I quit my job. Today is Day #2.
nevertryneverfail.com
It appears that my hosting is failing... Posted same article here.
https://medium.com/@keslertanner/i-quit-my-job-today-is-day-2-c5f00278e426
nevertryneverfail.com
https://medium.com/@keslertanner/i-quit-my-job-today-is-day-2-c5f00278e426
Being an entrepreneur is not easy, and while it has moments of elation and excitement, like anything else, it also has moments of despondency and doubt. This doesn't mean it's not worth it. It just means, be prepared. Bask in the enjoyment when it's there, because you'll need the memory to keep you going when real life hits.
Always good to be reminded to break tasks down to manageable sizes also, as I've been caught by that old obstacle of 'task too big, do something easier' more than I should have been recently, given the number of times I've come across it before.
https://medium.com/@keslertanner/i-quit-my-job-today-is-day-...
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ykshUmL...
I have never felt more free. One day I will settle down somewhere, have kids and teach them how to live free like I did, so they have to never go through the tyranny of an office job :)
I travel by hitch hiking, there are communities that live completely without money, either by being self-sustainable growing their own food and trading/bartering with locals, or by dumpster diving at super markets or asking i.e. bakeries if they have leftovers they would otherwise throw away.
There are more and more communities popping up all over the world, consisting of people who don't agree with the fact that a lot of still useful stuff is thrown away nowadays (Ending is better than mending?). They come with 'freeboxes' where you can take or exchange clothes and other items for free. If I need or want a change of clothes, I put my old ones in there (washed of course) and take others.
Being moneyless doesn't specifically mean that I don't touch any money or think it's evil. It's nothing but a tool for me, and being independent of it for the rest gives me a sense of freedom I've never felt before. No worries anymore that I would starve, freeze to death or that things would be stolen from me. I actually expected to be quite dependent on CouchSurfing or BeWelcome, but until now every time I am in one city, I seem to meet people who know people in the next that are more than willing to host me for a few days. Example: I am currently in Warsaw and tomorrow going to Vilnius, to meet a friend I met on Lanzarote in February.
Partying is easy, I don't go to places that ask an entrance fee, or I befriend people that can put me on the guest list. I volunteer at festivals, which gives me free entry, including food and drinks.
I also realize that not everyone could do this, because a lot of it is dependent on the goodness of others, although I'm never too lazy to give back by sharing the skills and knowledge I have, or doing all kinds of tasks, like cooking/dishes or helping a farmer out for a while.
That said, almost every day I'm amazed about the awesome people I meet everywhere, people who pick me up while hitch hiking offering me a room at their home if I ever plan to visit their country, or offering to pay for food or buy me a train ticket. Even more astounding to me is that when I offer to pay for coffee or gas in exchange for a ride, this is mostly refused.
For information about the free (as in beer) world, check out websites like nomadwiki, hitchwiki, trashwiki and moneyless.info. One can even hitch boats and planes :)
I've worked for 14 years in IT, but always had this dream to go travel the world and see as much as I can. 25 days off a year or a sabbatical year weren't enough time to realize this.
I also love to explore different ways of life, finding ways within the current system to survive and live a fulfilling life. A lot can be built from stuff that others throw away, an example on HN today is the Poor Man's 3D-printer.
Based on all the experiences I go through now, I eventually want to set up my own community, in a way that it is scalable and not dependent on other systems, so it can provide a working alternative for people who suffer from stress due to unfulfilling jobs and feeling stuck in the life they're living. I see a lot of people fighting capitalism for example, or disagreeing with their government, but without an alternative, they still feel they are dependent on these systems and therefore are not willing to bite the hand that feeds them.
It's in hackerspaces and the hacker scene where I see a new world being built :)
I envy you. I try not to spend much money by walking or cycling, buying groceries at reduced prices before they're thrown out, buying used stuff when possible, and so on. But I don't know if I could make the jump to being virtually moneyless. One reason is having a partner; I imagine living such a lifestyle is easier when you're more independent and can move around easily.
Do you ever find yourself in situations where you don't have a place to stay for the night, or not enough money to pay for a meal?
What are you going to do once you settle down somewhere and have kids? I imagine kids are expensive, as is having a home and so on -- probably much more expensive than the life you're living now. Do you plan to get a job at that point? Start a business? Live in the slums or something?
