+1 for the eGPU. But would also highly recommend the CalDigit TS3+. The best docking station I'ave had and essentially create 1 cord going into MBP.

1 - This survey isn't large. It's from the apps customers...Also...200 people is barely enough to get a sample size big enough to reflect real-world data. 2 - This app sources jobs from many, many, many low paying, low-value sites like Craiglist, UpWork, etc. It's just a job board scraper + paywall. 3 - Any designer/developer making a comparable salary freelancing would also tell someone this data is problematic for the industry and leads potential clients to believe the work can be done inexpensively. 4 - My experience also proves this to be true.

Another way to look at this. Would you trust a survey from Harvard Medical making absolutist claims about health outcomes from a survey of 200? I wouldn't. Which is also why I don't trust this.

Terribly inaccurate. But this is also coming from a service that provides job "opportunities" sourced from Craigslist...

Go make art...

Freelance!

I will say the biggest upside to an agency is access to people (and possibly clients). So if you plan on going freelance it could help.

However, not sure it'd help as much as having access to leadership in a startup or corp.

DON'T DO IT.

I wrote this in caps just to catch your attention. Not to yell. So sorry :(

Anyways, I've worked at big agencies and small agencies and they are all terrible.

1. Pay sucks. No matter where you go the pay is pretty trash compared to non-agency companies. The biggest reason is employees are a huge risk to a business model with such thin profit margins. Imagine running a company where, at any given time, 10-15% of your employees are getting paid to do work for clients you don't even have yet. Now imagine that happening and a paying client canceling a project or leaving the engagement for whatever reason. For these types of things and general greed, agencies pay like shit.

2. The billable hour is terrible. If you want to talk about ethics and morals ask any agency if they accurately bill clients. Better yet, ask the employees if they accurate bill. Not saying people fluff their hours but since most agencies are time + materials hourly billing is the core of the revenue model and if its not being met you don't get paid....so its shitty.

3. A lot of work doesn't make it to reality. A lot of work is changed because clients suck. A lot of work gets changed cause "our CEO really likes green" or "our Marketing Director doesn't like how this paragraph wraps". Not lying, I had someone tell me "these paragraphs look odd on mobile. And all the person was referencing was how they naturally wrapped on a device...

4. Hours suck terrible. Especially if the client director or project manager is afraid to push back on the client. I've watched Directors go home at 4 PM every day expecting anyone beneath them to do all the work until late nights. On many occasions, I've stayed until 12-1AM to get work done because a PM or client director wouldn't push back cause they didn't want to make the client mad. All this so a timeline doesn't get pushed out...which it does because the client doesn't respond in a reasonable amount of time.

5. The projects are rarely good. While working at a Branding Studio (big red horn logo.....so startup branding) the branding team (note not all teams) got to literally create brands from scratch. That was cool. Every one else tho...marketing campaigns, outdoor ads or microsites. Any established client we had (non-startup) work was "busy work". Meaning, work that the client didn't have time to do themselves or the work wasn't important enough to allocate time. Agencies rarely get work worth doing. Why give an agency your biggest product when they don't know shit about the brand, business, audience, etc as intimately as the company who created it?

6. Did I mention the work is never what you think it'll end up being? It's never what was pitched because someone doesn't like the design or it can't be built to full-spec in the timeline or...the best one...not enough budget to get it built, etc. It sucks. Less control over the overall outcome and finished product.

More than happy to chat more about my experience in the agency world. I've worked at large, 1000+ employee agencies, award-winning agencies, branding agencies that work with premier startups (Caspers, etc) and small, 20+ employee agencies.

They all literally had the same exact issues mentioned above.

I can tell you know, there is nothing fun about agency life or working at one. If I could restart my career I'd have never gone there. My salary ended up being about 20k less than it would've had I gone corporate or startup because agencies suck.

I'd love to chat about buying, what's the best way to reach you?

If you're down for reading (or audio book) check out Profit First.

I, too, kneel daily.

Used to use a fitness ball but found it annoying to have to keep the ball from moving away from where i put it originally. The kneeling joint also is optional of feet on the ground or 100% kneel so its solid.

This is a cute read. Sitting is bad for us. Standing is bad for us. Existing is bad for us.

What these types of articles overlook is probably not so much the act of sitting or standing but the lack of action in our lives in general. Sitting in one place is bad for us just as much as standing in one place. Walking....not so much. Crawling....look at babies.

Spend less time working and more time doing fun stuff.