gotta include some other (corporately mandated) bullshit.

Someday I’ll rent an old school wrecking ball and my 7 year old self will be so fucking excited at knocking down a building. Then I’ll need to learn to run real fast so I can get away from the building’s owner.

Tournament organizer and commentator for various retro competitive puzzle games. Was something I used to do for a while and felt like I'd found my passion there. But things fell apart for... a number of reasons. Struggled badly with low turnout, which can be attributed to a lack of new releases bringing new players in, until the last major IP that was still standing got shot dead by a flurry of consecutive terrible decisions from the publisher.

These days I've pivoted to focusing on Riichi Mahjong, and I'd love to find a way to turn that hobby into something more. But there are already enough talented commentators and content creators in that space that I dunno if there's room for me to ever carve out a name for myself.

I'd have loved to be an animator doing 2D hand drawn animation for movies and/or TV. I love seeing my work come to life. I went to school for it for a few years and had a great time and did really well, but then I ran out of money, and I didn't want to get into crippling student debt so I dropped out. I was just not born into the right income bracket, compared to most of my classmates, who came from affluent families.

2D hand drawn animation is all but non existent in major motion pictures now, and has only really remained a staple in TV - even that is on shaky ground sometimes, if media corps decide to give your show the axe on a whim (see: Scavenger's Reign, Bojack Horseman).

Though I am happy to see that hand drawn animation is enjoying a small renaissance in indie projects like Lackadaisy and Knights of Guinevere.

In lieu of a career in it, I remain an animation hobbyist and make little things from time to time to practice and keep my skills up.

I would have liked to pursue art but I have no interest in the promotion or business side of it so it doesn't matter that I also lack the talent or learned skills 😅

It's okay to do hobbies imperfectly! Or at a much smaller scale. I enjoy art as a hobby, free from expectations and pressure. I hope you are able to do the same.

Astrophysicist

I think in another life, I was a sailor by trade. The idea of a machine fully isolated on its own power and crew plus the constant travel and views, it speaks to me.

But at the same time, I don’t think I have the discipline or responsibility that comes with a role like that where the lives of your fellow crew depend on you not fucking up basically at all. I’m also quite acclimated to my creature comforts and free time.

If I could go back to my early twenties, I bet I could convince that version of me to do it and get good at it. Everything about that environment just seems fascinating to me.

Full time musician. I have a mortgage and a (moderate) lifestyle to maintain. I still make and play music on the side but can never make it a full time job.

Archaeologist. It is so fascinating that they are still finding things. I grew up around morons who led me to believe otherwise, didn’t really find the passion for it until I was much much to old to get started.

If I could do literally anything I wanted to, I'd pick my current job as a self-employed handyman.

I do everything from basic renovation work to building custom pieces and even have the occasional property maintenance job like cutting grass, hedges or trees or doing power washing. I'm a plumber by training with a life-long history with tinkering but no real past experience in the field I work on nowadays. I just went for it anyway and I learn as I go. Had I have to hire an employee I'd pick someone with a deep passion for that work with no experience every time over someone more experienced who's in it just for the money. Customers take notice when someone actually cares and it's one of the reasons I attribute the fact to that I'm overworked in the city with the highest unemployment in my country (and of all Europe).

Blogger. I would dive into random topics, and write about them. The blog could also have relevant pictures, videos, diagrams or whatever I happen to be interested in at the time. It’s just that blogging probably isn’t a viable profession, so I’ll continue working for a sinking ship in the meantime. When this company goes bankrupt, I’ll figure something out.

Designing custom items for the elderly and handicapped seems like a fulfilling pass time. This is something that would have to be mostly done for free or very low cost.

Game developer of some kind. In my wildest dreams I'm the Stardew Valley guy.

I've tried to pursue it a few times but I'm not strong-willed enough to overcome the admittedly minor obstacles. I got shafted in school for IT class. Had 100% on the exam but the teacher was a huge bitch and wouldnt take my coursework so I only got a C. Which meant college wouldnt take me for game dev course and I had to do a baby-mode IT course where they made us learn google (seriously, 2 months of learning how to use AND and shit in google) and photoshop. By the time the class moved onto hardware and programming languages the teacher wouldnt let me participate because I didnt finish the photoshop course.

Decided to just try it alone and managed to scrape together an almost functional prototype after a few weeks. Then found out I'd selected the wrong option incredibly early in the process which meant I had to start all over again. Asked for advice online and instead of advice or information on what else to look out for just received shitload of people telling eachother what an idiot OP is and how people like that shouldn't even try when they don't even understand whatever that was. I'm too thin skinned to deal with it so I just gave up.

When AI started taking off a few years back I got a little excited, thinking it could be time to try again now that I can ask computer-daddy to help. Before I've even got round to seeing if its feasible, you know, take a look around.

I would like a sinecure as the front desk correspondent for a society of jaded cassandras. I would get to write scathing told-ya-sos on the behalf of smart people, shall we say four a day at most so that I could take time to soak in the context, sit in the affronted rage, and write something truly bilious on somebody else's behalf. It would then get sent to the responder for a round of notes and corrections before being printed, neglectfully stained with a coffee mug stamp, and mailed out to the offending party.

On second thought, two or three a day. I could easily get sidetracked.

Any given day, it changes - sometimes I'm ten pages deep in legal research and thought "why didn't I go to law school?" Other times I think about how being a pilot would be fun, or I wish I would've stayed with my buddy's rally team, or if I'd...

Basically, I have lots of dreams. If I had to pick one, currently, I'd say that I wish I could be one of those litter pick up road crews but make enough money to survive.

For me, I don't think there's anything I can't do. Its a belief that's generally been helpful in accomplishing great things.

With that said, if I had a do-over I might go into law. Would have been helpful to have an adult help me navigate that route as a youngster and I'm happy with what ive done and excited for what comes next.

Physicist or Astrologist. Higher education still isn't exactly disability-friendly, despite a lot of us would have been great scientists.

Pilot, or work on a deep sea vessel