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Ask HN: Disabled and out of work for years, but need some side income

237 points by Madmallard 4y ago

I've been disabled since 2018, and my skills in software as such have largely become outdated. I have high problem solving competence in general, but most modern technology stacks people are regularly using seem to be past my time. I'm willing to put some work into correcting the difference, however due to the circumstances I'm in, it would really have to quickly and effectively pay off. It can't be a "maybe useful" kind of scenario. I've come into a situation, largely due to how awful the rent situation is in the United States, where I pretty desperately need to maximize the amount I can earn under disability (which is around $1200 a month) without losing it. I have 8-10 years of overall experience, and regularly program as a hobby, but I have not been employed for years. The last job I worked I primarily wrote python scripts for automating things like data entry into a CMS and other basic front-end web development features using older technology. What can I do to actually be able to get some side income in the software space here in 2023? I've talked with a couple companies in my situation and the answers usually are along the lines of "well we can just hire a new graduate with up-to-date experience and they can work 40 hours a week for us no problem." I'm in my early-to-mid 30s for reference. I'm not really able to get off disability as the condition is severe. --- edit: I've already reduced expenses pretty much as much as I reasonably can do of course. I've explored other options already as well. For things like Fiverr or being hired contract-wise on websites they seem to be races to the bottom so if I'm trying to earn $1200 a month I'm really having to work quite a lot harder and more hours than I'm really currently able to do. I have some applications I've written that generated some interest, however if I want to make any decent money off them I would have to put an extraordinarily large amount of effort into marketing and post-release diligence which may well be past what I'm currently capable of doing. I do tutor students as well intermittenly but it doesn't get me very much. I've written some scripts and other little projects for people I know here and there for small amounts, but it is extremely inconsistent availability even though they trust what I deliver. It seems like finding other leads in that regard is really my only option.

