"The unfortunate thing about working for yourself is that you have the worst boss in the world. I work every day of the year except at Christmas, when I work a half day"
About this Quote
Self-employment gets sold as escape: no managers, no clocks, no petty politics. Eddings punctures that fantasy with a line that lands because it flips the power dynamic inward. The “worst boss in the world” isn’t some moustache-twirling tyrant; it’s the version of you that knows exactly how to apply pressure, exactly where you’re vulnerable, and exactly which deadlines you’ll let slide unless someone (you) turns the screws. That’s the joke’s sting: freedom doesn’t delete authority, it relocates it.
The Christmas “half day” punchline is doing more than bragging about hustle. It’s a satire of the work ethic romance that surrounds writers and other solo creatives. In a job, there’s at least a socially recognized off switch: weekends, holidays, sick days you can claim without existential guilt. In creative labor, the product is you - your imagination, your discipline, your insecurity - so rest feels like theft from your future. Eddings compresses that anxiety into a throwaway seasonal gag: even the sacred pause gets audited.
Context matters: as a prolific fantasy author in the pre-Patreon, pre-“content creator” era, Eddings worked inside a marketplace that rewards output and series momentum. The quip reads like gallows humor from someone who understands that autonomy often means trading external supervision for internal compulsion. It’s funny because it’s true, and unsettling because it’s also a warning: the boss you can’t quit is the one in your own head.
The Christmas “half day” punchline is doing more than bragging about hustle. It’s a satire of the work ethic romance that surrounds writers and other solo creatives. In a job, there’s at least a socially recognized off switch: weekends, holidays, sick days you can claim without existential guilt. In creative labor, the product is you - your imagination, your discipline, your insecurity - so rest feels like theft from your future. Eddings compresses that anxiety into a throwaway seasonal gag: even the sacred pause gets audited.
Context matters: as a prolific fantasy author in the pre-Patreon, pre-“content creator” era, Eddings worked inside a marketplace that rewards output and series momentum. The quip reads like gallows humor from someone who understands that autonomy often means trading external supervision for internal compulsion. It’s funny because it’s true, and unsettling because it’s also a warning: the boss you can’t quit is the one in your own head.
Quote Details
| Topic | Entrepreneur |
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