

Ask HN: Is my notion of a mostly grid-independent workshop insane or acceptable? - newman8r

Disclaimer: trying to find people to collaborate with in addition to soliciting opinions (anyone who owns land in CA might be interested as well)<p>I am planning on buying a parcel of land in California where I can move my workshop and general operation (power and water as well as broadband but not much else). My business goal is to develop new technology in the consumer realm - or possibly just find any other simple things I enjoy to generate income if needed. My personal goal is to spend every day learning more science and engineering, and making new things.<p>There is a lot of equipment at my disposal which I have in my current workspace: circuits, physics, chem, etc.<p>I want to create a space on some relatively open land for experimentation, a place for other people to come and enjoy potentially, and a good general place where knowledge and innovation are embraced.<p>I don&#x27;t profess to be an expert in anything in life anymore, although software development is what I worked in for a long time - but I have a long way to go in software and I have started learning from the ground up with basic logic circuits. I like Scala&#x2F;functional code and have worked in many web-heavy languages like php and JS as well as objective C, C, etc, I have AWS experience, linux oriented, pentesting, etc. Just starting to get more into R, statistics and machine learning.<p>I&#x27;ve been studying a lot more electronic engineering and electrodynamics (which undergrad had given me a decent foundation in). I&#x27;ve created many interesting prototypes and have many concepts written out in great detail - I&#x27;d like to develop some of these out and explore new areas as well.<p>Any advice would be great - bringing any pitfalls to my attention which I would do well to avoid would be much appreciated. Also if anyone wants to collaborate in any way, get in touch ASAP.
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newman8r
I think a good but not impossible goal is to get my cost of living and
happiness to under $600/month (non business expenses, food, health insurance,
etc.).

There was a point my rent was only $370/month and I was pulling in quite a
bit. I'm at $1400/month now and when I realized my next month of rent would be
more than the down payment on a parcel. I don't really need comfort - just not
to get heat stroke or hypothermia.

I'm interested in exploring basically any area of engineering, construction,
building, materials, metallurgy/welding, any area in STEM not mentioned.

My basic personal philosophy is now to try to identify and analyze my
shortcomings and be honest about them with myself and see how I can improve. I
benefited a lot from reading and taking as much as I could from Aurelius'
"Meditations" \- I don't want an easy or comfortable life.

I don't think all of the points in Meditations apply to my ideals, and
actually I think I go directly against some of them in a way - but in a
macroscopic view, I like the idea of manning up and being a strong person and
embracing logic, but at the same time remembering to appreciate family and
friends.

Hopefully that adds a bit to this, I'll try not to add too much more as I have
a habit of writing relatively long monologues and spending too much time on
them

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eip
Just messaged you on twitter. Send me your email.

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newman8r
ah cool, I have been working for days without checking twitter or HN etc.
messaging you this evening

