Illiterations: Laughing At My Own Expense

Are you one of the many, many people in the world who earn their living in alternate work styles?  I've been watching the phenomenon over the past 25 years as the earliest "dot com" employees  began creating workplace environments and work schedules and even workplaces which simply didn't look anything like the IBM-blue, cubicles and offices, of yore. I contemplate this often.  I adore my own work-lifestyle, as demanding as it is.  I think most people would agree that there is almost immeasurable value in a life where a person can simply decide, for example, "Monday, I am going to my daughter's cheer tryouts," and not have to make a request to her employer for the time off.   Self-employed people have, to some degree, been doing this for a while, although many I've met are the least willing to absent themselves from their business for fear of missing a business opportunity.  But, I see many of them becoming more free to escape and to se