Some people earn money and are happy to provide for electricity. Also, guests are encouraged, but not obligated, to leave a donation if they visit the property for a longer time. It's in the middle of the woods, and recently we placed a second wind mill. For warmth and cooking we use the wood that the forest provides in abundance (this all in harmony with nature, only dead trees are used and also enough wood is left to rot to provide 'food' for the forest). Some people use gas bottles.
I have come to see that the concept of money is so deeply engraved (is that the right term?) in our minds, that it's almost impossible to think of the possibility to do without. With every concept that is thought of, money seems to be a mandatory part in the equation. There is a whole world out there where money takes no part in at all. And where even having a rich and healthy life is possible.
I was never happier at work. But, there are significant downsides (of which you are probably aware).
1) At a job personal weaknesses get covered up or smoothed over. Aren't so good at <insert failing>? The company probably has someone else to take care of that. So it might merit a "to improve" on your review. When you work for yourself these failings have real unavoidable economic consequences.... often fatal in the business sense.
2) A law of nature. A life for one is simply a meal for another. Nobody cares if you stay in business unless they think they need you in the future. So you are food for everyone. Your vendors, your customers, your employees. All are (generally) out to take as much as they can from you. This is the game you are largely insulated from when you work for someone else and the reason long term business owners probably seem a bit jaded and suspicious.
3) You are responsible for everything. Everything. From filing taxes to making sure there aren't objects that can be tripped on on the work floor. Everything. There is zero buck passing. I personally believe buck passing is a large part of the workday for most employed people at reasonable sized companies and this skill doesn't transfer well.
4)You are mortal. So you get sick. No more sick days. Now you lose income unless you are properly set up with employees and a business structure which takes time, money and often some trial and error. Just because you made 20 grand on a jackpot 2 weeks of work doesn't mean that event will be duplicated or scaled. Something that is hard to remember sometimes.
Overall though... it is worth it in my opinion if you are tough and can take some blows. The upside is unlimited. The freedom is exhilarating. You truly can do your best work at a level you probably never did employed. But, please be aware it isn't for most people. The sacrifices can be immense.
ERROR ESTABLISHING DATABASE CONNECTION.
There's a joke in here somewhere...
- Caching aggressively to static files. - Using a static site compiler. - An HTTP caching layer, like Varnish or CloudFlare.
All of the above eliminate the need for a database connection per pageview.
Working for myself was great. I'm still amazed at the sheer number of things I made in that time. It was some of my best work, and I really want to get back to that time.
Freelancing isn't the same. It's better than being employed, but it's not complete freedom. It is a constant struggle to maintain a relationship with the client that is both congenial but not familial. When things get familial is when they start with the attempts to guilt-trip you into extra work or doing things against your principles. It would take an extremely generous deal, of the likes I doubt anyone would ever be willing to pay for someone like me, to get me to go back to working as an employee.
I had a schedule problem. I woke up when I felt like it, I worked until I was exhausted, and repeated the next day. This meant I was working on about 7 hours of sleep (the least I've ever been able to run on for an extended period of time and still feel good, so that was a plus), and 18 hours of work, with brief breaks for food, showering, etc., fit into the cracks around the edges. Yes, that adds up to 25 hours. My schedule was constantly shifting. There are several good and bad things that came out of this. It isolated me from a lot of people, which was good for work but bad for my psyche. It kept me out of the rush hours, which was great for everything but made me hate weekends when all day is rush hour in Philadelphia (I live in the DC area now).
I didn't have a marketing plan at all. If I did anything, I was posting to my poorly-followed and poorly-maintained blog. I think I posted ONE project during that time to HN. Now that I'm significantly more engaged in marketing, I'm seeing much more traction with my projects, even though I don't have anywhere near the same amount of time to focus on them.
"If you build it, they will come" IS NOT TRUE. You have to advertise. How you advertise is up to you, but I will tell you that paying for Google AdWords is far more consistent and reliable than trying to play the Show HN lottery. You can make plans off of ad traffic. You can make corrections. Show HN is a one-shot deal, and if you don't get it right the ONE time everyone is paying attention, then you'll likely never get it again.
Finally, 4 months just isn't enough time. It's enough time to build something, but building the thing is only 20% of the work. Ideally, I'd want a year to get everything done right.