passwordoops 4y ago
Depending on the disability there may be organizations that can help. For example, if you're blind or low vision the APH, ACB and NFB (in the states) have great training and placement programs that can potentially match you to employers. There's also options to reposition yourself. For example, instead of development, look for QA analyst roles. This particular shift won't pay as high, but it might be a good fit for what you need and possibly be easier to land in a shorter time frame
ogwh 4y ago
Depending on the rigidity of your conscience you could whip up some buzzword laden project with "blockchain" written all over it. Some suckers will throw money at that if you give it a colourful website with plenty of vague promises that you never have to deliver.
- Madmallard 4y ago
  I have a hard time with tutoring as it is because most students (at least where I'm getting them) just want the work done for them and typically come to you last moment.
  - sokoloff 4y ago
    And you want to earn money for rent. You don’t need to move the needle of academic achievement for a generation. If they come to you with money in hand and are just a little intellectually lazy or have worse time management than you’d like, you can still make a mutually beneficial trade. Only offering tutoring to the most motivated students with the best time management skills is a self-limiting market.
    - idontpost 4y ago
      [dead]
- bloqs 4y ago
  Replace blockchain with AI
  - iso1631 4y ago
    Blockchain based AI NFT disrupter
- fsloth 4y ago
  I think you need to be more explicit on the specifics of revenue mechanism to be helpful. Anyone can host a buzzword laden web page for sure, but what would the specific funnel and revenue generation mechanism be?
Neil44 4y ago
It's easy for me and I don't know your situation to say but try not to be so fixated on the $1200/mo. Seems to be that a solid job with Python skills could make the $1200 look small very quickly.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- ptero 4y ago
  There is usually a cap on what one can earn while continuing to receive disability. I think the total of disability and other income cannot exceed 60% of pre-disability earnings or something like that.
  - Madmallard 4y ago
    That is correct. And if you lose it for that reason, it's very difficult and takes a long time to get back, even if you actually need it to survive.
    - marcus0x62 4y ago
      …Which is the biggest problem with the whole setup. The risk of losing disability and not being able to get it back is too high for most people to even try to re-enter the labor market. The whole thing needs to be redesigned from the ground up.
- a_humean 4y ago
  I think the risk here is that the nature of the disability is that they might suddenly be unable to continue working or keep up a reasonable pace of work. Many conditions are cyclical - meaning that you could be productive for a period of time, and then suddenly disabled again. It might be very difficult to get back on disability benefits after they go above that limit. This is a common trap with many disability benefit programmes worldwide - they have these inflexible hard numerical limits on earnings that effectively disincentivise people from getting back into work or becoming independent all in the name of fraud prevention. The systems lacks the flexiblity to recongise that people's health and ability to work ebbs and flows. The moment they earn more than 1200 USD they might no longer be considered disabled by the state. The baked in assumption is that not that we should be providing an accessible offramp to independence and a fallback to support if it goes wrong, but that any demonstration of independence should be met with treating your future claims as fraud.
teruakohatu 4y ago
I am not in the United States so I am not the right person to answer your question. It might be helpful to say how many hours you can work per week, and how much you want to be paid per hour.
nicoburns 4y ago
You don't say what your disability is (or how it impacts your ability to work), so it's hard to be specific. But my general advice would be just to talk to more companies. Not every company will be open to this, but some will and you just need to find those companies. Get in contact with companies that are hiring for roles that require the kind of skills you have even if the working arrangements they're advertising aren't what you'd want.
- zieben 4y ago
  This. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people with disabilities who fall through the cracks because they’re able to work, just not to the artificial availability (and suffering) standard required by the modern labor market. There’s a difference between being able to do useful work and being able to survive the nightmare of a modern-day corporate job where the work demands themselves are low but the emotional labor is enough to take down even people without disabilities, given enough time. And SSDI is really badly set up, as other posters have noted.
  - kayodelycaon 4y ago
    It really is. I’m able to work with ADA accommodations, but finding a job I can manage is difficult. It takes me 3~6 months for me to find a job each time I’m out of work. Finding a specialist to manage the medical side of my disability is similar. Through fortunate circumstances (and inheritance), I have successful career and enough energy left over to have some kind of life. If I lived in Europe, the amount of sick and vacation time would allow me to actually heal between episodes. I live in the US, so I’m in a constant state of near burn-out.
    - gwbas1c 4y ago
      > It takes me 3~6 months for me to find a job each time I’m out of work. It takes me 3-6 months and I'm not disabled. That's pretty much the norm in tech, unless you fit into the very small group of people who get lucky and find a job overnight.
- 4y ago
blowski 4y ago
It's horrible feeling like the world has passed you by, perhaps even more so when it's forced on you by external factors rather than choices you've made. That being said, I wonder if you should challenge your assumption that it's out of date. I'm definitely clueless on whatever the latest JavaScript library is and whatever's going in machine learning. But my knowledge of foundational data structures, algorithms, and software development practices often makes me more valuable than somebody who is more "up to date". It feels horrible when someone uses an acronym I don't know, but it doesn't actually have much impact. Then again, perhaps you're right and it really is causing you problems - it's hard to give specific advice on social media because the async nature prevents good Q&A. Could you find someone that will coach you on it?
- 7hr0waw4y 4y ago
  I don't have experience with external factors, but I can assure you that the feeling of failure etc when it's down to your own choices, seems much more acute than if you had a valid excuse.
  - blowski 4y ago
    Both are painful. When I'm struggling, is it better to know that I justly deserve it as a consequence of my own choices, or that fate has capriciously inflicted those struggles on me? Whichever situation I find myself in, I'd rather be in the other one.
NDizzle 4y ago
[flagged]
- fsloth 4y ago
  There are medical conditions that do not allow full time employment, period. I have no idea what the condition of the OP is but several conditions leave a person with a very limited "labour budget" beyond which they just cant perform. In such a condition the daily budget might allow either for grocery shopping, or few hours of work, but not both. If this is the case, dropping on your own could be very precarious and potentially financially devastating.
timwaagh 4y ago
Maybe work in some field that isn't software. In retail part timers are more accepted for instance. Where I am companies typically expect 40 hours if you are a man so unless you're a woman you are out of luck. Even then you might still be out of luck. I've never seen anyone do two days a week for instance.
xen2xen1 4y ago
Have you put out your resume on indeed.com, LinkedIn, etc, listing yourself as part time? Getting noticed by recruiters can be a way to get things done. Have you considered going back to school online? Being in school can help with Section 8 housing in the US, as can a disability. It also helps with lots of other public help. Also, you might scour for jobs that require a security clearance that are part time, as the government views disability far, far different than the private sector. Long term, government jobs, even part time, might be your answer. Even companies that have government contracts hire many more disabled folks than others. Actually, I know people who's job it is/has been to help disabled folks get jobs, even part time. Google Vocational Rehab for your area. There's probably a program near you. Sorry to not answer your questions the way you were probably looking, but I'm sharing what I do know of all this. I can probably help if you care to send more specifics.
- Madmallard 4y ago
  Well, currently I am receiving both private and government disability. As soon as I start working part-time, I will assuredly lose private disability. But the nature of my condition is that it periodically and unpredictably gets much worse to the point where I can't work at all for an extended period of time. So when that happens, and I have already lost the private disability, I won't be able to get it back. But they currently pay for half of all of what I receive, so that's not an acceptable risk I can take.
codpiece 4y ago
There is a lot of work connecting various platforms via API. Marketing agencies in particular need this service. You could look at the big CRM platforms like Salesforce which require only a modified version of Java called Apex to customize. I find there are a dearth of good programmers working in the platform. EDIT: Both of these options allow you to work remotely.
- XCabbage 4y ago
  Apex is based on Java, not on JavaScript.
  - codpiece 4y ago
    Corrected, thank you. Could not remember.
ohyes 4y ago
How many hours can you potentially work?
- Madmallard 4y ago
  I don't really know. I can say with confidence that I cannot be consistent for months at a time. I've been in and out of the hospital every 6 months since 2018.
  - dev_tty01 4y ago
    That is so stressful. A close relative has a similar situation. It is cyclical and is a condition that for some people does improve long term, so when she is on the upswing there is always the thought/hope that it might continue to improve. Then after a few months it goes the other way. Absolutely crushing. At this point, she has something akin to PTSD from battling through these cycles over the years. Hope you can find a sustainable groove.
    - Madmallard 4y ago
      I'm curious what your relative is going through because mine seems cyclical as well.
      - dev_tty01 4y ago
