A violinist I know once gave me the following advice: "If you love music, find yourself a job which doesn't involve playing music. If you become a professional musician, you'll find that you have to take every gig which comes along, just to make ends meet; you'll find yourself saying 'dear god, not Beethoven's fifth symphony AGAIN'; and ultimately you'll end up not loving music any more."
I figure that doing a startup is an ideal solution: It "solves the money problem" (as PG puts it), after which point you'll have the liberty to engage in the arts -- without ever being in the position where it becomes a job which you're forced into doing every day because otherwise you'll starve.
Anything in life is what you make of it. There is beauty in almost everything. It is how we respond to something that defines what it becomes for us...
The first point is sadly true - probably more a comment on human nature than on the arts, per se. "When your hobby becomes your job, you have to find a new hobby."
If you don't mind living over seas, you can have a pretty high standard of living for much less. Based on my off the cuff calculations, I think a person with a decent programming job could save enough in 5 or so years (with frugal living) that they could live overseas off the interest. If true, this is much more guaranteed path to financial freedom than a startup. Just an option to consider.
I figure that doing a startup is an ideal solution: It "solves the money problem" (as PG puts it), after which point you'll have the liberty to engage in the arts -- without ever being in the position where it becomes a job which you're forced into doing every day because otherwise you'll starve.