
Is Being an Indie all Fun and Games? - basil
http://majicjungle.com/blog/496/
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pagliara
I work from home as an indie iOS developer, and I can agree with most of these
points.

I can relate to the feeling that you "can't escape". But after reading the
Four Hour Work Week, I'm starting to think about how I can automate more parts
of my own businesses. I think it's possible to run a successful business
without feeling the need to constantly tend to it. That's an important goal
for me now.

Lack of social interaction is definitely a drag sometimes. So much so that I'm
thinking about checking out some co-working spaces to mingle with other self-
employed individuals.

So there's definitely downsides to being indie, but nothing that can't be
remedied. And being your own boss far outweighs any of these negatives.

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erikb
Sorry guy, but you can't do that job really long enough. Every job has its
disadvantages. I can already see some that you will find serious later on.
Like when your weekend is Wednesday and Thursday, then you can't spend your
weekends with your normal working wife and your school children. Also, when
you drink beer on your desk and don't push yourself through unproductive
times, you will never get anything done. And who pays the bills then? Also
children always have a hard time understanding that the father, always being
home, has times where he is working - not available - and times where you can
go and talk to him. I NEVER got that as a child. For the child that also
doesn't feel like dad is home more often, but that he spends less time with
them then he could. I could tell you so much more annoying things, without
even working as an Indie and just being 25 years old (so having not much life
experience myself).

That is why I am quite disappointed that you write an analysis of your job
without being able to weigh pros and cons. Please add an "against" part!
Neither for yourself, nor for your readers it will be a valuable analysis
otherwise.

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wccrawford
So here's a related question: How do you avoid having to do all the manual
customer relations work yourself?

Is there a service you can pay to handle that? Some kind of helpdesk you can
pay according to how many traffic (emails/phonecalls) they have to handle? Of
course, for anything not already in the documentation, they'd still have to
contact me for info, but that would dramatically cut down on the support time.

------
ignifero
So true. After a year, i started feeling isolated, so i started part time
graduate school.

There seem to be common patterns here
<http://theoatmeal.com/comics/working_home>

