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Comment by blackrose | Hacker News Reader

Was looking for something insightful, but I guess I haven't heard (and bought into) the same stories as the author. I quit my job half a year ago to do the "entrepreneurial lifestyle", but I'm not going around telling everyone to quit their job and be as ostensibly great and care-free as I am.

Of course I'm thankful for my situation, and realize I'm luckier than many Americans, and lucky to live in a prosperous country. But is it really "privilege" to live frugally enough to save up for years, and then quit my job to pursue my passion? Am I not supposed to do that at all? Am I supposed to feel my privilege for having a job? Or computer skills? Or a computer in the first place? Electricity? I don't know where, to the author, the privilege train is supposed to end.

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As someone who did the same, most people do not have the privilege of having an income where they can just quit working and live off of savings before retirement. If they have a college education or home, they most likely have loans that need to be paid and that ties them to a job.

> Am I not supposed to do that at all?

No one is suggesting that. We're just particularly lucky to be in this position in the first place is all.

The privilege argument seems to come out when people like us lose that perspective and expect others to do the same or are shocked when others won't. I don't see this applying to you at all because

> I'm not going around telling everyone to quit their job and be as ostensibly great and care-free as I am.

I definitely know most people don't make enough to do that, but people like you or me work and plan for doing something like that. Even the author did -- but she's not really proposing any solutions for the un-"privileged" or even proving her "... is bullshit" thesis well. I guess that's the issue.

I'm curious what you're working on for the "entrepreneurial lifestyle". I"m actually thinking of going a similar route to saving up a good few years worth of expenses, and then going solo. I'm trying to decide on contracting/consulting vs build my own product (I've done the latter fairly successfully before). Would you care to share your experiences or perhaps email for a couple questions?

I'll shoot you an email too, but I'm building a product. I started it 6 months before quitting, and by the time I put in my resignation I had a good amount of users and steady growth that's only continued since.

At first I did some consulting to help with expenses, but eventually I dropped that work so I could focus better on the product. But I also reveled a bit too much in the initial freedom after quitting, and took way longer to get the product to the next stage (which I'm now at) where I've got good features my users will pay for. So now I actually just accepted a salaried job again, as I only saved up enough for <1 year's expenses (definitely save up more :) ).

Overall I've learned more in these past months about business, product development, software development, managing people and finances than I would've in a lifetime working for someone else -- and that was my real goal. So overall it's been a success, and next time I do this I imagine I'll be much more effective.

That sounds awesome! It's good you mentioned saving for more than 1 years expenses. I'm close to that number but wanted to keep pushing to save for perhaps, 2 years or more. Yeah, send me a message sometime, would love to hear more :)

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