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Comment by seattle_spring | Hacker News Reader

How does someone currently unemployed by choice with a good financial cushion take advantage of this if I don't have any startup ideas I'm deeply passionate about? I've kept an eye on the startup market and all I see are exceedingly boring ideas with mind numbing pitches around them. "Democratizing shipping!" "Disrupting the collaborative saas text editor market!"

Edit: wow the ideas in OP are dumb as hell too.

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Hey you and me are on the same boat. Feels like putting on the glasses from "They Live", but maybe I'm not that misanthropic about it..I've found that it's exceedingly hard for me to not look at the big machine around me as I'm 'doing my job' of cranking the lever.

In my voluntary time off I've just been playing with sculpture, reading books, and generally trying to understand this entire thing from the outside, being bored being a crucial part of this.

In the market I'm seeing things that fail common sense checks. AI powered X that is trying to 'solve' things that we barely have a grip on as humans, assemblages of startups that exist solely to manage self created problems, and a whole host of deathcult crypto stuff. Even the progenitors seem to not buy into the stuff they pitch; the zeal, to me, is often just an affectation ("we're going to completely revolutionize..."), maybe the charm is wearing off as decades of consumption and greed are slowly deflating our collective ego.

Anyways how are you faring?

Hey thanks so much for sharing your experience. How am I faring? I’m faring OK. Since leaving my job I’ve drastically changed my environment, moving from a rural cottage to a bigger city with more going on, tech and otherwise. I’ve identified some volunteer opportunities I’m interested in but haven’t taken any steps to capture them beyond creating online accounts to see upcoming events. I’ve setup my environment to enable creative endeavors like writing, weight lifting, and playing some instruments, but similarly haven’t taken the steps of actually utilizing these spaces.

As is probably apparent, I’ve been dealing with depression for years. Despite the description, things are better lately but I’m still having a hard time finding an identity beyond what was wrapped up in work over the last decade.

Anyway, probably more than you asked for! I’ve always had a passion for 3d and gaming, and I feel like there’s some opportunity out there related to this that’d be perfect for me, but I can’t get around the exploitative nature of the industry. I’d make my own but wrestle with what I mentioned above: I just can’t find any ideas that I’m excited enough to work on.

I can't express how much I related to this. Actualizing/praxis is the big blocker here and it's so hard to break out of my programming. I think art has a liberating effect here, but I'm still 'going through the motions' of feigning 'work' without necessarily introspection since..

Im not working for anyone but myself at this point. I saw a comment on HN along the lines of, I don't need to be maximally efficient because the cause (corporate profits) won't ever justify the means.

Hopefully we both find a way out but I'm beginning to suspect that out in just another way back in, without a drastic reframing I fear I've grown too complacent on the usual. Maybe reading Nagel might help, or maybe Tolstoy :p

Have you considered a startup studio? Assuming your handle indicates location, Pioneer Square Labs[1] and the Allen Institute[2] both have incubators to connect skilled people with promising ideas for startups.

[1]: https://www.psl.com/jobs/job?gh_jid=4418268002

[2]: https://jobs.ai2incubator.com/jobs

I've been thinking about this recently and I think the answer (for me) is to get a non-tech job/full-time-hobby for a bit. It makes sense that all the ideas in the "corporate office/tech infra" space are all used up. Every single person capable of building tech products encounters problems in these spaces, very few encounter problems that can be solved in, say, medical spaces, or commercial kitchens, or whatever. Gotta get out of the tech bubble to have original ideas.

I wasn't laid off, but I quit about a month ago.

I have a few ideas. None are really monetizable, but I want to do them, so I am. Once I get them out of my system I'll probably go back to being an employee.

I think if you are interested in making something, you should make it. If you are interested in making money, then look for a job.

> “Disrupting the collaborative saas text editor market”

Im currently working on something like this. Yes it’s boring but it does have potential. you’re exact opinion is why I’m having a hard time looking for a cofounder!

same :)

dm if you want to hire an ex-Google linguist-engineer with search ranking experience

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