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Will program Ruby for food
66 points by lobo_tuerto on Sept 17, 2011 | hide | past | web | favorite | 41 comments
Nothing to lose, nowhere to go. Starting from zero.

If someone will take me, I`m a good person willing to program for food and shelter. Take this as a social experiment. Able to travel anywhere in the world. Currently in Mexico city. No visa, just passport.

I`m proficient in Ruby, Rails, a little of design, picking my way in buddhism. Smart, hard working, fit, likes to cook, good care taker. Willing to learn anything.

Any offers? Come on. Email contact in profile.




What are you seeking? Are you stable? The reason I ask is people tend to do these kinds of things after a break-up or other major, life-altering events. Have you thought this through? There are other necessities in life aside from 'food and shelter'. With your skills you can make a decent living anywhere in the world.

What's the whole story here?


Yup I`m stable, been looking to this for since 2005, now is the right time. Of course there are other things besides food & shelter, but those are the things I need to get started anywhere. A little money after proving myself won`t hurt either. As I said, this is a little social experiment. Want to blog about it, how it goes etc. Trying to make it as a digital nomad.

Anyone willing, won`t regret it.


Contact me if you happen to pass through Croatia (Europe)!


would you consider Cyprus? (that small dot between turkey, egypt, and israel)


Sure, why not? I really have a knack for travel. What do you need help with?


My goal is to make it easier for people to be online - enable them to create good enough websites and give them the tools to achieve their goals (the actual website is just a means to an end). Like weebly, but better.

I plan to focus first on artists (musicians, djs, photographers, painters and the like) and move from there. This is something that's been on my mind for about 4 years and now I think is the right time to do it.

How does that sound?


You could try to use a website like vworker for finding programming jobs. I use vworker (formerly rentacoder) since 2006, I work only on my spare time on the site (less than 2 hours a day, sometimes even less) and I have a steady revenue from this of about 2k per month.

All you need is knowledge,determination and a good internet connection. It won't be easy to start, my first "job" was a two weeks project for ... 5$. Once you will have a good history on a site like that (I've heard odesk is also a decent choice) you could theoretically charge as you want per hour.


How long did it take you to work your way from "two week project for $5" to "$2k a month! work from home! be your own boss! call now!" levels of income?


After about one year I was only working on projects for 100$ and more.

One year after that, I was able to name my price and select my clients. At some point I was overwhelmed by the number of projects I was able to take and I've started to charge more.

Currently I take 2 - 4 projects per month usually with old clients. Also I'm not a full time freelancer, I work on average 2 hours per day on these kind of projects.


Would you consider staying in México for the same offer? I'm an American in Guadalajara, and getting ready to launch my Rails-based start-up, and would be interested in a trial run.


I don't think there's much I could do in providing food & shelter, but I do have a rather ok-ish MacBook collecting Dust (Model 2007). Would that help?


I'm in desperate need of a laptop to do my development on. I do algorithms in C and C++ for the next International Olympiad in Informatics and my laptop (an el-cheapo ~220EUR I bought 4 years before) is completely broken down, The keys merely work, the screen is touchpad doesn't really work as well. Linux won't work on this thing so I have to use Windows XP and putty to do my job and this sucks.

I need to speed up the development process and get up an running with a machine that will always work. I'm not asking directly for your machine, it's just that I'd like to have it, and by that I mean that it would certainly help me but I'm pretty sure people out there need it more deeply.

What I do is here: https://github.com/karantias/training

--gtklocker


I've made a new post about this. Please see here http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3008136


fellow poor rails programmer from poland here. i can take it if its a burden :]


If op has no use for it. I've been wanting to give this macbook away to someone who's in dire need (e.g. broken, stolen, etc.) and is unable to buy a new one due to not having any money.

If that's you, or anyone for that matter, I'll be happy to send it your way.


Hi there! Can you please give it to me? I want to start developing iOS stuff but don't have money. ( btw, I'm 15.)


Just to check, are you aware that you need to pay $99/year to actually put stuff that you've made onto an iDevice?

It's a lot cheaper than a Macbook, so I'm not saying you're not worthy or anything. It would just be a shame if you get a mac and can't use it for what you intended.


Yes. I'm already a developer. I got it when I made an app for a local company on their machines.


You can send it his way, I`m in no need of a new computer. I think whoever accepts my offer will have some equipment to work on.


to be true a computer would be very nice, my last macbook broke down completely 1 year ago, and ive got only this very old amd pc right now. I'm not an expert of ruby on rails in any way, im still learning to become a developer. If you need any more details please send me an email to xelnyq[at]gmail. thanks


Depending on someone to give you shelter, food, money, and possibly your work visa would make you rather vulnerable. This might create an unhealthy relationship with your one-man boss/landlord/roommate.


That's a possibility. I think it's all about relationship management, and talking through it thoroughly.


Sounds a lot like working in China or Korea.


Its called an H1 visa in the United States.


I'm getting a weird vibe from this. Maybe it's just the indentured servitude feel of it.


With all the good-paying ruby jobs out there, all over the world, why would you REALLY prefer to work for free? Why NOT applying for a proper position (or better yet, a telecommute one that would allow u to travel and work from anywhere)?

Just curious...


I totally feel you. I coded a portfolio website for about 35$ recently. At least I had a shelter, all i needed was food :) Bad things happen.. Good luck!


Hah, I remember your name from some Ruby game dev! I am doing Ruby freelancing from somewhere in Taiwan now. Best of luck :)


Wow guys, thank you all! Had some very interesting replies in the mail also, I`ll be answering them today and sorting one out. I`ll report back later.

I intend to create a reputation from this, so I can hop around the world lending my expertise while mutual help is given for each other.


Hi, I'm based in Singapore. We're building a small team or competent rails developers to take on client projects and are also starting to explore our own startup idea. We're willing to work sth out with you! Email me at Kelvin@tinkerbox.com.sg if you're interested!


Hi, In the UK, interested in working with you on a few ideas; around 6 months work. Happy for you to work remotelym, If you're interested, email me. mosan.elahi@gmail.com


Do you consider Indonesia as an option? There's a high demand of ruby programmers in Indonesia right now.


I consider anywhere I can travel to in the world as an option. I only have a passport though.


You could contact any of these companies.

http://yfrog.com/nwl3czj


Drop me ya MSN or Skype or Twitter ? Wanna get to know you more! My Skype is zhen.zhi


Wanna join a startup? Email me: superacidjax@me.com I need a strong Rails guy soon.


a possibilty.. email me: james@freelanceful.com


I'm a php developer @ Nicaragua. Any chances for me?


why don't you just elance(.com)? or something like it ?


Congratulations on your new job !


Don't take the down votes on your new account too hard. Generally the HN-crowd prefers that people comment on posts which they've actually read, is all.

(can you finish a sentence with ", is all" like that?)




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