There’s this website thingy…the Right Stuff? The Inside Scoop? The Plain Facts? Something like that.
My day job is writing C++, and a bit of C# and Perl, and I get paid very well for it. But it’s someone else’s project. And it’s just coding, not the other stuff.
Don’t get me wrong; I actually like my job. It’s pretty satisfying overall, it’s good money, and I can definitely use my primary skills. But it’s a specialization problem. I like variety, but for any large project it doesn’t make sense for people to dabble in everything.
I have a friend who has a similar skill set, and for a while was doing just the kind of contract work that I’d probably enjoy. But he was earning probably a fifth of what I do. Last I talked to him he was earning “sweat equity” on a project that, while interesting and worthy, frankly had little chance for significant commercial success. So I can’t justify it, at least not right now.
Another thing is that for some reason I’m attracted to quirky projects. Stuff that no one in their right mind would pay for. The more pointless the better. I wonder if I have some repressed artistic streak in me.
I’m a lifelong keen railway enthusiast and lover of steam locomotives. Am now retired – basically spent my working life in fairly dull office jobs, but would have loved to be able to make a living by travelling worldwide, to what have been throughout my lifetime the ever-decreasing number of parts of the world, whose railways had steam locos in everyday commercial service; and revelling in that whole scene.
A very small number of railfans did manage to do that – photographing and writing about what they experienced, and getting their output published: but that was a field in which many were called, but very few chosen; and I have no photographic skills (never greatly interested in photographing the steam that I saw). In retirement, I have very limited funds; besides, steam locos in everyday “real” use, have very nearly vanished from the globe. For me, the preserved-steam scene just isn’t the same, and is nowhere near as captivating.
Dog training. Beer tasting. Indoor cannabis horticulture.
I like digging up interesting/funny/weird/cool historical stories and images and showing them to my friends online. It’d be nice to be able to get paid to do it. I enjoy trawling through archives immensely and I spend many hours at it, being able to do it professionally would be my dream job.
Being Opinionated.
If I could, I would love to be a full-time guest podcaster. I wouldn’t host my OWN show, but I would be a regular on a handful of other shows about things and I would just give my opinion and incite conversation. I’d love to be on Grantland’s football podcast, a couple wrestling ones I like, I could do well on a movie review type podcast.
Oh I could do movie reviews too, that’d be awesome.
jury Duty
I’d like to get paid for telling anonymous people on the internet they’re wrong.
Might call for a move to Nevada as well…
Going to movies.
Now, growing up I didn’t know there was such a thing as a film critic. OK, by the time I was an adult I had seen the critics on TV, but I didn’t make the connection that it was a job one could pursue.
Generally, coming from a very small town environment, I took away the message that there were all sorts of things that weren’t really legitimate employment pursuits. Very limited adult role models will do that for you.
Singing. Or golf. The beachcombing thing sounds good, too. Maybe a baseball coach at the MLB level.
I like my job, but the things I listed would be much more fun.
Are you a good tennis player? Do you play USTA leagues? I’ve been a 4.5 for years but got bumped to 5.0 at the end of last year. Luckily I appealed back down. Otherwise I’d never win a match again, haha.
Working in a Food Bank.
Operating hospitality suites for conventions.
Oh no, as far as being good. I’ve generally played as a 3.5 (I did do one season of men’s doubles in USTA). And I’ve occasionally held my own against a 4.0 in singles matches. But good? No. Nowhere near that. 
ETA @ stretch: I don’t play often enough, nor would I have the patience for stringing rackets, I think. I like to be able to hand things to other people to fix them. But I think that’s awesome that your step-dad turned a hobby into a business.
There is nothing I like to do that I do well enough to be paid for doing it.
If I were to work hard enough to get paid for doing something I like, it would no longer be fun, but rather work.
Playing video games.
That’s my thinking, combined with the fact that there are already a million bloggers and second-rate writers doing basically what I’d think would be fun, which would be either reviewing/writing about food/cooking, beer, liquor/cocktails, video games or TV shows.
Even then, it would kind of have that porn star dilemma, in that while I generally love the “work”, I find actress X repulsive, but it’s my job, so I have to get down(up?) for business whether I like it or not. I can’t help but think that somewhere in the food/beverage/gaming/TV writing/reviewing world, that I’d get stuck having to drink more Cynar, or eat liver, or whatever.
Now if I could get someone to just pay me to eat, cook, drink, play video games and watch TV, on my own schedule, and without choosing for me, and not actually having to write about it, then I’d be set.
Beach combing! Preferably on tropical beaches, please!
A new beach every few weeks, will do nicely.
Rocks, shells, stones, sticks, sea glass, coral bits, etc, etc! It will never be tiring, it will never be work.
Because should something vex me, I shall retire to my hammock, and enjoy a cold beverage delivered by my monkey butler!
Writing. I want to be a novelist (well, I am a novelist, but I want to make a living at it). I’m working on it.
I genuinely thought I’d make a living doing something baseball related (preferably playing) until I was a senior in high school. Now I’m too old and out of shape, but I can still dream.