        Started a few years ago as a neuroimmune disorder with periodic and horrific OCD, depression, muscular failures, inability to concentrate, ... Much of that has passed, but it has morphed into ME/CFS. That still still seems triggered and/or related to an underlying neuroimmune issue. When the immune system kicks up, an autoimmune condition also ramps up and causes inflammation in the brain (among other things), which in turn leads to all sorts of symptoms. She used to run half marathons but now a flight of stairs are a big challenge. None of it is well understood and there aren't good treatments. Some treatments help some people, but it is kind of hit or miss and most of the potential treatments aren't cheap. It is actually similar in many ways to some forms of long covid, so bizarrely, covid and subsequent research may lead to better therapies that could help her as well. At least that's the hope...
_nalply 4y ago
It seems that you write well. Perhaps you could do technology writing? Another idea: try to find a grant for an Open Source project to document it. For a large project like Rust find something not well documented. In my experience and of that of my friends -- we are Deaf by the way -- about nine of ten projects won't give sustenance. It's like startups, you need to try again and again. Either you will strike gold or you will have several horses to bet on. Finally consider leaving the country. The US is good for people who are well off and not so good for the rest. With some luck you could work as a digital nomad.
guhsnamih 4y ago
In early 40's with outdated skills, I am in the same boat except a physical disability. While development only roles have gone out of reach now, I have been able to find QA, documentation, support, generalist roles at a non-profit, academia, and an early stage startup in that order. Reached advanced interview stages with employers looking for outdated skills (Perl scripting) or in-office positions, so you might want to explore similar. LinkedIn, Fiverr never worked for me. My resume generated a lot more interest via HN's monthly threads. Good luck!
- luckylion 4y ago
  > outdated skills Wordpress powers like 40% of the web, unless you really, really, really hate PHP, your skills aren't outdated. It's probably tough to connect to the right people but there are endless companies and individuals out there that need help with their sites that run on WP. Just as a reminder that there's the Modern-Software-Development Paradise where you need to keep learning new technology and everything is futuristic and shiny, and then there's the Wordpress-Running-On-Php5.6 Real World which is gigantic but few people blog about because it's not fancy and it smells bad sometimes.
- chrischen 4y ago
  Please contact me chris@instapainting.com (I also offered OP) if still looking for a job.
  - guhsnamih 4y ago
    Thanks! I have one for the time being and I wish you good luck with your work. Best
neilv 4y ago
I don't know where you'd find it, but seems like one possibility would be match up one of those people who wants to bootstrap a startup with very little money. The kind that would normally use some overseas gig worker site, or used to post on Craigslist, but you'd probably be a better bet for them. Or maybe a business has an existing in-house Python application they need maintained, including frequent changes made on short notice, and they don't want to hire someone at several times the cost and try to retain them. They have to find a trustworthy contractor for a long-term relationship, and you might look like that. You could also do two of these kinds of engagements at once (to lower the cost even more, avoid any concern about looking like a de facto employee, add recent stuff to your resume faster, and not have all your eggs in the same basket).
nfriedly 4y ago
For what it's worth, I used to do work on freelancing sites ~10 years ago and just tended to ignore the race to the bottom. I initially charged $50/hr, and regularly raised my rates so that I was up over $150/hr by the time I stopped doing it. Of course I got passed over for a lot of jobs in favor of cheaper folks. But the jobs I did get were from clients who actually respected me. Also, more than once, a client who initially passed over me for someone cheaper came back a few months later and asked me to do the job after all. So, perhaps something like that could work for you. -- Regarding the $1,200 per month limit, I'm not sure what the rules are, but perhaps you could set up a corporation that takes on the freelancing jobs and then pays you a salary of $1,200 a month? That way you wouldn't have to turn down a job for paying too much. Maybe have the corp owned by a trust rather than you personally? I wouldn't want you to get in trouble and lose the disability, though, so talk to somebody who actually knows what they're talking about before doing any of this stuff.
- Forge36 4y ago
  Steps I'm seeing: 1. Find a lawyer 2. Consider a corporation 3. Find an external entity (friend, family, form a trust) to run business Run all plans through lawyer and revive their agreement in writing
  - ceejayoz 4y ago
    > Run all plans through lawyer I don't think you appreciate how tight the budget of a disabled person on SSI is.
    - Forge36 4y ago
      They'll require help (Friends/family/someone). However I'm MUCH more worried about them losing SSI because "someone on the internet said this was OK". Granted I have no idea how much a lawyer costs (and last time I used one it came in <$300).
      - rnd0 4y ago
        I would be too, and going forward without legal advice is really fool-hardy. The trick imo would be finding an affordable lawyer who is also familiar with disability law.
jacknews 4y ago
It's hard to take Fiver seriously. For example a quick search for 'Ruby Rails' and one of the top service providers lists a premium service of 'full stack development app' delivered in 3 days, and including a 15 minute consultation, a project plan, and audit, for ... $20.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- sgt 4y ago
  Wait until Elon finds out...
  - sgt 4y ago
    Funny - I was heavily upvoted. Then heavily downvoted again to 1 point. Not that I mind, but people get very emotional about Elon even here on HN.
- jvanderbot 4y ago
  If they have a stack set up, and just need to copy/paste 90% of it, I can see cranking out even 1 per day. And $20/day is above median wage for India, and might support a student really nicely. I would absolutely trust someone to copy/paste a stack for me, a total idiot when it comes to the client-facing 50% of the stack, as long as they plug into my APIs.
- madengr 4y ago
  [dead]
- blowski 4y ago
  In my experience, it's a loss leader designed to bleed you dry with never-ending "bug fixes" you have to pay for. 1. Put the cheapest junior they have to install and configure their default platform for you and present it. 2. You see progress, and decide spending another $20 will get you over the finish line. And people remain stuck on #2 forever. The more they spend, the more the sunk costs convince them to keep paying.
jmduke 4y ago
Have you considered technical writing? I've talked to a number of folks who are in a similar position, and writing (as opposed to generalist development) has a number of advantages: - It rewards experience though, except for niche-specific writing, does not require understanding of specific frameworks or programming languages - It is often 'important-but-not-urgent' work, so intermittent availability is less of a deal-breaker - Clear writing is very much an orthogonal skill from programming aptitude writ large, and you don't need to compete with new grads
- snide 4y ago
  This is solid advice. In large, technical companies you'd be surprised at the number of technical writers that aren't actually technical. Having someone that acts as a source writer, rather than as an editor for developers that are quickly rushing past the documentation requirements is a game-changer. The best technical writers I've worked with were always folks who understood programming and could write the docs from experience. I also find most technical documentation teams to be a lot more chill and flexible. Most of them have excellent team-minded work styles. How to get started in this field? You can't throw a stone without hitting an OSS project that wouldn't want help with its docs. It's a great way to build up a network and some Github activity.
  - noduerme 4y ago
    Third this. One of the companies I develop for hired a technical writer to translate large pieces of our code into user-friendly manuals. She isn't a coder but she's a good writer and has a knack for finding problems and asking questions from the user's perspective. Most importantly, she's intellectually curious. She sort of fell into the position by being a regular employee who raised a lot of good questions about the old software as it existed. She's paid well by the client, picks her own hours and problems, has a hand in suggesting new features, sends me lists of questions and I answer as I do... in extreme detail and with tons of edge cases. She then just keeps testing things out and distills my technical babble down to the manuals that are used to train the managers.
- pabs3 4y ago
b3lvedere 4y ago
>I've written some scripts and other little projects for people I know here and there for small amounts, but it is extremely inconsistent availability even though they trust what I deliver. Expand your network a little. Ask them for their help for new jobs. You helped them, maybe they can help you? How about becoming a (software) tester?
launchiterate 4y ago
Maybe creating a python udemy course with simple ai applications?
codingdave 4y ago
You might want to expand your focus - if you can't promise to commit to a long-term project due to your health concerns, try talking to local temp services. It won't be tech work, but it will be work and a paycheck. With low expectations of continued work. Low pay, too, but it sounds like you only want some money, not an amount so large to kick you out of your programs. I've also gotten tech gigs from temp gigs - "Hey, I know I'm just a temp, but I also do tech work and noticed some things I could automate for you, if you'd like some help."
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
globalise83 4y ago
I would recommend using your Python skills to write scripts that perform analytics tasks using JIRA Cloud REST API data. Every tech company I have worked in needed some kind of custom reports regarding development performance, time reporting, financial reporting, etc.... and there often weren't suitable plugins for just that task, and the reports themselves are highly valuable either for management purposes or compliance reasons, so they will pay you well. I have written several programs myself to do these tasks (during work hours), and it is quite satisfying to figure out how to get around the API constraints. Could be a nice little line of consulting and development work for you.
- czbond 4y ago
  Great, niche, high paying advice here.
- mannymanman 4y ago
