Thank you for writing this and for exposing more of the dark side of the industry. I think most people have been struggling lately, I know I have, although I hope the severity it got to for you is very rare.

I wholeheartedly agree with making it count. This year I have got a job (a one year contract) instead of freelancing. I know I could make at least 3 times the amount of money I’m now earning, but this job (using the web to make scientific data more accessible to the public and politicians) is far more important than developing yet another blog or shop’s website.

This is a discussion that needs to go further. How do we, as an industry, slow down the pace a bit? I think there is an element of competition between us all (a good thing, of course) which probably makes a lot of people want to keep working late hours because everyone else is. Sarah Parmenter spoke at Altitude, at the beginning of the year, about how it doesn’t even just affect us but our family and friends feel that they can’t interrupt us because we are too busy.

Things definitely need to change.