Comment by olefoo | Hacker News Reader

Comment by olefoo | Hacker News Reader

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I read the comments here and I was prepared for some tale of woe involving gross financial mismanagement and staggering levels of yuppie self-regard.

Then I read the article; now I'm disgusted, with the attitudes on display here.

I hate to break it to you guys but what's happening to her could happen to you. To put it in terms of a startup she got into a booming market and was moderately successful, when the economy started tanking she invested in improvements that would help her differentiate her offering in an increasingly competitive market. Then the customers went away.

From reading the article it sounds like she works pretty hard and has to go to her customers unlike self important web developers (like me and thee) who can work from the comfort of our chairs without needing to get up if we don't want to.

And as for the iphone, from my reading of the article it sounds like that was acquired when it represented less than a days net revenue.

If you think it can't happen to you because you believe in Ayn Rand and program in Ruby; well guess what, it can; and if it comes down to holding on to your principles or feeding your kid, you will be filling out the form for food assistance and be glad it's there for you.

Let me put it in terms of a startup. She got into a market for the lifestyle (with relatively low pay) and now the customers went away. The solution? Look for a regular job and build up savings for your next venture (or to keep the regular job).

Her initial reaction:

"If you had a regular job and you didn’t have all that travel time, would you make better money in the end?" She gave a small laugh. "But I love what I do. So I try not to think about that."

Fast forward:

She has been auditioning to teach at new studios and e-mailing former clients to offer private lessons, and she added four hours a week of office work for Karma Kids Yoga.

Was there a point you were trying to make?

Yes. Her problem is not simply bad luck. Her problem is that for a while she was unwilling to entertain jobs she didn't like, and even now she only does it for 4 hours/week.

That's what won't happen to most of us. Rather than filling out the form for food assistance, we will be filling out recruiters info sheets describing "a time I worked as part of a team" and rating our C++ skills on a scale of 1-10.

You are assuming that there are even menial jobs available that would allow her to support herself, given the sheer number of other people who are looking for those same jobs that may not be true.

And as for the lifestyle choice part of your criticism, this site is very much a glass house in which to throw that particular brick; if you're working on a startup and doing your work in a popular scripting language, that's a lifestyle choice; a more financially rational decision would be to go and fix someone's J2EE monstrosity of an accounting/ERP project too big to fail.

And if some clever person comes up with a machine that can crank out code to spec, better and with fewer errors than human programmers... Some of us will adapt to the new situation and carry on as Dev/PM dealing with AI instead of coworkers, but some percentage will be left high and dry.

I'm not assuming there are menial jobs available to her. Based on her statement about non-yoga instructor jobs and the fact that the article doesn't mention a search for them, I'm assuming she is only willing to work as a yoga teacher.

She is being criticized because she refuses to enter a different market even though her current market has collapsed.

I'm also not criticizing the lifestyle choices. I'm criticizing the unwillingness to reevaluate those choices when circumstances change.

"That's what won't happen to most of us. Rather than filling out the form for food assistance, we will be filling out recruiters info sheets describing "a time I worked as part of a team" and rating our C++ skills on a scale of 1-10."

Did you mean "Rather than" or "Before"?

I'm fairly certain that the iPhone part is what is getting at most people, including me. It seems like it would be cheaper to break the contract and get a bare bones plan.

Food stamps. iPhone. The incongruity of that alone should be enough to excuse any unwarranted judgement, if there has even been any in the first place.

To be fair, freelance yoga instructor sounds like a luxury service provider. Yacht salesmen are probably having a rough year too. She is not a general contractor or a self-important web developer.

Yep. Although there is plenty of evidence that Yoga can be a very effective health exercise and can help prevent conditions that cost far more to fix than a few more mornings a week working on your body.

It's not impossible that her services are systematically undervalued currently; after all in the real world markets are not at all rational.

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