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For me software dev is the perfect mixture of money and freedom. In fact, I am hard pressed to think of a profession that offers more personal freedom. I don't

For me software dev is the perfect mixture of money and freedom. In fact, I am hard pressed to think of a profession that offers more personal freedom. I don't make as much as my finance bro buddies, but they work A LOT. And they work year round. I work six-nine months at a time (maybe a year if the contract is right) then I take at least a couple months off. If I was a career/full time guy, finance would probably be the better choice, but as someone who spends his life trying to maximize the life part: software really does it for me. It helps that I love doing it, for sure, but tbh finance is a complex, challenging field that's quite technical and mathy so it would likely be fun as well. Except for the people, many of the people are, uh, tough to be around. Not all, but many--still, tech bros aren't exactly the easiest either. Glass houses.

Mediterraneo10 9y ago
> In fact, I am hard pressed to think of a profession that offers more personal freedom. As a translator in Eastern Europe, I feel like I have a lot more freedom than the software devs here. I can work as little as 2-3 hours a day and pay all my expenses and save for the future. The job is remote by its very nature, so it doesn’t matter whether I am in my own country, or I am traveling in Patagonia or Madagascar. I am able to dictate deadlines to my clients, I don’t have to work to their schedule. For example, If a job will only take me half an hour to do, I can tell the client that I can return it in one week, and in the meantime I can travel or whatever. I do some coding as a hobby and occasionally visit the programming language etc. meetups in my hometown. The software devs there make around the same amount of money I do each month, but they complain of the 9 to 5 routine, office politics, and how unhealthy it is to spend all day sitting in front of a computer.
- weeksie 9y ago
  That's a fair point. My feelings on this might be very US-centric since we get paid a lot more than our counterparts elsewhere. Translators def have a solid situation, I met a translator last year when I was traveling and she lives that digital nomad lifestyle, works a charm.
- 20170319 9y ago
  Budapest?

Mediterraneo10 9y ago

> In fact, I am hard pressed to think of a profession that offers more personal freedom. As a translator in Eastern Europe, I feel like I have a lot more freedom than the software devs here. I can work as little as 2-3 hours a day and pay all my expenses and save for the future. The job is remote by its very nature, so it doesn’t matter whether I am in my own country, or I am traveling in Patagonia or Madagascar. I am able to dictate deadlines to my clients, I don’t have to work to their schedule. For example, If a job will only take me half an hour to do, I can tell the client that I can return it in one week, and in the meantime I can travel or whatever. I do some coding as a hobby and occasionally visit the programming language etc. meetups in my hometown. The software devs there make around the same amount of money I do each month, but they complain of the 9 to 5 routine, office politics, and how unhealthy it is to spend all day sitting in front of a computer.

weeksie 9y ago
That's a fair point. My feelings on this might be very US-centric since we get paid a lot more than our counterparts elsewhere. Translators def have a solid situation, I met a translator last year when I was traveling and she lives that digital nomad lifestyle, works a charm.
20170319 9y ago
Budapest?