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This is my argument The reason why people have a passion is because they believe that they can change something and that it is important. In fact, all emotions are true in such a way. Emotions are simply involuntary responses to our rational observations. A child observes what he is good at and that is how a passion develops. It is very obvious to a child. Everyone as a child had figured it out, but not many people actually followed their passion. Since all passions are rational, then if society is rational, following one’s passion will lead to prosperity. However, this is not the case with our current society. If I want to become a philosopher in North Korea, my prospects are very low or I will not make enough money to survive. This would never happen in a free society because passions are always valuable. However, state intervention prevents the pursuit of an individual’s rational self-interests. It subdues free will. There was a man who did a major in philosophy but who after regretted it because he hadn’t been able to make money from it. It as at this point that people break with their passions. He concluded that passions are not necessarily good and he implicitly accepted nihilism rather than recognising that evil was done unto him. It makes it hard for him to recognise it since sophism is state sponsored in philosophy departments. The majority of people share a similar story. Whether it is coercion from the state, or their parents, or their peers, an adult or child is in some way rejected for following their passions and the adult or child concludes that he cannot trust his emotions. This is the very essence of evil. It is why people did not trust the invisible hand of the free market for tens of thousands of years. Essentially, their self-esteem was so destroyed that they did not trust their own rational faculty. It is the greatest contradiction that ever existed. A virtuous man would find a work-around. He knows that his life is meaningless without passion. He knows that if he were to look back at his life without following his passion, he would regret it and wonder what could have been. There is no alternative for him. Every action we make is motivated by emotion. A person cannot simply think and do. They must think until they feel that they can do. An artificial line has been created between emotions and thoughts. Emotions simply are an expression of our deepest and truest thoughts that we may not even be conscious of. It is analogous to the arbitrary distinction between qualia and meaning. We see red because we associate it with everything else that is red. A person void of passion then, is a robot without free will, following the instructions of others without even being consciously aware of it. So, the virtuous man has no rational choice other than to find alternatives to the best of his ability. This does not mean that the virtuous man will be unsatisfied. The passion arises only from what can be done. If man finds that his passion is unreachable, his passion will naturally change. So, the virtuous man is a force that cannot be stopped by anyone or anything. It is as clear as sunlight what his objective is. A rock cannot turn into a tree, nor can man change his neurological predispositions, particularly once he becomes aware of them. Even if a man is destroyed for following his passions, he will never be the same. He will always be at ease, because he knows what must be done so he will inevitably build himself back up. He is the man who works. But if a man does not immerse into his passions, he will always live a shallow life not knowing what he could have been. “Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it” – Lao Tzu.

Recommended to me by @Dylan Lawrence Moore, I found Rich Dad, Poor Dad (not sure if the comma is part of the actual title since I don't think it is but I put it there anyway) as an audiobook on YouTube. And by GOD ABOVE was it the most productive and empowering red pill I've ever swallowed! Not only did it "reveal" (I put quotes because if you've been following Stefpai some of the stuff should already be known to you--however if you're a fresh face to the real world then it's as good as any a first step!) a lot of truths and facts about society, money, and etc. but it fundamentally encapsulates the core distinctions between the Rich, the Poor, and the Middle Class. The audiobook for the book proper is only 3 hours long--I won't attempt to boil it down to a couple paragraphs because every line is worth listening to and frankly I'd do a disservice if I tried. You can find a way to break down 3 hours into diggestable bits as needed and you'll be well-rewarded for it. As a "spoiler" though I'll point out what Robert Kiyosaki claims (and I think rationally and reasonably) to be the primary distinction between the Rich and the Middle Class/Poor: Financial Literacy. Financial Literacy is essentially knowing what wealth is, knowing how to separate assets from liabilities and the wisdom to tell the difference before sealing the deal. Public School education isn't much and College Education is becoming increasingly worthless (worse than worthless actually; about a few hundred thousand dollars of bad debt + anywhere from 2-10 years of your life, potentially!) and I have to say this book as an introduction to financial literacy was worth far more than anything I've ever learned from the government schools. Even more than my ability to read and do basic math, I'd dare say. I don't care how old you are or how busy you are: you will be helped by this book and the younger and fresher you are the more empowered you'll be in the long run by this information. Don't be the Poor Dad and embody the Poor Dad's ways of thinking and being; become the Rich Dad and invest in yourself. And this free audiobook is definitely an infinitely profitable return on investment!