  Where would you find clients for this? Also is there a youtube video that shows you how to extract this information from the API data?
VLM 4y ago
My experience is once you step off the path, you're done with corporate W-2. HR will blacklist you if you didn't work 40 hrs in the same job title or one step down last week. Its all about risk minimization and blame minimization for the hiring team, never about "finding someone who can do it" or "finding someone who has done it". Maybe the way to put it is we all know what it takes to work and do a job is not what it takes to get hired. I haven't worked W-2 in some years and its probable I'll never be allowed to work W-2 again beyond McDonalds-level jobs. If you step off the path once, you'll never be permitted the risk of stepping off again. Staffing-type companies work MUCH better. Someone in IT dept is on maternity leave until March, do whatever you can to help them for two months. Shockingly you can sometimes get 2x to even 3x their "regular" pay for temp. Plenty of companies have never read their Fred Brooks and think if a project is late they can throw talent at it and it'll get done quicker (spoiler alert, more bodies = later due date every time), regardless I don't mind profiting off their project management inexperience. A permanent-ish "grind away at the desk for years" at the corporate job is probably completely off the table; look for big upgrade projects, 2am maintenance/upgrade projects, etc. Baby sitting server upgrades at 2am is not glamorous, but it can be very profitable... Even less glamorous is taking the on call shift at 2am, but when you bill per hour it feels better... I could never work on call permanently, just a few months will burn most people completely out, but this contract ends on march 31st so I can wait it out. Recruiter-type companies are hit and miss. They usually take a HUGE percentage cut (so you're taking a huge pay cut) but its usually a fixed-ish percentage so they want you billing 40+ hours every week to maximize their cut. Its the same hoops for them to jump thru for a 3-month part time contract at $75 as for a 12-month full time contract at $175 so you're at the back of the list unless they're infinitely bored. Spoiler, they're almost never bored. Its kind of important to note if you need to report income monthly or annually. Monthly could be tricky, annual would likely be pretty easy. The work tends to be feast or famine; think of your relationship with your car mechanic, either you want it done yesterday and him working 24 hrs/day or you have zero interest in paying him a penny; this is how your clients will look at you. So if you're close to your income budget it'll be pretty easy to not sign a short term contract for awhile or until next year or whatever. On the other hand if you have to report income monthly that might be painful as you'll run into places that bill net-30, net-90, net-seems-like-forever and you'll suddenly get a check large enough to buy a car, but it'll be one and only one check. Here's two totally different phrases "So I see your monthly income is $30K" vs "Once, one month I got a single check for $30K, but that was the only check I got for about half a year".
dsego 4y ago
You could try Toptal. It's a bit different from other freelancing sites.
- neon_electro 4y ago
  Toptal doesn't deserve our support: https://www.theinformation.com/articles/at-booming-toptal-no-stock-for-employees-or-investors https://www.theinformation.com/articles/at-booming-toptal-no...
- ricardobayes 4y ago
  I run far, far away from companies that openly advertise that they hire the top X percent of talent. There should be talent agencies dedicated for the "rest" that still generate good solid value, but also don't charge top dollar.
  - dsego 4y ago
    They technically hire the top percent that pass their screening process. Those are the candidates that put in the effort to solve coding challenges and work on test projects. And once you're in, you don't have to go through any assessments again, there is no bidding on projects or race to the bottom, you set your rate and you can find hourly, part-time or full time work that suits your skill set.
    - base3 4y ago
      Can you suggest a few such agencies?
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
mcv 4y ago
> I've been disabled since 2018, and my skills in software as such have largely become outdated. I always find this such a weird claim. Sure, lots has happened in the past 5 years, but there's still tons of software out there that's older than 5 years, most major programming languages are decades old, and anything new can be learned. If you want to be able to make money quickly, it's far more interesting to look at what you can do, than worry about what you might not yet know. Python is still around and still as relevant as ever. > I'm in my early-to-mid 30s for reference. I'm not really able to get off disability as the condition is severe. My personal opinion is that if your condition is that severe, you shouldn't have to work at all, but of course that's of no help to you right now.
- phphphphp 4y ago
  I wouldn’t describe it as weird because people who struggle with a disability can lose their confidence over time in things unrelated to their disability, but I certainly agree with your point: if somebody could write code 5 years ago, they can do it today. Modern technology is just old technology with some different bells and whistles, the principles are all the same, and as has always been the case, most code that professionals are writing is very simple. Technology is 90% confidence, and very little skill. The biggest challenge for the OP is convincing himself that he isn’t damaged goods who needs charity, he’s a competent developer with some restrictions on his availability so he’s available for part-time work.
  - mcv 4y ago
    I once knew a guy who was severely spastic, bound to a motorised wheelchair, could barely move or talk, but inside his head he was really smart and good with computers. Despite his complete disability, he was able to land a programming job with a company willing to accommodate for his disability, and he did very good work there. Then the department where he worked was disbanded and everybody was laid off. All his coworkers got unemployment benefits, but he couldn't, because he was disabled. So he had to get disability instead. So he applied, and was told that this wasn't a new disability, so he had to apply for something for inborn disabilities, which was a slightly different agency. So he did, and was told that that was only for people who have never been able to work, and since he had had a job, it didn't apply to him. Personally I think everybody who manages to work and make money despite their disability, should just be able to keep everything without losing their disability pay. We should be rewarding them, but instead we're punishing them.
sailfast 4y ago
Unsure what is possible but perhaps remote tier 2-3 technical support for some might be an option? Potentially for a federal agency that hires contractors for such purposes? Often hard to find people that can do the job right, and I’d imagine post COVID that remote is very doable. Unsure on flexibility but for escalations it’s nice to have somebody you can call whenever they’re available. Edit: sounds like this type of job might lose you part of your disability so this may not be an option.
chrischen 4y ago
I’ve employed people in a similar position to yours at Instapainting.com. Willing to train and pay you while you train, and also dole part time work as you see fit for software engineering services. Please email me chris@instapainting.com
- bitcoinmoney 4y ago
  [flagged]
- MagicMoonlight 4y ago
  Your business doesn’t seem very sustainable, photorealistic paintings for less than minimum wage won’t lead to long term workers.
ezedv 4y ago
Have you thought about becoming a Blockchain developer? You mentioned that you wrote Python scripts for automating and you did other front-end web development. I would like to share with you this article: https://www.ratherlabs.com/post/the-roadmap-to-become-a-blockchain-gladiator https://www.ratherlabs.com/post/the-roadmap-to-become-a-bloc... It was written by Federico Caccia, CEO of Rather Labs. From understanding the basics to mastering advanced concepts, this comprehensive guide has it all. Let me know if it was useful for you! Good luck with everything!
grugagag 4y ago
Naive question but can you do it through a friend? You get the contract on your friend/relative name, you do the work, you pay his/her taxes for that work and whatever overhead then the friend dispenses you enough money so you don’t lose disability?
- moneywoes 4y ago
  Isn’t that fraud?
  - marcus0x62 4y ago
    Yes.
WaitWhatHuh 4y ago
I feel for you, I'm a bit younger then you and in a similar situation. Been offered several jobs at tech startups for marketing positions that I had to turn down besides being offered the world and back. Can't risk losing the medicaid/medicare combo. Have you looked into an efficiency apartment or talking to some old people who are landlords? They'll sometimes have places they'd rather stick a "low maintenance/guaranteed payment" tenant. I regularly notice my landlord just "Forgetting" to update the cost per month on my rent portal but my lease stating a different amount. One thing you can do is work for people in the crypto world, building Rust/Solidity games for others can be profitable AND most importantly its paid out in crypto. Just don't try withdrawing said crypto in your name cough. -- Beyond working in the crypto world/getting paid in crypto I can't see a way out of this hellish hole for either of us.
pabs3 4y ago
Maybe some of the open source bounty services listed on the FOSSjobs wiki? https://fossjobs.net/ https://fossjobs.net/ https://github.com/fossjobs/fossjobs/wiki/resources https://github.com/fossjobs/fossjobs/wiki/resources
bbarn 4y ago
You mention Python and CMS - are there not thousands of Django development jobs out there? A quick search found them in high income areas and tons of remote positions as well. Even if you don't know Django itself, if you have python and CMS - it should be a natural step. It's not super sexy or new but it's very embedded in some companies.
pmarreck 4y ago
2018 is not that far out of date, dude.
- Madmallard 4y ago
  I'm sure my skillset is timeless. It's just the modern web tech stacks would require probably weeks of ramp up from me, and that's hard to commit to in my position.
ernestipark 4y ago
