Articles by: Hanna Brooks Olsen

When designer, Swiss Miss blogger, and CreativeMornings founder Tina Roth Eisenberg first came up with the idea for a breakfast lecture series, people thought she was crazy. Getting people in New York City to get to anything is hard, let alone something that happens before 9am on a work day.

[caption id="attachment_8037" align="alignnone" width="620"] Image: Dave Fayram via Flickr[/caption] Conventional wisdom (and your boss, probably) would tell you that browsing on the internet during work hours is a big no-no. But when social media has become a full-time job, and many of us are marketing our own personal brands in addition to those of our employers, the line between work-related and non-work-related tends to get a little fuzzy.

There's a never-ending debate among creative professionals centering around one seemingly simple question: Should you work for free?

Both an uncomfortable requisite and a grand adventure, going on tour is part of the life of a musician. But it's not just the entertainers who endure/enjoy the weeks spent away from home in favor of tightly-packed spaces and late, late nights; technicians, mamangers, and yes, even photographers are also along for the ride to make sure the entire thing goes off flawlessly — and it documented all the way.

Life as a freelancer looks different for everyone, and it doesn't look very much like what non-freelancers think it does. No, we don't sit in our pajamas all day, and no, we're not kindly saying we're "freelancing" when what we mean is we're unemployed.

[caption id="attachment_7821" align="alignnone" width="620"] Photo: Sophie Asia via Flickr[/caption] Anyone who's tried to make the leap from hobbyist to professional photographer knows that the business side of things can be murky and hard to navigate. Even one of the most basic, seemingly obvious elements -- which, in other industries, is standardized and pretty easy to research -- of your business plan is strangely shrouded in mystery and even controversy.

In the last, oh, hundred years, education has both changed a ton and also not changed much at all. At least, that's the lesson we're learning from these vintage school photos from the Flickr Commons.