I quit my job a week ago. I was supporting a proprietary industrial control system that was, as of six months ago, going to be phased out.The job was turning out to be a dead-end. This job represented a big change in pay and I was able to squirrel away alot of money in savings. This job also was teaching me new skills and entrusted alot of customer relation aspects to me to figure it out and make it work. I liked that aspect and received regular feedback that I was able to satisfy customers while resolving complex technical issues with out-in-the-field technicians. The company troubles started when the founder of died. A few days after he died, the R&D dept. (for our next gen controller) was axed. They had just finished final testing and were about to start field testing with clients who were willing to participate. I can not make business sense of the timing. After this happened our engineers and higher up managers basocally stopped coming into work except for a couple of days out of the week. Things were looking really bad and our customers were starting to stop engaging with my company. It seemed like this company was nearing the end of the road, everyone knew it but nobody would talk about it or address the problems with the company. We woukd always get the fake corporate double speak of "great changes" and "just about to turn the corner" while doing nothing different or having a plan of recovery. Anyways, months ago I let my boss know that I was looking for new employment and my boss surprised me by saying he was as well but not to tell anyone. I said I would let him know when I found a new job. Well things kept deteriorating and people started getting petty and stressful. Every molehill was a mountain. I finally had to quit because the stress was way too much. Now Im getting nightmares about conflicts between my old boss and a different nightmare of being stuck in Japan due to a massive volcanic eruption. How do I make these stop? Im already under alot of stress and its very difficult to have a normal sleep cycle. I need to study and focus because I would like to make my resumé look better with some technical certifications.

Good Sunday Afternoon, Fellow FDR Comrades for Anarcho-Capitalism, Peaceful Parenting, Rationality, and Stefan Molyneux Please Notice Me Senpai! Since I've noticed a few other listeners/forum-ers have posted similar topics about how helpful FDR and Stefan-senpai has been, I decided it was high time I shared my experience (from after graduating high school) and how Stefpai was instrumental in my success. During the Summer and Autumn of 2016, I had greatly pondered whether or not to go to college. You see, I want to be a novelist. That means writing books and convincing someone I'm worth his time and my product is worth selling. What does college have to do with that? "Maybe the piece of paper would magically grant me opportunities"... Or so I thought, until I watched what Stefpai had to say to similar ex-kids my age. I decided I'd be wasting time and money (and I mean lots of time and money!) if I decided to get a "Liberal" Arts Degree and risking my sanity if I purposely put myself in an environment where everyone (or at least the majority) think in ways I am diametrically opposed and probably even want me dead for the crime of being a heterosexual White male with Rightist politics. And so from late December to mid January, I followed Stefpai's wisdom of actually entering the Free(ish) Market I claimed to uphold and defend and also beat the temptation of living my youth as a welfare parasite. In six weeks, along a schedule like this: Mondays; Talk to employers/manager's on the phone I've met or yet to meet; Wednesdays; Spend from noon to 6:00 pm knocking on every store from mom-and-pop's to smoking dens (cough cough) and Target to find a job (or at least seduce the employer into expediting my hiring). Thursdays; Review with my therapist (which I got on the advice of the Stefpai) what I was doing and how I'm doing it; Saturdays; Plan out what I'd be doing the following week. Eventually, after being to literally 90-something shops (with some repeats where I felt a little more time and persistence could get me a job) my resume was finally reciprocated by a young and wise Pakistani business owner who wanted someone to train and teach as a protege so he could expand his already successful enterprise. What was this enterprise? I had no idea. I forgot I even I submitted my resume to him. However, the morning after the call I followed Stefpai's business mindset of remembering it was the customer whose weight sustains the business, and respecting the role of my future (and now current) employer whose own energies had turned a dusty and empty space into a workshop full of technical gadgets I couldn't even begin to name. I knew nothing of technology (beyond vidya games) or how to repair them (I never break them), let alone how to do web designing, security, or finances. And yet, the man hired me. I knew he would too. When asked the loaded questions of "what would you do in X scenario" I gave answers that both my employer and his financial partner liked, which seemed to greatly compensate for my non-existent work history or experience in tech. And by God was this an opportunity; I went, nearly overnight, from parasite to workingman. However, this was just the beginning. I spent the last few weeks in training (unpaid but free, 30 hours a week) and now with only one week left I'm confidant in saying I now know what an LCD is and how to unscrew the multitude of tiny screws on iPhone 6S + Gorilla Voodoo Machine and finally secure not just my first job but something that could lead to a pretty stable and financially secure groove from which I can devote myself to my true career as a novelist. And so, with the security of employment and the persistence that promises Victory, this young bachelor's story begins. Now I just have to put in the work and learn what I can, seeing how far I can go while doing what I love (writing) so that once that's done I can start again the process of persistence and tenacity (redundant emphasis, I know) to actually sell what I've spent 6 years working on since I was 12. That was my FDR helping IRL for business and careers story, what about YOU?

