I'd like to make things with her. I have rather less enthusiasm for becoming the sort of couple who need to check whether the camera is running before enjoying themselves.
It's easy to imagine how that happens. An audience takes an interest in a project, then in the couple building it. A little more of the relationship goes into each video. Eventually an ordinary evening starts looking like something that ought to be recorded. I'd want us to notice well before we got there.
I already build, research, and publish for a living. The investigations on this site are part of that work, and there are plenty of things still to do without inventing a company for someone I haven't met. What interests me is finding out what we'd be good at together. She might notice a problem I've walked past for years or know how to do something I'd never have thought to try.
I'd rather leave the business undecided until then. We could look at what people need, what each of us can contribute, and whether there's a sensible way to earn a living from it. The land and the house will need paying for. There should be room to enjoy the work along the way, including for the person whose strengths weren't in my original plan.
Some of it would be worth filming. We could show how we approached a problem, where the attempt failed, and what we changed afterward. I'd enjoy making something useful enough that a stranger could watch it and have a better chance of doing the same thing. If an explanation turned out to be wrong, we could go back and correct it where people would see the change.
Some things would stay between us. An argument could happen off camera, and an anniversary would be ours to enjoy without an audience. We could have things we're proud of that nobody online ever hears about. If either of us wanted the camera off, that would be enough.
She might have no interest in appearing on camera at all. We could still enjoy the work together. I'd value the conversation afterward, especially if she could tell me which part was interesting and where she'd stopped listening. It would be useful to hear that before I spent another month making more of it.
And she may have work of her own that doesn't overlap with mine. I'd like to understand it well enough to be helpful, whether that meant reading something, taking a job off her hands, or giving her room to concentrate. If a year of my help would let her do something important and my projects could wait, I'd want to make that possible. We would need to look at the money and the timing, but her ambition deserves more than whatever attention I happen to have left.
There'd have to be evenings when we stopped. Working together could make it very easy to spend dinner on a problem and carry it all the way to bed. Sometimes we'd enjoy that. Other nights I'd like to hear about something with no prospect of becoming a project, and manage to leave it that way.
We may run a company together. Or our work could occupy separate rooms, with the kitchen a place to meet, each pleased to have someone who understands enough to ask a good question. Either sounds like a life I'd enjoy. Until we've met, I'm happy to leave the details open.
