The Portland example is dangerous territory, because now they have a home they can rent for much more per month and might kick you out. Then you just lived in a construction zone doing free labor for a year for nothing.
Even worse than that, sometimes people get fired for political donations. Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich was "pressured to resign" (fired) for supporting Prop 8. You don't even have to say unpopular beliefs, you just have to hold them privately until someone uncovers them through digging through your records.
I would stop focusing on finding a co-founder and focus instead on starting a business. A CTO isn't the solution to wanting something developed and not having money to pay someone. Find something you can do by yourself. If you're capable you will find and hire a CTO later.
Pricing and details aren't negotiated yet - they offered a price that was 1.75x my wage, and I'm going to counter with slightly higher than that and whatever other stipulations I decide on. 2x for base rate for client meetings might be overly complicated, since it's going to be less than 5% of my time. You make a good point about business hours though, and I will tell them I will be reasonably available during business hours.
The issue I have is that I don't especially want this gig and don't need it. It's just nice to have for extra cash on the side and the work is easy so it's hard to justify turning it down. Is it really unreasonable to not want to be on call? Because if that's the case, I wouldn't really want to do it at all. I feel like 24 hour turn around on tasks seems reasonable but still being generally reachable and answering emails during business hours.
Thanks for the reply. The reason I ask is because I would be solving the clients problems regardless of other stipulations. The reason for my uncertainty of what to ask for is because I've never really done freelance and I am not sure what would be considered normal.
The issue isn't that people are suffering direct financial loss or bodily harm due to surveillance. The issue is that it enables authoritarian and repressive governments. You lose your privacy. Anything you do is essentially public information and can be used against you. As shitty as it is, people should have the right to do something like cheat on their spouse without some government official waving the evidence in your face for compliance. Or maybe you're into weird porn, or you read/write embarrassing things on the internet, or you're having sex with your second cousin, or you're gay but also a Christian minister. People shouldn't have to live in fear of their legal actions being used against them.
I'm pretty sure if Obama wanted to take over a state with force, he'd pick one with fewer gun owners than Texas. Of all the states in the country, I would have to say Texas is probably the absolute worst one to choose for an invasion.
It's not like the people doing the work are doing it for free. They're not sacrificing much. The people taking the risks are the ones sacrificing and enabling the creation of something, so they're the ones who gain from it.
Uninstall Flash and Java (or disable browser use) and disable your browser reporting plugins (a single option change in FF) and you're pretty anonymous. Block JavaScript for untrusted sites and you're even better. Disconnect and Adblock even better.
I once had an interview for a job while I was already employed. They asked why I wanted to leave my current job, I told them I didn't and that I liked my job, but I also look for better opportunities. My interviewer seemed incredulous at this concept, and thought I was wasting her time. Does she only want to hire unemployed or unhappily employed people? So dumb.
I don't think this is very useful. There are a lot of opinions here and I could guarantee there's plenty of successful people who would advocate the opposite.
It was the discussion asking founders what their lifestyle is like. I found it to be a really good glance inside their lives and it helps motivate me to continue working.