Today is the first day since quitting my cushy Bank coding job on Friday. I'm uncertain about the future now, but I feel so happy about coding for me, for fun.
* When I left the working world, I had no savings. Long story, but I was so far in debt due to paying business expenses with personal credit cards, saving wasn’t on my radar. Won’t get into details, but ya, don’t do that (don’t mortgage your future). Having no savings is common, but it’s only okay if you have some sort of income lined up.
* The first year I earned income however I could with repair experience I had gained at my last job. Most of that entailed flipping broken Macs through eBay, which is getting marginal but if you need quick cash you can buy one online, replace the HDD or whatever, and sell it on Craigslist. Don’t expect to average more than about $50-100 per day though, and probably less than that unless you can pipeline multiple repairs at once. I also did a little troubleshooting and picked up $100 here and there, which I no longer do, due to the liability of being on call.
* The second year I went to the school of hard knocks, picking up a degree in online contracting. I started with freelancer.com, taking $100 gigs a couple times a week. Then I moved to elance.com and got a few fixed-rate contracts in the $500-1200 range. Unfortunately I underestimated and several 2 week contracts turned into 6 weeks. Two overseas clients never paid (one at no fault to elance - I did too much without asking for payment, and one I scouted on my own) which set me back at least $2000 and a couple months of my life.
* Just when I was about to hit my breaking point, an old friend called me up and asked if I would come interview with his employer. That turned into the 6 month contract at a company that provides mainframe services, but was dabbling with more of a startup business model. They offered me my hourly consulting rate on a full time schedule and I was able to save again.
* In the year since, I’ve been focussing on contracts in the $1500+ range, which is probably the minimum for rural America. It makes ends meet but I will be owing taxes soon on money that I made at the 6 month contract, because the contract was split across a year boundary. I managed the first year just fine but ate into my savings the second year. So be sure to set aside a third of your income for taxes.
On the face of it, this is all irrational behavior and I’m told daily that I should just go get a job. That’s all fine and good, and to be honest, showing up somewhere and doing time each day in exchange for currency can be less stressful than worrying about where next month’s mortgage payment will come from. But, I find that I can’t generate more than about 6 hours of concentration each day sustainably. So the additional 2 hours that jobs extract are to ensure that nothing is left for pet projects. They have more to do with turnover than productivity.
I kind of look at it now in a meta way, like, if you take a step back from your life and picture where you are and where you’d like to be, does that depend on money? I mean for me, that’s a very serious question. I don’t care about money. I know I should, but it always seemed like a pretty inaccurate way of measuring one’s life, since the people who have a lot of it never seem to do anything good with it. I’ve decided to instead focus on having enough. If the forces align each day to give me enough food/water/shelter to continue, then I consider that a good day.
So I don’t know what else to call it than survival. And I’m doing it for just exactly the same reasons that survivalists do it, as refuge from “this”, whatever intangible kind of ominous matrix-like manifestation you want to call our culture. I don’t think I have to explain it to anyone here because you already get it. I’ve really been thinking a lot lately that if enough of us can get unplugged and survive long enough, that we might be able to make the real contributions to society that we know we are capable of.
My biggest problem now is that since I work for the client instead of a boss, I’m finding it hard to carve out enough time for my own projects. The world still wants dollars, and part of the reason that office life is so brutal is because that’s what it takes to stay afloat today. Contracting pays 2-4 times as much as a day job, but I find focussed concentration takes a toll on downtime as well. I have the inspiration to tinker but not the motivation. This is really starting to haunt me, more perhaps than scratching out a living. I keep wishing that there was some kind of reprieve, like if I could just get ahead of the curve long enough, that maybe naturally I would find time to invent stuff. The answer seems to be residual income, but the few times I’ve had it, it’s been snatched up by others and I developed a pavlovian aversion to investing in it. That’s probably my biggest regret, and so I would offer a word of warning that if you go the survival route, be sure to have something brewing in the background or else you will find yourself back where you started.
Sorry this got so long, I’ve never been a very good editor.
If submitting to HN, pick a static cached page of the content to serve or use varnish or something. ;)
Plan your caches carefully and start from the CMS side.
Good luck!
"Error establishing a database connection"