$1200/m as a decent software engineer should be really doable, whether writing software directly or not. It just might take some work to get creative and figure out where the right niches are. I think you really want to explore more non-traditional routes, since $1200 is not much for a full time job, and probably too low end for traditional consulting as well. For instance: * I would get on all the expert networks (GLG, Guidepoint, Alphasights, Deepbench, etc) and get really good there. These can be a bit of overhead, but it only takes a few gigs per month to get close to $1200/month. Charge $100-$300/call. reddit.com/r/expertneworks will give you more detail * Do you know friends/ppl in your network who work at startups or are indie hackers/solo software shops? If you're still a solid engineer, but you have a cost cap, you could be really useful to some startups who need flexible help thats not 40 hrs/week. You can also offer to be a generalist doing software, documentation, other stuff as well since you're not trying to optimize salary. A jack of all trades who can pitch in on software could be very useful for the right startup. * Some others have suggested it too, but I'd explore the Fiverrs/Upworks and see if you can find an optimal niche where you're working, say, 10-15 hours/month and hitting that $1200. I think it's doable if you figure out what works well on those networks. I've written a bit more about ways to get part-time work here (https://blog.parttimetech.io/p/work-part-time-as-a-software-engineer https://blog.parttimetech.io/p/work-part-time-as-a-software-...), hopefully some of the tips there and resources can be helpful. I've had friends with disabilities leverage part-time to be able to stay in the workforce, hope you can as well.
- lukewrites 4y ago
  Little typo in your first bullet: should be reddit.com/r/expertnetworks/
bjacobt 4y ago
You could try moonlight work, they seem to have some python jobs available. I like it better than Upwork and Fiver. Another option could be to freelance as a code reviewer, I've never tried it but it seems interesting [1] [0] https://www.moonlightwork.com/ https://www.moonlightwork.com/ [1] https://app.pullrequest.com/signups/reviewer https://app.pullrequest.com/signups/reviewer
dbg31415 4y ago
Look for a “support” contract type roles. “I’ll be on call to support your XYZ system for $1200 a month.” Or y’know, how every many clients you want to take on to get there.
kraussvonespy 4y ago
COBOL. Spend a couple of months getting back into the coding mindset by digging into COBOL, then find a local company that needs help maintaining old COBOL programs. I've gotten calls from local colleges asking me if: a) I want to teach COBOL courses as adjunct (nope) or b) if I'd have any interest in helping to maintain for them or other area employers (not yet but maybe someday).
erellsworth 4y ago
I did about 6 months as a part time TA for a virtual coding bootcamp a while back to earn a little extra cash. The pay wasn't great, but it was easy work and not too many hours. Might be ideal for someone in your situation. On a side note, this is why means testing kinda sucks. Sorry that you have to deal with it.
- Madmallard 4y ago
  Means testing?
  - erellsworth 4y ago
    Means testing is when the government uses your income to determine eligibility for a benefit. It's why you have to worry about making "too much" money to continue qualifying for disability assistance.
    - Madmallard 4y ago
      Oh okay I see yeah
RektBoy 4y ago
[flagged]
tarotuser 4y ago
From all the comments thus far posted here, I think you'd be best off finding work "under the table", cash only. Yes, this would be defrauding the SSDI system, in the technical sense. But given the significant rise in damned near everything, SSDI is grossly unacceptable in its benefits and requirements. (I mean, this isn't a case of a Scrooge McDuck collecting piles of money into the money bin. You've got both feet square in the poverty class, with SSDI serving as the very poverty trap.) SSDI will remove you from their roles if you make "too much". You'll be forced to a different disability agency that will do everything in its power to not cover you. If a workplace does significantly accommodate, that will forever be used to prove that you're not disabled; just lazy. This country's (USA) politicians do not care about you.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- skinnymuch 4y ago
  One of the best comments here.
terhechte 4y ago
I might have something for you. I'm helping out a small company that has web dashboards which sometimes need to be updated. The stack is Python/Flask running on AWS Beanstalk. Frontend is vanilla HTML with JS/CSS. There's currently quite some work to improve the performance of queries by writing things as JSON to S3. "Queries" means Python Pandas. All in all it is a simple stack. The complexity is in the detailed pandas code, but there's a data scientist who works on that. It is a US company. Obviously I'm not the founder so I can't guarantee anything, but if you're interested: My profile contains my contact information.
linuxftw 4y ago
Man small and medium sized local businesses need website help and marketing help. Try posting ads on craigslist and facebook. I used to do this 10-15 years ago and had some small success, though it wasn't something I tried to do full time. You can work as much or as little as you want. People pay way too much for websites, so there's a long tail of customers that you can actually save money and do a decent job for, you just have to seek them out. Many small businesses prefer to work for someone local as well. Many small businesses are happy to pay $X/month to their web master to keep the site alive as well, since they know nothing about computers. Many web agencies charge over $100/month to do essentially nothing, and charge for change fees. If you have a very trusted friend or family member to structure a corporation for you, then you can earn a modest 'wage' and they uh, aren't very good at not leaving envelopes full of cash at your place. That part's obviously up to you, probably not legal, but everyone breaks the speed limit now and then.
dennis_jeeves1 4y ago
I feel for you. Besides the obvious fact that you have a disability it also seems like overall society has shunned you . I have an acquaintance in a similar situation who can actually still code and has been out of the market for around 20 years. Nobody wants to employ him. For those who are worried about a similar fate happening to them ( yes, I'm worried). I'd say that you have to form long term alliances with conscientious long term thinking people to partially alleviate situations like this. p.s: I'm fully aware that insurance can take into account certain obviously visible disabilities (like a last a lost limb), but there are others where insurance will not be useful, for example chronic fatigue syndrome.
- Madmallard 4y ago
  I think if I wasn't so sick that it's probable I could make a living off my own software creations.
  - dennis_jeeves1 4y ago
    I presume you are indicating a business. It's not easy to pull of a software business or even contract if you have been out of touch for say 5 years. A business/contract is difficult for even healthy people if they are out of touch.
    - Madmallard 4y ago
      Yeah I just mean I've already had leads with multiple things like mobile game ads (SIPS, MIPS, SIP generator), NFT mint sniping (Solana), and videogame bots that I've made when desperate for money while disabled. Just seems like if I was able to put 40 hours a week on these things I'd easily be making enough to survive. But yeah of course I could be wrong about how difficult it is.
      - dennis_jeeves1 4y ago
        I think, the obvious thing to do in such a situation if you're fairly confident,( I know you said you weren't) is to engage another underemployed coder and then share the profits. I see that you have put your contact information on your profile, hopefully someone will contact you. By the way, speaking about this subject, I'm reminded about the War Apms : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_Amps https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_Amps
Glench 4y ago
Hey, sorry to hear about your situation. I'm in a similar boat — very low and variable ability to work for a couple years. I haven't seen this suggestion elsewhere in the thread and it's worked ok for me so I'll mention it. I started a small SaaS. It was initially a decent chunk of work (as you indicated in the section about monetizing applications you've written), but now provides consistent income that's not tied to my time or, critically, my energy levels. And even the initial push wasn't that bad since I spread out a lot of the work over time to match my abilities. My physical difficulties were actually kind of a blessing in a way because it forced me to do things that were absolutely critical and cut out everything else. Needless to say, making a SaaS is an art and a risky one. It requires a good eye for applications that will make money, practice validating ideas and solutions, ways of acquiring new users, ongoing customer support and feature development, etc. One way you might de-risk a SaaS is by doing contract work for companies that give you insights into problems they're having and help you build solutions while still getting paid until you can spin out an app. I actually think browser extensions are also an underappreciated way to get started indie hacking but I'm biased: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/why-browser-extensions-are-a-good-way-to-start-indie-hacking-d534627540 https://www.indiehackers.com/post/why-browser-extensions-are... Anyway, stay positive, friend! It's hard to be in our position without an ongoing practice of self-compassion and positivity.
redskull 4y ago
disability caps out at 185 or 195? (One of these two numbers) a week...where are you getting 1200 from?
- marcus0x62 4y ago
  OP is probably on SSDI. Max payout per month is $3627. Average payment is $1358/month. https://evansdisability.com/blog/social-security-disability-benefits-pay-chart/ https://evansdisability.com/blog/social-security-disability-...
- Madmallard 4y ago
  I'm referring to SSDI and private disability companies in the United States. Particularly, phone calls with representatives from these companies. It may very well be different now I haven't exactly asked about it in a couple of years now. Before it was 20% of your pre-disability income per month. Since I was a software engineer, that came up to around $1200. If I google it looks like $1470 for SSDI in 2023 is your maximum earnable income in 2023. But I haven't really tried to even meet these numbers for fear of losing disability coverage by some shady for-profit disability company means.
encoderer 4y ago
Remote email/chat based technical support could be an option. Mostly repetitive and rote but it would give you the chance to use some detective skills and help a few people.
wing-_-nuts 4y ago
I'm a software developer with cerebral palsy. I hope you don't take this question the wrong way, but what sort of condition disables you from working as a software developer? I only ask because I worked very hard to get into this career imagining that it would be almost impossible to be disabled enough that I could not write code without some sort of cognitive impairment. Your post suggests I'm missing a risk factor I haven't accounted for?
- sterlind 4y ago
