Comments on: Fat, Drunk, And Stupid Is No Way To Go Through Life, Son

by: The World According to Kang » I can’t get no satisfaction…

Sun, 11 Feb 2007 02:15:33 +0000

[…] Bowl of Stupid gets credit for the inspiration here (see son, you are doing something after all ). His essay, “Fat, Drunk and Stupid Is No Way To Go Through Life, Son” sparked the firing of my synapses and resulted in *gasps* Kangintrospection. […]

by: Holmes

Fri, 09 Feb 2007 17:59:37 +0000

Hi there. I just found this here blog of yours and I’ve been enjoying your posts, but this one in particular kind of made me stop and think, so I thought I’d leave a little note to tell you why. I don’t expect that this will make you feel any better about your situation or anything, but just let you know that this post had an affect, at least on one person. Anyway, when I was in college, I used to work in the mailroom of a rather large international law firm. It was just a job to me, but a lot of the people I worked with had plans to go on to law school. They were, to put it mildly, rather intense about it. When I’d wander the halls of the office on my way to perform whatever menial task needed doing, I used to wonder what was going on in the minds of the attorneys. Did they like what they were doing? Did they enjoy the number of hours they were putting in? I formed some rather harsh criticisms of them, not all of which were entirely inaccurate, but still not very nice. Reading your post made me stop and think that perhaps my criticisms, accurate or not, didn’t exactly take the humanity of these people into account. They were different from me, they were after things that were shallow and unimportant, and therefore they were lesser than me, their luxury cars and corner offices notwithstanding. Your post kind of gives a glimpse into another side of what some of them may have been feeling. Not sure if any of that rambling makes sense. Anyway, have a good one.

by: A Bowl Of Stupid

Wed, 07 Feb 2007 20:37:26 +0000

I fixed that for you. Thanks for the advise, T. It’s not so much about the type of law or anything. It’s more along the lines of throwing away more of the equity and monies I’ve been able to collect over the past few years in exchange for nothing of physical consequence. If I go the world trip route, I’ll come back with nothing more than my dick in my hands. This is about the time I need to start thinking about retirement funds instead, right?

God, the more I talk about it, the more I sound like a whiny little bitch.

Mental note: stop being whiny bitch.

by: TK

Wed, 07 Feb 2007 20:23:24 +0000

predilection for sex with animals was supposed to be crossed out. now my joke just looks weird.

by: TK

Wed, 07 Feb 2007 20:22:19 +0000

If I’ve learned one thing in this life, it’s don’t do something you don’t like, or at least can’t tolerate. If you don’t like the traditional private practice version of law, then don’t do it - you’ll only cause yourself further misery down the road, unless you manage to find that fantasy office where you’re blissfully happy every day. That place is most likely also stocked with free booze, beautiful women, and constant, beautiful birdsong. Also, I have a bridge you may be interested in.

That said, how intensive have your efforts (if at all) to build your own practice been? Are you in a totally over-saturated market? Do you do practice a specialty that is underutilized, or are there dozens doing what you do? Demand is a big part of it, I suppose. But if that’s what you want to do, then you should try it until it either succeeds or truly is a total failure. Anything less and you’re wasting your time.

Of course, all of this is easy for me to say, since all I know about you involves some politics, your taste in music and your ~~predilection for sex with livestock~~ apparently ample ability with the legal profession. But you asked, and that’s my suggestion. Taking time off to surf the world is a fine idea (seriously), but the question that asks itself is this: by disappearing for a year, or six months - will taking yourself out of the game for that long hurt your chances to get back in it? I don’t know, because frankly, I don’t know shit about law. The only lawyers I know do community legal service law. They are noble and zealous folks, but it’s obviously not for everyone.

I’m not going to use that “follow your heart” bullshit, because the world can’t be simplified that much. But I guess I will say this: Do what makes you either happy, or the least frustrated. You may, however, have to go through substantial frustration to get to that point. I did with my career path, but our lives, despite some bizarre similarities, are very different.

My guess is this wasn’t very helpful, and perhaps a gross oversimplification. But hell, you did ask.