

I quit my job. Today is Day #2. - keslert
http://www.nevertryneverfail.com/i-quit-my-job-today-is-day-2/
It appears that my hosting is failing... Posted same article here.<p>https:&#x2F;&#x2F;medium.com&#x2F;@keslertanner&#x2F;i-quit-my-job-today-is-day-2-c5f00278e426
======
cookiecaper
I'm excited for this guy's optimism, but everyone should be aware this is the
typical elation you have when you start to do something new that excites you.
This fades, and the fade is much harder when it's dealing with your own
enterprises, because it's difficult to produce the motivation to carry an
entire company when you're discouraged. At least when you encounter similar
problems while employed, you can be reasonably assured that if you can muster
the effort to hit the minimums, you'll continue to get your paycheck.
Disillusionment becomes much more nefarious when there's a direct inverse
relationship to your livelihood.

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.

~~~
JTon
Agreed. The post reads like a honeymoon. I hope the author writes about his
experiences a month/year after

------
alex4nder
Day #3: The database is down. I don't know how much longer I can hold out. If
anyone reads this, please tell my family that I love them.

~~~
philbarr
...If anyone reads this, please tell me how you got my database back up.

------
luxpir
Best of luck! Always enjoy a personal piece on branching out, even though I've
been freelancing for a decade. Something to do with re-affirming past
decisions, perhaps?

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.

~~~
visakanv
I face that same obstacle over and over again, too. Curses!

------
keslert
It appears that my hosting is failing... Posted the same article here.

[https://medium.com/@keslertanner/i-quit-my-job-today-is-
day-...](https://medium.com/@keslertanner/i-quit-my-job-today-is-
day-2-c5f00278e426)

~~~
meritt
Please drop SumoMe too. It's absolutely horrible.

------
eggbrain
Google cache caught it:

[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ykshUmL...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ykshUmLmRA4J:www.nevertryneverfail.com/i-quit-
my-job-today-is-day-2/)

------
mvanvoorden
I quit my job almost a year ago and never worked a day since, and I never will
anymore, at least in the traditional sense. I went from middle class to
moneyless and I could't be happier with my life, which involves travelling all
over the world, meeting people, visiting friends and partying a lot.

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 :)

~~~
reledi
You must have some sort of income? How do you afford basics like food and
lodging?

~~~
mvanvoorden
If I need money, I could basically earn money by playing music or whatever on
the street, or DJ-ing in bars/clubs, as this is my passion.

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 :)

~~~
placeybordeaux
So what brings you to hackernews?

~~~
mvanvoorden
I'm a hacker. Currently a life hacker as well ;)

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
:)

------
lmg643
I like the optimistic start - keep it up. please promise to follow up when you
are on day 100. and here's a good quote to keep in mind as you go through the
process: "It is an insufficiently noted aspect of adult life that everyone’s
pretty much trying to keep their morale up every day." Everyone struggles with
morale. Good thing to keep in mind.

~~~
keslert
Thanks for the quote! I plan on writing a follow up with how things progress.

------
jqm
Working for yourself is awesome. I have done it twice during my life, once for
5 years and again now for nearly 4.

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.

------
XorNot
_clicks link_

ERROR ESTABLISHING DATABASE CONNECTION.

There's a joke in here somewhere...

~~~
kordless
Welcome to your new startup. Your first challenge is 'database connection'.
You may begin.

~~~
keslert
Haha thanks :) Looks like I will be switching solutions sooner than I
anticipated.

~~~
jarrett
In addition to changing hosts, there are a few ways to dramatically increase
the traffic a blog can handle:

\- 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.

------
danvesma
A little iron that 'never try never fail' is currently giving a database
connection error. Always try, but always catch exceptions. ;-)

------
moron4hire
I did this about 3 years ago for about 4 months. Some notes:

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.

------
josefresco
Site looks to be hosted at BlueHost. My advice, jump ship to another host _,
or more powerful setup as soon as possible.

_[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endurance_International_Group](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endurance_International_Group)

~~~
qwerta
Github recently started providing distributed hosting for their webpages. You
can use it with your own domain. I already use it for my open-source project
and are seriously considering to switch my home-page.

------
onmydesk
And the first thing I did was write a blog post

------
algebr
Ha!

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.

~~~
sanderjd
Congrats! What are you working on?

------
foxpc
Well, it's pretty clear what HN is interested in. 10 minutes later the
database is crashing!

------
zackmorris
I've been freelancing for 3.5 years, part of which included a 6 month office
contract that ended a little over a year ago. Just wanted to give a few hard
numbers since nobody ever gave me any:

* 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.

------
opendais
Let this be a lesson for everyone...

If submitting to HN, pick a static cached page of the content to serve or use
varnish or something. ;)

~~~
pestaa
Don't just install Varnish in front of WordPress and assume the best.
WordPress by default places a cookie in the browser session and Varnish (also
by default) will vary the cache results by cookies -- in the case of PHP
session IDs, it means Varnish will let each request through.

Plan your caches carefully and start from the CMS side.

------
sayangel
Eerily similar to my current life. I quit 11 days ago, spent a week with my
family, and now working on some personal projects.

Good luck!

~~~
keslert
Wow, that is quite the coincidence. Good luck with your endeavors as well!

------
jctanner
Great article! Looks like you have a long road ahead of you, but best of luck!
:)

------
thehme
Attention lost. Woops!

"Error establishing a database connection"

~~~
thehme
Not my fault this was broken. What is this? HS?

~~~
Udo
I think you're getting downvoted because you're being snide about it, not
because you stated the fact.

~~~
thehme
How is this being snide? Anyways, thanks for your input. I actually think we
come to read articles that sound interesting, and if these are not accessible,
our attention is lost, so we move on; not all of us have all day. Anyways,
someone was just on a power trip; they think that because they can down vote,
they can do so for anything, even when it points out actual problems with a
blog/site.