  Possible factors: Too many doctor's appointments. Severe fatigue. Progressive illness with increasing disability. Issues typing. Personally, I have hEDS, nTOS and thoracic myelopathy. I was barely able to type for months. There's dictation software, but the learning curve is substantial, everything becomes slow and error-prone, and you have to spend much of your concentration on dictation itself. That and fatigue kept me from working for six months while I rehabbed and adapted.
- tptacek 4y ago
  This is none of our business.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- skinnymuch 4y ago
  I can give my story. I’ll try to be succinct. I got my problems while rich at 17. I was kicked out of high school and then community college so that hurt. I was told I had no issues by free clinic people. By 23 I was broke and had not paid any taxes. That excluded me from some help. My anxiety took care of the rest — I had nothing. I did nothing. I sat around in the bubble that is my parent’s upper middle class house worried about everything. I lived below the poverty line until last year. Many years I made nothing. I believe I was disabled and am still disabled. I found left wing politics and felt more at home. They provided answers to why my life had been so bad. Same politics convinced me I have to start working soon. There’s no excuse. So I began a tech interview bootcamp to break into the industry. I’ve programmed for for years (freelance a bit, partial SaaS attempts, community projects, half done portfolio projects). I am sure I will be fine from here on out. I don’t think you’re missing anything. I don’t know about cerebral palsy but I’m sure you will always have work. Good job succeeding at life even with cerebral palsy!
flanbiscuit 4y ago
2018 is not that long ago. I know things develop fast in technology but doesn't mean every single company hiring is keeping up. I would look into agency work and look for agencies that deal with boring enterprise clients. For instance, I used to work for an agency that strictly served pharmaceutical clients. I did full-stack but there were co-workers that only handled front-end, and I'm not talking about modern front-ends using React/Vue/etc, I'm talking about people writing just HTML and CSS, no build steps. These sites ranged from the simplest front-ends ("brochure websites") with simple forms to capture data, to the most basic CRUD app. This is not sexy work but it pays well and can be easy for the more experienced devs. I eventually left because I needed to learn more and do harder things, but if you just need to make money it's not a bad place to work. Some places to start, there are few top mega companies (known as "the big four") that own most of the advertising companies in this space. Go to their sites and see which of their companies work in the "Health" space and then go to their individual sites and check out their posted jobs 1. IPG (Interpublic Group), look at the multiple "Health" options in the "Capabilities" dropdown on this page: https://www.interpublic.com/our-companies/ https://www.interpublic.com/our-companies/ 2. Publicis Groupe - https://www.publicisgroupe.com/en/services/services-publicis-health-en https://www.publicisgroupe.com/en/services/services-publicis... 3. WPP plc - look into the companies mentioned on this page: https://www.wpp.com/featured/work/list?topic=Healthcare%20and%20Pharma https://www.wpp.com/featured/work/list?topic=Healthcare%20an... 4. Omnicom Group - check out https://www.omnicomgroup.com/newsroom/agency/bbdo/ https://www.omnicomgroup.com/newsroom/agency/bbdo/
xtrohnx 4y ago
I've found myself doing a bit of side work for small non-profits, and they tend to use older CMSs for their sites. They also tend to not have anyone on staff who fully manages the website - it usually falls under whoever is in charge of marketing or development (in the non-profit sense). One non-profit in particular reached out to have me on a monthly retainer to just pop in to their WordPress site to make sure things are updated and there are no security issues. They also ask me to do some content updates if they're overwhelmed and not sure of the best way to do it. Time wise, I'll spend maybe 15-20 minutes a month going through their checklist of ToDos, and they send a small but consistent check each month. Maybe you could use your experience in CMS automation and reach out to a few smaller non-profits/businesses to see if you might be able to get a similar situation going? It could be a win-win; you can pull a consistent amount every month, and it's a huge relief to the marketing coordinator to not have to deal with administration they're not comfortable with.
AlwaysRock 4y ago
outco is almost always hiring for tech coaches. Lots of bootcamps are always hiring for coaches. It really doesnt mater what your background is, you will probably know more than the typical person coming through the progress. These are typically 1099 or part time W-2 positions which allow you to pick your hours.
gigatexal 4y ago
Maybe this could help get you by? https://www.userinterviews.com/hello https://www.userinterviews.com/hello disclaimer: I have no relationship with them. I just heard they were a sponsor of Talk Python To Me -- a podcast I listen to and I thought the idea was interesting.
gigatexal 4y ago
Also have you considered becoming a remote-actuary? We refi'd our house in the US and had to sign documents while living in Berlin and the bank allowed the use of an actuary which we found via a broker online -- I can't remember which. Apparently they can make decent money and you can decide how many gigs to take.
sixhobbits 4y ago
a few people mentioned technical writing so I will also just plug my repo quickly which has my favourite resources to learn more about tech writing and also a list of companies that pay for it (often per article so very flexible). https://github.com/sixhobbits/technical-writing https://github.com/sixhobbits/technical-writing
nubb 4y ago
unpopular opinion on hn but crypto and web3 is an amazing industry
bonestamp2 4y ago
Depending on your disability, you might already be qualified to be an expert consultant on software development to accommodate users with your disability. If not, that's fine too, and you can quickly become knowledgeable in disability consulting for web applications (how to structure html/css so that pages can be read by screen readers). There is a lot of work in this field and when you're really good, you can make that $1200 in one day. If a particular job requires several days of work, you could ask the client if you can bill them $1200 at a time over several months.
maerF0x0 4y ago
I'm not certain about the accounting details in the USA, but at least in Canada starting a company is a fantastic way to control your income to keep you subthreshold (you pay yourself at the threshold, and defer excess income to future years) Perhaps someone more aware of US Law could confirm/correct this line of thinking.
zackmorris 4y ago
Here are some tangible options, depending on whether your disability status allows them: * Donating plasma: up to $900/month in my city, note that they may be able to work around medication(s), but it might be considered taxable income: https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/tax-credits-deductions/discussion/plasma-donation-as-taxable-income/00/754466 https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/tax-credits-deductions/dis... * Bacon (no affiliation): usually temp and handyman work, but it's worth signing up to see if they offer clerical/remote work as part of an anti-discrimination effort for the disabled: https://www.baconwork.com https://www.baconwork.com * Support others in your situation: your technical skills are in high demand at agencies that advocate for the disabled, perhaps you could contact someone at: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/disability-employment/ https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/disability-employm... I would add that I struggled for many of the last 20 years under a scarcity mindset. But reconnecting as part of a community really helped me see that we all have equal dignity and a desire to be of service. For me, mustering the faith to try new things for a couple of weeks, while being mindful about setting boundaries and having fallback options, really helped get me back to healthy and sustainable work.
nelsonenzo 4y ago
Teaching conversational English online can easily earn $15-25/hr, especially if you have an American accent. The hours might be weird but once you have some students, they become consistent.
- lukewrites 4y ago
  To follow up on this, something completely overlooked in "teaching English" is being able to do language instruction in a specialist field. I did this for Lenovo employees in Beijing and earned much more per hour than any contract work recruiters shovel my way...and that was 12 years ago. As with anything, the hard work is finding the first jobs. Connect with China or Japan based folks and go from there. OP feel free to email me (my hn handle at icloud) if you'd like to talk more about this.
roundandround 4y ago
The semi-tech-savvy small business people I encounter tend to manage CMS, WordPress, etc, sites for less tech savvy small businesses as a kind of support contract. I think it has similar downsides as consulting except that it can provide a very fixed income while the amount of work to do varies instead of having income swings.
FlopV 4y ago
What's the best way to contact you? How many hours are you looking to reasonably put in?
- Madmallard 4y ago
  I put some contact information on my profile. We can discuss further from there.
bmo333 4y ago
Learn to trade. Trade stocks, options, or futures. Just pick one and get good at it. It takes 2-4 yrs to be profitable due to needed behavior changes and knowledge and experience needed.
aws_ls 4y ago
You say you have problem solving competence. Then if you can do 3 easy to medium algorithmic coding problems in 1.5 hours, you do stand a chance at some remote work companies like Toptal. You may have to brush up your skills to do a mock project as well. Example React for UI and a backend language (Python/Java/Go anything really). Also you can work part time via this, its not necessarily full time. Edit: Wish you good luck, whichever path you choose.
- Madmallard 4y ago
  I can solve hard algorithms questions. I've worked at FAANG. It's just not the problem unfortunately. I cannot actually work consistently due to my disability and because of the way disability is setup I cannot really work and get a 1099 or W2 or I risk losing coverage which is just entirely unacceptable right now.
funnygryn 4y ago
Hey, get in touch with me at andrea@techinterview.coach - we are expanding our coaches #s and it's a fun and rewarding side gig :)
schwartzworld 4y ago
If you're not working, you have lots of time to learn new things. Why limit yourself to your existing skill set? You don't mention vision issues, so frontend, which is what I do, is probably well within your reach.