Hey Everyone! After 3 years of thinking about this, ive finally put out a call on thsi forum for fellow Building Entheisiasts be they Architects, Architect students (like me), engineers relating to buildings or building in some way. I would like to connect with those whom i nto onyl share MORAL values but also academic and Career related values! Because as you may already know it is a damn shame and also really depressing if you find philosofy but then find out you have little or nothing else in common with thsoe engaged in rational discourse. If anyone wants to contact me and have friendly chat about philosofy AND career and mutual interests. Well post her first and then we shall see. PS. Other interests include, problems solving, science, chesmistry, food, health, video games, CREATIVITY and Fantasy art/DND. ect. PPS. I can hear my childhood self going like this atm:

On December 27th, 2016, Stefan reloaded a YouTube video that he uploaded several weeks prior, titled "Woman rejects feminism, triggers SJWs". There is something Stefan is missing in his argument, he says that late teens/early 20s is the best time to have children for health and fertility reasons, and encourages women to go with child-rearing first, career later, but at this point in a person's life, most people have very little money and can barely afford to live on their own. Picture it: Young couple, the woman stays at home to be a young mother, WHERE is the money coming from? The father's crummy job changing tires or stocking overnight at Walmart? You can't raise a family in 2016 with an income like that. More money has to come from somewhere. Living in Toronto, being older and well-to-do with his successful wife, Stef's position isn't in touch with the current economic situation for the age group he is encouraging to have children. Am I wrong? Did I misunderstand his statement?

My main question is, how do you find ways to figure out what career path to take next? I've been a long time listener and few time poster here and I'm looking for some advice towards my current situation. Recently, I became unemployed and on severance for the next 3 weeks. This job only lasted 2 months and has caused me much stress and frustration. Prior I had a stable job for 4 years that was not that stressful and I liked the people/company. I moved on from this job in pursuit of something better and with a possibility to learn more and grow my career. The position and company was not a good fit, my boss recognized this early on and started to see I was struggling. I was doing intern work as a result and she didn't allow me to take on more work because of this. I became frustrated as I wasn't receiving any guidance and support to learn more and also because the company/position was not what we discussed and thought it was. Overall, now I'm out of work, in a city that I like but away from family. I have a few options to consider and feel like I have to decide soon. First is to stay in the city and look for work. This option is the most difficult as I don't have a network to work with by finding similar jobs and feel depressed from being close to my old job without being able to work there. Second is to move back home, regroup with family and friends then decide where to take my career. Third, I have a possible job lined up across the country that is similar to my old good job. It's 25% less pay and new part of the country, I'm 29 so not that young to pickup and move on a dime. Fortunately I could if really necessary as I'm single with no dependents. Fourth, move down to new state with best friend and live with his family for a while. Cheap rent and close to friends family would be the best part. Being in a small town with no work would not be good. Within the past month, I began taking medications for depression and anxiety. This is not normal for me as I've always been good in life but these past two months really shocked my system and life. I've been talking to family and friends about my situation which has been a blessing as they have helped me through it. They understand what I'm going through but it's difficult with the distance. I think most of my underlying fear that I have revolves around uncertainty. These past two months I haven't been able to relax as often to contemplate these decision.

I'm exhausted of my job, there's no career path in my company for me, and though it's not been announced it's widely believed that our office will be shut down at the end of the year. It's lead to me feeling very frustrated and pent up at my current occupation, and has affected my performance. I'm looking to find new work, and have been since September. However I haven't had an offer yet, and I think I know why. My job title is Project Manager, but I don't do what most people think of as PM. I mostly do a customer service/Help desk kind of job. The thing is, I think I can try to get a new job by getting some industry qualifications for being a Project Manager. But, that's potentially throwing money away after a career that I may not be good at, and could potentially hate as much as my current job. But, the only alternatives I can think of are to stick out my current job and just keep applying for things, or quit my job and go job hunting full time. I don't want to get fired from my job, but I'm kind of at the point where I think I can't take it any more. I have about 6 months worth of money in the bank. Really I want something where I work with people, and I don't stare at a lit screen for 8 hours a day. Pleeeeassee help!

