Specifically, lucratively grinding Watchful (and Persuasive). That is: when the stat cap is raised (something that seems to be happening quite a lot as of late), when I haven’t any specific need for a good or a connection, I can easily do the Affair of the Box to grind Shadowy and the Velocipede Squad for Dangerous, netting a hefty income in Echoes (the Affair of the Box has the added treat of increasing Empire’s Kingmaker, though I never actually used it for anything ^^). Persuasive doesn’t really have such an alternative, but it does provide better alternatives to simply spamming Unfinished Business in the form of work at Mahogany Hall (the Pygmalion ventures always net more than 1 Echo per action).
The big problem is Watchful. For my stats, in London the alternatives to Unfinished Business (like A Colleague with a Problem and The Committee for Semiotic Safety at the University, or Reaping the Academic Benefits and A Tour of the Quarter in the Forgotten Quarter ) all net less than 1 Echo per action, though some give some extra in the form of bonus Connections. In these cases I usually grind Watchful at zee, ususally at Hunter’s Keep or Corpsecage Island (I have a knack for collecting Prelapsarian Archaeology work, even though it’s not really profitable), but I still miss an easy, affordable source of Watchful based income in London. Am I missing something, or really the only alternative is to grind Debating the Nature of Primordial Shrieks in Unfinished Business and put trust in the rare success to scrap up that little extra Echo?