237 points by Madmallard 4y ago

passwordoops 4y ago

Depending on the disability there may be organizations that can help. For example, if you're blind or low vision the APH, ACB and NFB (in the states) have great training and placement programs that can potentially match you to employers. There's also options to reposition yourself. For example, instead of development, look for QA analyst roles. This particular shift won't pay as high, but it might be a good fit for what you need and possibly be easier to land in a shorter time frame

ogwh 4y ago

Depending on the rigidity of your conscience you could whip up some buzzword laden project with "blockchain" written all over it. Some suckers will throw money at that if you give it a colourful website with plenty of vague promises that you never have to deliver.

Madmallard 4y ago
I have a hard time with tutoring as it is because most students (at least where I'm getting them) just want the work done for them and typically come to you last moment.
- sokoloff 4y ago
  And you want to earn money for rent. You don’t need to move the needle of academic achievement for a generation. If they come to you with money in hand and are just a little intellectually lazy or have worse time management than you’d like, you can still make a mutually beneficial trade. Only offering tutoring to the most motivated students with the best time management skills is a self-limiting market.
  - idontpost 4y ago
    [dead]
bloqs 4y ago
Replace blockchain with AI
- iso1631 4y ago
  Blockchain based AI NFT disrupter
fsloth 4y ago
I think you need to be more explicit on the specifics of revenue mechanism to be helpful. Anyone can host a buzzword laden web page for sure, but what would the specific funnel and revenue generation mechanism be?

Neil44 4y ago

It's easy for me and I don't know your situation to say but try not to be so fixated on the $1200/mo. Seems to be that a solid job with Python skills could make the $1200 look small very quickly.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
ptero 4y ago
There is usually a cap on what one can earn while continuing to receive disability. I think the total of disability and other income cannot exceed 60% of pre-disability earnings or something like that.
- Madmallard 4y ago
  That is correct. And if you lose it for that reason, it's very difficult and takes a long time to get back, even if you actually need it to survive.
  - marcus0x62 4y ago
    …Which is the biggest problem with the whole setup. The risk of losing disability and not being able to get it back is too high for most people to even try to re-enter the labor market. The whole thing needs to be redesigned from the ground up.
a_humean 4y ago
I think the risk here is that the nature of the disability is that they might suddenly be unable to continue working or keep up a reasonable pace of work. Many conditions are cyclical - meaning that you could be productive for a period of time, and then suddenly disabled again. It might be very difficult to get back on disability benefits after they go above that limit. This is a common trap with many disability benefit programmes worldwide - they have these inflexible hard numerical limits on earnings that effectively disincentivise people from getting back into work or becoming independent all in the name of fraud prevention. The systems lacks the flexiblity to recongise that people's health and ability to work ebbs and flows. The moment they earn more than 1200 USD they might no longer be considered disabled by the state. The baked in assumption is that not that we should be providing an accessible offramp to independence and a fallback to support if it goes wrong, but that any demonstration of independence should be met with treating your future claims as fraud.

teruakohatu 4y ago

I am not in the United States so I am not the right person to answer your question. It might be helpful to say how many hours you can work per week, and how much you want to be paid per hour.

nicoburns 4y ago

You don't say what your disability is (or how it impacts your ability to work), so it's hard to be specific. But my general advice would be just to talk to more companies. Not every company will be open to this, but some will and you just need to find those companies. Get in contact with companies that are hiring for roles that require the kind of skills you have even if the working arrangements they're advertising aren't what you'd want.