Hello everyone, my current employer is a class 1 railroad that receives some government subsidies in the united states. They have been laying off heavily the past several months or so and I was looking at other railroads to work for, specifically in the passenger rail industry(metro north, Amtrak), which I'm pretty sure is considered a public corporation that is even more heavily subsidized than my current employer. I have two question: 1. As an anarcho capitalist, is it moral to work for my current employer which receives some stolen money? 2. Is it immoral to work for a public corporation that is hemorrhaging money like Amtrak? I apologize if this has been discussed already but I did do a search and couldn't find anything related after a quick glance. I appreciate any input you guys can give me.

Some of you may have read my previous topic where I have described my current career situation. https://board.freedomainradio.com/topic/45179-im-a-police-officerhelp/?hl=%2Bpolice+%2Bofficer I have been thinking for a long time about this and I am now proud to announce that I have decided to liberate my consciousness from the moral implications of being a Police Officer. Yes - I am quitting. Undoubtedly, this will have a huge impact on my life. I have a degree in Criminology which I have chosen for the very purpose of being able to advance through the ranks quicker, which of course now becomes useless. Also, having to pay off around £30000 for that degree and not having a very clear idea where to go from here isn't very motivating to say the least . I need a new job, that's for sure. Any advice on possible career paths is highly appreciated! The bottom line is - whatever happens, I will not regret my decision .

Hi, I'm James and I'm in high school. I've been thinking about what I want to do as a job for quite a while now, and I felt really stupid for not thinking of posting this question sooner. I'm very interested in medicine as a whole but mostly psychology. I'm also interested in politics and making change. I really want to find a way to incorporate the majority of my interests in a career that I will enjoy (as well as profit from). I'm well aware of the impeding economic collapse based on the statistics that I've looked into. I would really appreciate any feedback regarding this. Thanks. (Also, if this is the wrong place for this topic then please let me know.)

Hi everybody. I would greatly appreciate if someone could be able to locate this podcast for me. I believe I am looking for this conversation with a young man who just graduated from police academy or was enrolled in classes, but is very disconnected with his emotions and is unsure about his career choice. Stef said some truly impacting words: "I think you're looking for a plan of action when I'm talking about the resurrection of an emotion. Self is not plan, identity is not execution. The truth is not a road map. The world is round. Does that tell you where you want to go? No, it means that if you wanna go somewhere knowing that the world is round is probably a good idea to navigate by. But saying that the world is round doesn't tell you where you should go in the world. It just means that if you wanna go somewhere you'll actually be able to get there. Or even if you should go, or if it's important to you. It's just a fact. And the reason that you were humiliated repeatedly is that you were cut off from parental support. Bullying means you were cut off from parental support. I have never known a child who was bullied who was connected to a parent figure in a positive and loving matter. You see, what happens in the schoolyard has to happen in the crib first. Everything that follows is the shadow cast by parental indifference and alienation, and hostility and lack of bonding lack of connection. Everything that happens in love, in life, in society, in business, in schoolyard, in air planes, and in wars- All of that -is the shadow of people leaning over your crib, with warm words, soft breaths and smiles, or yelling in the next room or watching TV downstairs. You see children see who are connected to parents. -Who is connected to parents, who is connected to parents, who is connected to parents? Ah! See there! That kid? That kid? Lost in space, adrift, no connection, no support. Separated from the herd, caught off from connection caught off from support. BANG! We're gonna get him!- Because what do children fear? If children knew that your parents would go and talk to them or their parents they would go and pick on easier targets right? Or if they knew your parents were gonna go to the principal and have you record stuff on an iPad and play stuff back and play it back and cause a big stink and a big fuss, they wouldn't bother right? The bullies in the playground are an effect of the bullies at home. They can't possibly exist without parental indifference and alienation. And who is your mom to tell you what is a bad experience for you or not. Literally, that's like you getting a piece of cheese cake and you say" Damn this is a great cheese cake." Then I say, "No it's not. It's not great cheese cake for you. You're wrong." If you had a bad experience, you know what? You had a bad experience. If you were scared, know what? You were scared. Who the fuck am I to tell you what your experience is? I am too self interested to be objective about your experience."

