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Comment by zenocon | Hacker News Reader

Going on 7 years as an independent now doing only corp-to-corp contracts. Full-stack dev. is a necessity. I enjoy it b/c I tend to get bored, so I move project to project and pick up new tech, learn it, build it, and then move on to something different.

I worked from home for the longest time, and it can be a lonely endeavor. The best mix I've found is home 75% and 25% on site. You get to interact with real humans once in a while, but go back to no distractions.

Friendly tip: If you have small children, forget it. Get an office space.

Also: Get a good accountant -- pay yourself a reasonable wage and take the rest in distributions at the end of the year in a tax-deferred retirement account. I aim to retire at 55; so far, I am on target.

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(offtopic) What do people mean by a 'Full-stack developer', surely, they don't mean a Full-(computer)stack developer: someone that knows a hardware specification language to machine language to assembler to C to a higher-level language, then SQL and Javascript, Ethernet, IP, TCP etc but I suspect they do. I'm not against the terminology, keep using it if you think that applies to you.

Yes -- in a sense, what people also term "generalizing specialist". Someone who may not necessarily be an expert in technology Y, but they can be very effective in it. If I don't know it: I learn it, and fast...and while I'm studying it, and reading every god-awful book / resource I can find on it, I don't charge the client.

This is necessary b/c unless you have a dedicated team of people -- each who is good at a respective thing, you -- as a consultant, will just be expected to get it done...quickly, and with high quality.

You can do consulting in your own comfort niche. I choose not to do that.

While I believe you could use all of these technologies when they have been abstracted away into APIs / programming languages etc, I have a hard time believing anybody could understand these technologies to the point of creating abstractions which is what is meant when one says they 'develop in assembly': you expect them to know stuff that, C, for example, abstracts away.

Do you have a personal 401k setup? I only have a IRA, and the contribution limit kills me. Curious if anyone has setup a 401k for themselves, and the overhead associated.

Yes, I have a Keogh profit sharing plan http://money.cnn.com/retirement/guide/selfemployment_keoghs.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keogh_Plan -- admittedly, I'm not a wizard in the financial stuff. My wife is a CPA/CFP, so she manages it. That's where a good accountant can help :)

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