

Show HN: The Year-Long Open-Source Sabbatical - sarciszewski
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-year-long-open-source-sabbatical

======
adityab
I have a bunch of admiration for this guy, especially because of his attitude
towards software and _services_ as being tools that do a certain job - and not
enforcers of political constraints.

For example, PDFy does not require an account or registration; there is a
refreshingly honest ToS page if you care to read (I suggest you do) -
[https://pdf.yt/tos](https://pdf.yt/tos)

I may not agree with all of his political ideas, but it is clear that the
hacker spirit - writing code that is unencumbered by copyright and patents and
other essentially restrictive BS, that simply accomplishes a certain task
effectively, is something worth applauding and supporting.

There are few people in our 'industry' who are so ideologically motivated to
write genuinely free software (many of his projects are under the WTFPL).
Consider supporting him.

------
kadabra9
"For about a year, I've had a paid open-source job, but this really didn't
work out well - I became increasingly stressed and depressed, and I wasn't
able to find enough time and energy to work on the things that I really cared
about"

Sorry, but that's life. I leave work and am often too tired to hit the gym,
much less come home and work on my side projects, but I find a way to do it
(usually) and save money little by little. It's tough. For someone with his
skillset he shouldn't have trouble finding a job elsewhere.

Who wouldn't like to have others pay their expenses while they take a year off
to work on what they REALLY want to work on? I'd LOVE to quit my job and move
to southeast asia to work on things like coding, writing, design, etc....but
I'm not about to set up a kickstarter to get others to foot the bill.

~~~
joepie91_
It's really quite simple - if I'm not doing something I'm enjoying, I'm not
going to churn out a good end result. That's just inherent to the creative
process. My priorities lie with helping as many people as possible as much as
possible, not with increasing the balance of a corporate bank account, so that
result is unacceptable to me.

It's very easy to shout "just get a job!", but the reality is that the moral
repercussions of "just getting a job" are far bigger than asking people for
voluntary(!) contributions if/when they appreciate what you're doing.

My income is dependent on whether people appreciate what I do, not on whether
I tick abstract checkboxes on a list of technical requirements that may very
well not serve anyone. I consider that the better option of the two.

~~~
kadabra9
It really is quite simple --- find work that you enjoy. This should be pretty
easy for someone with your skillset. Just because you "want to help people" or
have some moral objection to working for the man does not mean you're entitled
to have others fund your dream lifestyle.

There are millions of talented people (some of which I'm sure have noble
intentions) out there who don't like their jobs, or at the end of the day are
not producing a good result due to dissatisfaction with their jobs. If they
want to take a year off, they work more, pick up side projects, cut expenses,
and gradually save for it. Is that route really "morally" worse than asking
others to pay for it?

~~~
joepie91_
> It really is quite simple --- find work that you enjoy.

I already did. That's what I'm doing now. That I'm not employed by somebody or
running a commercial operation, doesn't mean it's somehow not 'work'. The
parameters are just different.

> Just because you "want to help people" or have some moral objection to
> working for the man does not mean you're entitled to have others fund your
> dream lifestyle.

Who said anything about entitlement? This is a fundraiser that you can
_voluntarily_ contribute to. It doesn't even have any material perks for that
reason.

I'm just constantly amazed at the lengths to which people go to try and paint
accepting _voluntary_ contributions as something immoral, while involuntary
(that is, forced) payment is apparently perfectly fine.

> There are millions of talented people (some of which I'm sure have noble
> intentions) out there who don't like their jobs, or at the end of the day
> are not producing a good result due to dissatisfaction with their jobs. If
> they want to take a year off, they work more, pick up side projects, cut
> expenses, and gradually save for it. Is that route really "morally" worse
> than asking others to pay for it?

I consider _forcing_ others to pay for something (by proxy) worse than
_asking_ others to pay for it, yes. I also find it odd that somebody else
wouldn't.

------
driverdan
Why not do a single freelance project and live off the money? With the
products you've built you can easily charge $100-150/h or more.

~~~
sarciszewski
That would require compromising on his morals and values; I don't see him
doing that any time soon.

~~~
kadabra9
And asking strangers on the internet to give him money to take the year off
doesn't infringe on these "morals"?

~~~
sarciszewski
What's immoral about asking? The ball remains in other peoples' court. They
are empowered to say yes/no, not coerced by economic pressure (i.e. "Pay me or
go without").

------
sarciszewski
TL;DR - the developer of PDFy wants to take a year-long sabbatical to develop
open source projects. Let's help him out!

------
TheOsiris
I had no idea the Netherlands is that cheap. I might move

~~~
tinco
It's only that cheap if you live like a student. I suppose it must be possible
to live that cheap in almost any western country, how else would students
survive on <1000$ per month income?

Anyway, I think Joepie is forgetting that he will have to pay 30% income tax
over that $17.000, and possibly 21% VAT also (depends on whether this would be
seen as payment for service I think, he should contact an accountant).

~~~
adityab
Yes, the taxes could be problematic.

@Joepie: Consider contacting organizations such as NLnet
([http://nlnet.nl/](http://nlnet.nl/)) for advice or support in these matters
if you are in need of it. They support free software makers - the Unhosted
([https://unhosted.org/](https://unhosted.org/)) project comes to mind.