I notice that many times I'm at work, or working with client remotely, etc, I feel as if I should be doing something else. When I start doing something else, the same feeling comes up. I feel like I should be doing some other thing. I'm not sure why this is happening. Anyone have any insights?

I have been thinking about dropping out of University and going to take some web development classes in order to break into the career. I am a history major right now and I just don't see much value in continuing my debt for a liberal arts degree. Does any one have an advice who works in the field? Good decision? Seems to me that the field is only growing. Please, any thoughts are helpful.

Out of curiosity, what does everyone here do for a living? If you can, please write the title of your occupation and then a short description. Example: Public school teacher: Hi, I took the only job I could ever possibly be hired for noble sacrifice of indoctrinating educating your kids that you were too lazy stressed to take care of. I stole welcomed your children who once had the endless no desire to learn and destroyed inspired them and implanted toxic bullshit the seeds of imagination into their heads. By the way, I need a raise on top of my 100k salary slavery-like salary for glorified babysitting professional education, so that I can buy a luxury vacation home serve your children better. I'm excited to find out what you all do!

I have just graduated university, my BA degree doesn't seem to be making much of a difference in finding a job. The thing that I can do is take a 1-2 year course to get my paralegal certificate just so that I have more practical job experience instead of general philosophy or general psychology. I live in the GTA in Ontario. What I wanted to ask is, whether anyone has worked as a paralegal or lawyer? If so what was it like? Did you enjoy the legal profession? Do you have any complaints about the legal sector or words of advice for someone considering this career path who is also interested in FDR/Philosophy? Thank You I would appreciate any other information or experience about the legal profession and the difficulties that may arise..

I have a major problem with boredom and hopelessness in my life, and some intelligent outside help from the fine folks at FDR could be mighty helpful. What follows is a summary of abortive career pathways. To provide context, I am in my early 30s. Right after high school, I did a bachelors in chemistry, followed by a masters degree in chemistry. The original goal here was to pursue a doctorate in chemistry, but after watching my colleagues spend 5-8 years of their lives performing repetitive experiments, followed for many by 2-4 years of post-doctoral fellowships (more of the same at a slightly higher pay), l decided to complete a masters degree instead. Although I have always been prone to depression, I did not begin to procrastinate or succumb to apathy until near the end of my masters degree, and even then it was still fairly mild in intensity. Although the lab work in grad school did not appeal to me very much, I really enjoyed teaching (in this program, all grad students taught undergraduate chemistry labs and drop-in problem solving sessions). After doing some reading in the areas of psychology and psychiatry, as well as dating a masters student in counseling psychology, I decided that it would be fun and rewarding to try to teach people how to solve challenges within their own lives. Even at this point in my life, while a political conservative in worldview, I saw how dysfunctional the public school system is, and had no respect for the training in education degree programs (B.Ed.'s), so a career as a high school chemistry teacher was ruled out. Additionally, my mother was a clinical social worker who told me stories of her work, which always sounded interesting, even if conducted within a clearly dysfunctional public mental health system. I now think that I was given an unwarrantedly positive view of psychiatrists by my mother, and a somewhat negative view of clinical psychologists. So after finishing my M.Sc. in chemistry, I rather naively set off for medical school as a means to the end of becoming a psychiatrist. If other interesting career options within medicine caught my imagination while on that road, so much the better. So, I was in medical school for three years with a goal of pursuing a career in psychiatry. When I began my medical school career, I was not a libertarian (much less an anarcho-capitalist) and more or less fully bought into the propaganda behind conventional psychiatry. This has changed substantially, and my goal in medical school was modified into my current goal of doing training in psychiatry, augmented with additional training in psychotherapy, in order to become a direct pay psychotherapist who might have used medication sparingly. I succumbed to apathy and boredom after a few months in medical school, as well as depression, and was unable to continue after struggling for three years in this endeavor (actually four years if you count an additional year of undergrad I took in order to improve my GPA). After washing out of a mind-numbing stint in medical school, I've set myself the goal of becoming a direct-pay psychotherapist. In order to pursue this, I'm now back taking undergrad courses in psychology in an attempt to prepare for graduate training in clinical psychology. Right now I am finishing one semester out of a necessary four semesters needed to apply to graduate school in clinical psychology. However, after the novelty of this change of environment wore off (within about three or four weeks), I find myself not caring at all about the content, thinking the next two years of undergrad psychology will be boring and mostly useless (in terms of useful knowledge), and suspecting that graduate training in clinical psychology will be contain more boring and mostly pointless content delivered at a faster pace, as in medical school. Not coincidentally, I find myself constantly procrastinating on what should be easy work. Sometimes I think of trying to enter the workforce with my masters degree in chemistry. When I look at the entry level white collar job market, I see myself being lucky getting an insecure, poor paying job doing mind numbing work as a lab technician. I feel so trapped, with a voice in my head saying I have no good options. Any pathway will result in mind numbing tedium, eventual burnout, and surrounded by propagandized/emotionally damaged people incapable of talking about anything but tedious trivia. All this while the economies of the world continue their slow collapse, and the emerging Fourth Reich continues to grow. This is not the mindset that I want to have, but therapy has not been useful in turning me to a more productive direction. I would be ever so appreciative of any thoughts on this situation.

