How do people land these jobs?

Allow me to fill you in on my neighbors and friends:

First off, we live in a duplex. The guy that lives above us is single and probably mid-forties. As far as I can tell he either works from home or he has no job at all. He's home all day long. He is prone to strange behavior at night. For example, a couple nights ago he was up all night (keeping us up as well) hauling stuff from his place to some other guy's van outside. All. Night. Long. Strange, no? Maybe he's running some sort of illicit business from home. He better not have a meth lab cooking up there, that's all I can say. Some days he appears to sleep all day. Other days he's up at 6 in the morning, just getting back from a nice little bike ride. Anyway - whatever his situation, it's not the norm. Or is it?

Next up - next door neighbor. He appears to also work from home. He keeps fairly regular hours and during the normal working hours he's on his phone constantly. The reason I know he's on the phone all the time isn't because I'm spying on him - it's because he keeps all of his windows open, as do I, and he talks so loudly it's as if he's right here in my house. Since my fig tree leans over onto his property he's a bit possessive of his share of the precious fruit and he runs outside clapping wildly at the birds when they swoop in for some figgy snacks.

Most of Mr X's friends here seem to have abnormal work schedules as well. One of them is the only employee in So Cal so he has an office all to himself. Sometimes he goes into the office and sometimes he doesn't...it appears to be on an as needed basis (this is not to say that he doesn't work hard, he simply has a very flexible situation). Another friend works as a drafter for his boss and he has such a good relationship with his boss that he pretty much sets his own hours as well. Yet another friend owns his own company so he just does what he needs/has to and then also squeezes in what he pleases, as he sees fit - he calls the shots.

I suppose this means Mr X fits in with his friends since he works out of his home office part of the time. But what is strange to me is that it just seems like over here in CA, there is an abundance of 'alternative' work situations and schedules. It's nice to see because I really hope I can make that happen for myself. I got the sense that in ABQ these sort of working situations where somehow frowned upon because I didn't encounter them often there.

What's your take? Are alternative work schedules the norm where you live? I'm curious...