Comment by dcolgan | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dcolgan | Hacker News Reader

I spent most of the last 5 years working about 10 hours a week at $90 a hour on a recurring freelance gig, which was enough to live comfortably in the midwest (my rent is currently $400 a month) and travel around eastern Europe. Not really enough to live in a city or have dependents, but I could probably afford that by just working 20 hours a week at $90 an hour.

I think what I did is very doable for other devs - my business proposal was: give me 10 regular hours a week, and I'll continue adding to your internal company app. Phone call with the client once a week. I automated a whole bunch of their processes using Django and it was a great win-win. They weren't large enough to need or be able to afford a full time dev and I could work part part time.

The extra time allowed me to try a bunch of things. I tried livestreaming on Twitch.tv, being a digital nomad, blogging, making products. I enjoyed not having an alarm clock and going on walks in the park whenever to think. I was able to really put time into working on myself, and my health and mental state are pretty good these days. I've read a lot of books.

I'll admit that I've wasted a lot of time surfing the internet - I think the danger of being fully self-directed is that you have to work hard to use the time well. Nobody is sitting on you to "do what you are supposed to." It has also been kind of isolating, but I'm also an introvert and have social anxiety, and working on relationship building is one of my soon future projects.

That sounds like a lovely way to spend your time! And also one which seems safe for some time to come which is good, ie you aren't risking your future earning potential with this approach. Congratulations!

Are you looking for more django work?

I am a Django freelancer who is looking for more work. Are you looking to hire?

I may have some work available - what's a good email to reach you at?

I may be interested :) You can message me at e@ericwaldman.ca

I'd be happy to talk - I'll email you.

That sounds like an absolutely horrible way to spend five years. I cannot imagine being you, living in the time of technological empowerment, immediately before the time of atmospheric-carbon induced catastrophe, and having no goal or direction of how to spend my immensely valuable life force. I could absolutely not live with myself.

Satire, or...? I for one, if facing the impending apocalypse, would not want to be pouring my "life force" into work.

You could pour your life force into avoiding the apocalypse, you know? That's what I mean - Help us get out of the mess we've made.

Arguably working less and hence spending less is a pretty good step towards avoiding the problem.

And definitely working remote and walking - not commuting or flying over to the office is much less harmful to the planet.

Funny you should say that - when I first started doing this I tried to get some of my friends to join me. They all fell apart from the lack of structure and went back to their old jobs. And that's not to say it was a moral failing on their part - I don't think everyone is wired to do this sort of thing, maybe even most people.

I'm also not saying that I wasted all of my time or that I did nothing of value - just that it has taken real effort to figure out what I value. I think the existential crises I've come through have been really important for my growth, and I wouldn't have had to think about it had I not had to direct my time myself.

I suppose everyone has existential crisis at different points in their lives. When I was younger I became obsessed with global warming and the danger it presented. Sometimes I forget not everyone has had that crisis; hopefully you found the purpose or direction that you deeply identify with.

Yea, when faced with an impending apocalypse you should be trolling internet forums!

You make a good point, but dispersing and absorbing knowledge is usually a high-value activity.

You must be very smart!

There are so many ways to live and to be happy, even if to your eyes it looks like "wasting time."

I'm just deeply bothered by the amount of tech talent we have that works on, frankly, dumb things. We face real, tangible problems and existential risks in the next 1 - 5 decades that will not just "solve themselves". So here I am, looking at these massive problems, while all us rich web developers tell ourselves "it won't happen in my generation". It's really bothersome.

Youre just a webdev bro. Fancy crud with redis on top for caching.

And somehow working 40 hours a week for another person's ambitions is the best thing to do with 'your immensely valuable life force'?

  Is working 40 hours a week for an employer worth it

Yes so long as that employer is really changing the face of technology or changing the economic forcing functions that drive the activities of humanity

No if it's twitter or the government

Yes if you plan to start a company but don't have enough runway, so you can accumulate runway at your job

No if you have greater than $50,000 USD in cash and want to start a company

I think your rules will fall apart if you start looking at specific edge cases.

What if your job is working for the government on space tech? That seems to break your classifier.

Or if you work at a company ineffectively run.

Or if you have 50k in cash but not enough runway to accomplish what you want to do.

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