
Ask HN:  How to be the starving programmer? - mumbi
The starving artist is always better than the paid artist.  Socrates was great because he was unemployed.  How can I become an unemployed programmer and are there many of you out there?<p>I currently have a .NET job and I make a good living.  However, I have a lot of pursuits that I would like to work on for days on end, as I used to before I became a formidable workforce citizen.  Just things that intrigue me, no real reason, no real profit.<p>I know that unemployed programmers exist and I know they program for the love of it.  The question persist, though.  How does one exist without an income?  I would like to hear your thoughts HN and your suggestions on how to become an unemployed hobbyist programmer.  If you&#x27;ve done it, or are doing it, how did it come to be?  Are you actually not unemployed?  Do you work in the back of a kitchen?  Are there loop holes?<p>I have a lot of questions and no answers.  I want to be the starving artist, but I need an internet connection (and a roof).
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as_if
I know a few people (no programmers) who "container" their food at night.
Which means they steal still eatable stuff from the trash containers of
stores, so they don't have to pay for food at all.

I also have a friend who lived in the basement of a guy with the alzheimers
(no, the guy didn't forget that there was someone living in the basement for
free). Some relatives told him, he can live there for free, if he looks after
the alzheimers guy every day.

So if you find some sick people to look after, for free living and go out one
or two nights a week and container for food, you cam live without a job or
money at all.

Health insurance could be a problem in most countries, I guess. Where I live
everyone get's it for free, so it's none of our concern...

If you're lucky, the sick person you're looking after has an Internet
connection you can use. Otherwise you're have to search for open WiFi in the
cities.

~~~
mumbi
To be honest, I like this idea a lot. I don't think my girlfriend would go for
it :/ In fact, I know she wouldn't, I just told her about it. Good idea,
though.

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elaineo
I am a starving programmer.

I don't know where you live, but I live in Mountain View, Calif.

Here's how I do it.

Expenses: I spent half a year living in my car. I now live on a couch in a
garage. I pay $600/month. I have a high-deductible health plan. It's
$70/month. I have a cheap car with minimal insurance. I'd estimate
gas/insurance/maintenance comes out to $200/month

Living: Free food is everywhere. I go to a lot of meetups, food is often
donated by corporate sponsors. Free internet is everywhere. I work out of the
Mountain View public library during the day.

Income: I'm living off savings right now. When it comes down to the wire, I'll
do a quick contracting job off elance.

I watch my expenses very, very closely. As long as you are young and in good
health, this is sustainable for quite some time.

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agibsonccc
Freelancing/sell a product.

Sell services/freelancing for companies. Work on projects when you're not
doing things for customers.

Control over your time is crucial. Try to charge according to value (if you're
going to make this much off of me doing this project for you, me charging you
10% of that profit is nothing!) rather than per hour.

Once you can make enough to live comfortably, balance your time and income
effectively.

If you can, try to turn some of those pursuits in to passive income. You'd be
surprised the simple things people will pay for.

~~~
mumbi
Yeah, that seems to be what I'm going to have to do. I suppose I'll work on a
product in my free time.

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drivers99
Check out "Your Money or Your Life" by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez. Although
some of the specifics no longer apply because 30-year Treasury bonds aren't
near 10% like they were when the author became financially independent (in the
1980s), a lot of the rest sounds like something you'd be interested. Actually,
it looks like there's a revised edition (2008) that I had not seen until just
now. In brief, the book is about cutting un-needed expenses, and earning as
much as you can, in order to start making enough interest income to no longer
need to work, at which point you can do what you would do if you didn't have
to get paid, if you so desire.

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cafard
Reconsider your premises. The starving artist may be thinner, but better?
Palladio, Shakespeare, and Bach all did pretty well with their art. As for
Socrates, no he did not philosophize for pay, but he had a day job.

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creature
It is _not_ an easy solution, but: consider freelance/contracting. Software
development is well paid; if you're willing to take a cut in your standard of
living, it's feasible to work for 6 months out of the year & earn enough to
live. (You probably won't divide your year into two blocks like this, but
distribute it across the year.)

There are many drawbacks to this, of course, but it's easier to do this when
you're freelancing than when you're working full time.

~~~
eliot_sykes
In the UK, contracting here (in London at least, for Java, Ruby, Grails and
similar day rate gigs) pays enough that you can afford to work for a few
months, then take a few months off from paid work to concentrate on your own
projects. YMMV depending on your family/dependents situation.

The goal is to work yourself to a point where you shrink your day-to-day
expenses small enough and grow your side projects' income large enough so the
contracting work is no longer necessary.

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webp
A few months ago I started working only 2 days a week, if that's enough to
cover the bills and you can find a (usually small) company that only need a
developer some of the time then that might allow you to work on stuff you like
while still being able to eat!

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rayj
First ask yourself what kinds of problems can want to solve [pain points].

Then look at the technical details like industries/languages/frameworks/os
that these people work in.

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eliot_sykes
Check out bootstrapping podcasts for advice to help you make your own product,
e.g. Startups for the rest of us, Techzing, and Bootstrapped with kids.