Hello everyone.I'm currently 22 years old and I've got problem. I'm not sure how to go about carrying on into the future of adult life. My parents are causing a great deal of frustration for me, but because of how I've learned to communicate with them, it's impossible for me to be verbally persuasive about my feelings and my needs. It's very important to me that I make the right decision so I'm going to detail this situation in the best way that I can. I've been unemployed for 3 years, and I've never had a non-temporary job. The process of applying for jobs inspires nothing but apathy in me, to the point where, even if I got an interview, I've already stopped caring. I want to chase my passions in life and try to earn money that way. I've chosen that I'd most love to become a blacksmith (more specifically an armor smith) and to sell my works. There is a market for these products so that's not even relevant to this topic. The perdicament I have right now is how I choose to go about reaching that point.Currently I have no formal education. I have a GED, and I'm not particularly good at anything in life aside from the ability to retain lots of knowledge. I have no professional skills yet. My family is supportive of my career choice and is willing to financially support me in acquiring the education and tools necessary to make a living that way on my own.However, my parents absolutely refuse to take responsibility for the way that they have raised me. They blame all of my problems, and all of their parenting mistakes, on the claim that I have aspergers syndrome (or some kind of mental disability), a notion which I strongly disagree with, and feel is a massive cop out. There are huge voids in my relationship with my parents. My father is abusive, and though my mother didn't let him physically and verbally abuse me very much as a child, she completely enables him to do so now, with the mentality that I have no right to have my feelings considered because i am a grown man who is still dependent on his parents. They never taught me how to be self-reliant. They never gave me the skills for that, as they argue that it's something I was supposed to just automatically know.My mother thinks that the reason why I don't have a job and stay at home all day is because she failed to "discipline" me, but she thinks that discipline is not compatible with peaceful parenting, which is what she claimed to have tried.My memory of my childhood is very limited, but I never had any friends, and I was extremely anti-social beginning from my 3rd year at least. I used to bite people constantly, especially other children. Not seemingly for any reason, it would just sorta happen, but it earned my family a bad reputation with other parents, and it earned me nobody to socialize with. My parents refuse to believe that they have anything to do with my nature as a child, or any of the ways in which I psychologically developed. So if I stay with my family for a couple more years, I will have the support i need to become a very capable blacksmith, but at the expense of living with people who make me feel extremely frustrated, and extremely angry.My father is going into counceling, and I'm thinking about giving counceling a chance because he wants to fix the relationship he has with me (because it really wasn't a relationship at all) but I am very doubtful that he will ever apologize for any evils that he made me suffer. If I confronted him about these things verbally right now, he would literally scream at me and threaten me with violence for disrespecting his authority as my caregiver. If I defend myself verbally or physically, he will think he is completely morally justified in battering and bruising me, and then literally throwing my limp body out of the house afterwards. He has done it before and he would do it again. He is basically a slave to his emotions, and would disown me as a member of his family if I didn't appeal to his preconceived notions of "respect" which he apparently deserves for providing for me. I have no money and no friends or relatives to fall back on, so my only other option besides living with my parents is becoming homeless and then trying to find a job in that state of living. Is there anything I'm missing here? I feel incredibly distressed.

I am 24 years and have never kept a job for a year. I have had jobs, but for various reasons (school became overwhelming, schedule conflicted with other obligations and others) I have left my past jobs before the one-year marker. I am not making much money at my current job and feel very tempted to start looking elsewhere, but come February, I will have been there for a year. Would you guys recommend sticking it out until then?