
My Retail Job, Crazy as It Is, Keeps Me Sane - timr
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/jobs/15pre.html?8dpc
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thehigherlife
I'm currently unemployed and thinking about doing this for a while too. Living
by yourself and working outside of your apartment can get you too isolated at
times.

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alabut
This is very true, even for someone in a relationship and bringing in steady
income. I freelanced all of 2005 and had both, yet some of my fondest memories
come from working at a cheese shop the second half of the year. I figured it'd
get me out of the house and I'd learn more about something I already loved,
what I didn't expect is that I also made some great new friends and also had a
renewed fire for my way-opposite-of-retail web gigs. The first half was lonely
as hell!

On a related note, I remember seeing an old HN thread about a guy that got
rich from some startup and then worked at McDonald's for a year to reboot his
perspective, taking notes the whole way. Anyone remember this one?

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eru
No, but I'd like to see the link, too.

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alabut
Sorry dude, couldn't find it.

On a personal note, I'm going back to fulltime work in the next few weeks
after freelancing from home since Nov and now that I'm committed to joining
another team, one of my regrets is that I didn't take more personal time for
myself away from the computer, but I also think that the time passed by so
quickly because I'd have weeknight conversations with my wife to look forward
to while toiling away.

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pxlpshr
This is a great article and I considered doing this last summer when we were
trying to get the mobile app company going. I can particularly relate with
'creative' freelancers who feel the effects of social isolation.

Here's another approach and something I did during my college years: take a
job working part-time with your apartment. Not only will you get paid but
usually a substantial rent deduction too. Around Austin TX there are a ton of
"collegiate" complexes who love working with students, I lived for free for
two years (saved $14k). And, you end up meeting people in your area.

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omnivore
I've thought about quitting my real job and doing this. I won't now, because
it's more useful to me in terms of leveraging to open the door to other
opportunities. But if you're already a hacker anyway and you have a team or
things you're working on, it totally makes sense.

If you're just an "idea" person and don't really have it fleshed out, but want
to devote more time to your idea, it's just not quite as good an idea I don't
think.

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nazgulnarsil
key bit: _working 6-8 hours a week_

call back when you have to work a real job. whiny idiot.

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blackguardx
As a former freelance consultant, I can tell you that it gets very lonely and
disorienting. It's like being unemployed. I often had no idea what day of the
week it was.

I sympathize with the author. Her one day a week retail job allows her to get
much more work done in her freelance gig. If I ever went back to freelancing,
I would seriously consider getting a "normal" job one day a week to keep me
grounded.

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nazgulnarsil
you say that you didn't know what day of the week it was as if it was a bug
and not a feature. what better metric of freedom is there than the fact that
you are no longer subject to the whims of other people's schedules? And to the
point where you don't even have to know what day it is. What is the week but
an arbitrary way of keeping track of working time?

