I fully understand the way forks work - what I found troubling is that for somebody who is dying to do something interesting, for close to no pay, there seems to be little indication of them doing things out of pure passion/interest as is. For somebody expecting me to hand pick things that are super fun to work on there is not enough incentive/conviction for me to trust this person and/or invest any time into onboarding/managing them. That's literally why you get paid "the big bucks" - the employer can demand specific things without having to depend on your mood and attitude towards task A.
The only thing I can suggest to the author is what others have already said - go in to academia/research and volunteer your time to selected interests.
One scenario in which the author's attitude and desires could work is if he starts his own business and focuses on the fun things while paying others to do the boring stuff. But then again - building a successful business to achieve the luxury of total choice takes a lot of "boring" work beforehand.
I confess that I have trouble seeing the logic in wanting to work for someone for free. Maybe as a short-term learning thing if a temporary position can be structured that way legally.
But, by and large, if you don't care about being paid, why not just work on your own project. Because there's pretty much no such thing as a 100% no-BS position anywhere.
The only thing I can suggest to the author is what others have already said - go in to academia/research and volunteer your time to selected interests.
One scenario in which the author's attitude and desires could work is if he starts his own business and focuses on the fun things while paying others to do the boring stuff. But then again - building a successful business to achieve the luxury of total choice takes a lot of "boring" work beforehand.