Are you still a hack if you're not getting paid?

• Ben Yagoda discusses freelancing at Slate: "My Life as a Hack."

I've done similar freelance work in the past, and I can second the notion that it's a little surreal to follow someone's career for years and then find yourself standing in their living room for an interview, trying not to knock anything over or scratch something or touch anything for fear of blowing your cool and looking like a total amateur. A lot of the time you never get paid much, if anything, for this kind of work (and work it is, tedious and painful at times), but what's your alternative? Not write?