Comment by dejv | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dejv | Hacker News Reader

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I was product manager for fast growing product, but I was waking up at 5am every morning, just so I can do some coding before work and then do another coding session after I get back from work.

That managerial job was ok and it paid well, but still my morning/evening coding sessions is what I was looking for all day. One day I was like "Cmon somebody will always pay me to write a code." I had some savings, didn't have kids or mortgage, next day I resigned.

It turned out well, I find maintenance contract doing programming job nobody wanted to touch (writing internal application in Delphi) that lasted for decade. I haven't made that much money, but I was able to travel the world few times over, failed few startups, read a ton, play a music and even bought a farm (dont ask).

I am in my 30s, having two small kids, mortgage and that farm. Everything is going well and I am still happy to code everyday and when money get low I go and consult for startups or something. If I stayed at that job I am sure I will have some career going on and more stable live, but I am still glad I did jumped the ship.

even bought a farm (don't ask)

I know you said don't ask, but I guess there is a good story there. so why the farm? :P

I was born in wine making region and basically everybody there have/had small vineyard and winery. I was living abroad at that time and was visiting familly over Christmas. As it goes we went to cellar of my uncle and then second and third and I got a "bit" drunk when they started talking about some land that one of their friend is going to sell as he is too old to continue working on it. It sounded like amazing idea so I told them that I am going to buy it.

Next day was a bit of a blur and then I went back to SE Asia where I was living at that time. In about two or three months later I've got message "So we finalized papers, you still want to buy that land, right?" It took me a while to understand about what he was talking about, but I was actually ready to get back home after 5 years of traveling around and I was burned out of startups and projects that went nowhere.

I was thinking about making it my only source of income, but after two years I realised that if I want to make it I will have to work minimum wage job for quite a few years and I decided to get back to programming instead. I decided to scale down my ambition and I am having semi-pro winery at the moment. I work there for one or two days a week, wines are successful and sold out easily but to get it to next level will require quite a lot of money and a lot of unpaid labor. Maybe some day.

Thank you, nice story. Moral is to not make any decisions while drunk :)

I’m also in my thirties and have a 1 year old boy. I want to wake up at 5, but can’t find the power and energy. What would you suggest me?

I have 9 month old boy and I wake up at 2am, also 3, 4, 5, 5:30, 5:45... Joking aside, it is just hard to keep any schedule with kids that young. Brace yourself, in few months your sleep situation is going to get better.

For you and poster above - I have a 6-month old kid and he's sleeping full nights since 3-months old. He only missed two nights (one was sick and the other one just started teething). The resource we used was called "On becoming babywise", highly recommended! (also, knock on wood, I believe we've been lucky with the baby, so far!)

Each kid is different, you might just get lucky. Our first born was heavy cryer till her sixth month, then she was sleeping nicely. Second did sleep very well till 6th month, then teething started and he is just crazy.

Eat well, exercise, avoid alcohol and tobacco and GO TO BED EARLY!

I try to avoid thrash food in general, but would still appreciate if you can be more specific about eating well. Do you have a specific recommendation ? A book for dummies ? Also exercise. I've done 100 push up challenge last August, but I was feeling so exhausted every single day.

Get your kid on a sleep schedule. There are a few books out there how to do that or you can ask a doctor or sleep specialist. The key is consistency. Go to bed at 9pm, maybe even 8-8:30 if possible (if you get woken up at night). Wake up at 5am. If you consistently wake up at 5am your body will adjust. Sometimes your kid can help with that. Usually they are up at 6am.

Most people need 7-8 hours of sleep. So if you want to wake up at 5, you need to be in bed by 10 PM.

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