zieben 4y ago
This. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people with disabilities who fall through the cracks because they’re able to work, just not to the artificial availability (and suffering) standard required by the modern labor market. There’s a difference between being able to do useful work and being able to survive the nightmare of a modern-day corporate job where the work demands themselves are low but the emotional labor is enough to take down even people without disabilities, given enough time. And SSDI is really badly set up, as other posters have noted.
- kayodelycaon 4y ago
  It really is. I’m able to work with ADA accommodations, but finding a job I can manage is difficult. It takes me 3~6 months for me to find a job each time I’m out of work. Finding a specialist to manage the medical side of my disability is similar. Through fortunate circumstances (and inheritance), I have successful career and enough energy left over to have some kind of life. If I lived in Europe, the amount of sick and vacation time would allow me to actually heal between episodes. I live in the US, so I’m in a constant state of near burn-out.
  - gwbas1c 4y ago
    > It takes me 3~6 months for me to find a job each time I’m out of work. It takes me 3-6 months and I'm not disabled. That's pretty much the norm in tech, unless you fit into the very small group of people who get lucky and find a job overnight.
4y ago

blowski 4y ago

It's horrible feeling like the world has passed you by, perhaps even more so when it's forced on you by external factors rather than choices you've made. That being said, I wonder if you should challenge your assumption that it's out of date. I'm definitely clueless on whatever the latest JavaScript library is and whatever's going in machine learning. But my knowledge of foundational data structures, algorithms, and software development practices often makes me more valuable than somebody who is more "up to date". It feels horrible when someone uses an acronym I don't know, but it doesn't actually have much impact. Then again, perhaps you're right and it really is causing you problems - it's hard to give specific advice on social media because the async nature prevents good Q&A. Could you find someone that will coach you on it?

7hr0waw4y 4y ago
I don't have experience with external factors, but I can assure you that the feeling of failure etc when it's down to your own choices, seems much more acute than if you had a valid excuse.
- blowski 4y ago
  Both are painful. When I'm struggling, is it better to know that I justly deserve it as a consequence of my own choices, or that fate has capriciously inflicted those struggles on me? Whichever situation I find myself in, I'd rather be in the other one.

NDizzle 4y ago

[flagged]

fsloth 4y ago
There are medical conditions that do not allow full time employment, period. I have no idea what the condition of the OP is but several conditions leave a person with a very limited "labour budget" beyond which they just cant perform. In such a condition the daily budget might allow either for grocery shopping, or few hours of work, but not both. If this is the case, dropping on your own could be very precarious and potentially financially devastating.

timwaagh 4y ago

Maybe work in some field that isn't software. In retail part timers are more accepted for instance. Where I am companies typically expect 40 hours if you are a man so unless you're a woman you are out of luck. Even then you might still be out of luck. I've never seen anyone do two days a week for instance.

xen2xen1 4y ago

Have you put out your resume on indeed.com, LinkedIn, etc, listing yourself as part time? Getting noticed by recruiters can be a way to get things done. Have you considered going back to school online? Being in school can help with Section 8 housing in the US, as can a disability. It also helps with lots of other public help. Also, you might scour for jobs that require a security clearance that are part time, as the government views disability far, far different than the private sector. Long term, government jobs, even part time, might be your answer. Even companies that have government contracts hire many more disabled folks than others. Actually, I know people who's job it is/has been to help disabled folks get jobs, even part time. Google Vocational Rehab for your area. There's probably a program near you. Sorry to not answer your questions the way you were probably looking, but I'm sharing what I do know of all this. I can probably help if you care to send more specifics.

Madmallard 4y ago
Well, currently I am receiving both private and government disability. As soon as I start working part-time, I will assuredly lose private disability. But the nature of my condition is that it periodically and unpredictably gets much worse to the point where I can't work at all for an extended period of time. So when that happens, and I have already lost the private disability, I won't be able to get it back. But they currently pay for half of all of what I receive, so that's not an acceptable risk I can take.

codpiece 4y ago

There is a lot of work connecting various platforms via API. Marketing agencies in particular need this service. You could look at the big CRM platforms like Salesforce which require only a modified version of Java called Apex to customize. I find there are a dearth of good programmers working in the platform. EDIT: Both of these options allow you to work remotely.

XCabbage 4y ago
Apex is based on Java, not on JavaScript.
- codpiece 4y ago
  Corrected, thank you. Could not remember.

ohyes 4y ago

How many hours can you potentially work?

Madmallard 4y ago
I don't really know. I can say with confidence that I cannot be consistent for months at a time. I've been in and out of the hospital every 6 months since 2018.
- dev_tty01 4y ago
  That is so stressful. A close relative has a similar situation. It is cyclical and is a condition that for some people does improve long term, so when she is on the upswing there is always the thought/hope that it might continue to improve. Then after a few months it goes the other way. Absolutely crushing. At this point, she has something akin to PTSD from battling through these cycles over the years. Hope you can find a sustainable groove.
  - Madmallard 4y ago
    I'm curious what your relative is going through because mine seems cyclical as well.
    - dev_tty01 4y ago
      Started a few years ago as a neuroimmune disorder with periodic and horrific OCD, depression, muscular failures, inability to concentrate, ... Much of that has passed, but it has morphed into ME/CFS. That still still seems triggered and/or related to an underlying neuroimmune issue. When the immune system kicks up, an autoimmune condition also ramps up and causes inflammation in the brain (among other things), which in turn leads to all sorts of symptoms. She used to run half marathons but now a flight of stairs are a big challenge. None of it is well understood and there aren't good treatments. Some treatments help some people, but it is kind of hit or miss and most of the potential treatments aren't cheap. It is actually similar in many ways to some forms of long covid, so bizarrely, covid and subsequent research may lead to better therapies that could help her as well. At least that's the hope...

_nalply 4y ago

It seems that you write well. Perhaps you could do technology writing? Another idea: try to find a grant for an Open Source project to document it. For a large project like Rust find something not well documented. In my experience and of that of my friends -- we are Deaf by the way -- about nine of ten projects won't give sustenance. It's like startups, you need to try again and again. Either you will strike gold or you will have several horses to bet on. Finally consider leaving the country. The US is good for people who are well off and not so good for the rest. With some luck you could work as a digital nomad.

guhsnamih 4y ago

In early 40's with outdated skills, I am in the same boat except a physical disability. While development only roles have gone out of reach now, I have been able to find QA, documentation, support, generalist roles at a non-profit, academia, and an early stage startup in that order. Reached advanced interview stages with employers looking for outdated skills (Perl scripting) or in-office positions, so you might want to explore similar. LinkedIn, Fiverr never worked for me. My resume generated a lot more interest via HN's monthly threads. Good luck!

luckylion 4y ago
> outdated skills Wordpress powers like 40% of the web, unless you really, really, really hate PHP, your skills aren't outdated. It's probably tough to connect to the right people but there are endless companies and individuals out there that need help with their sites that run on WP. Just as a reminder that there's the Modern-Software-Development Paradise where you need to keep learning new technology and everything is futuristic and shiny, and then there's the Wordpress-Running-On-Php5.6 Real World which is gigantic but few people blog about because it's not fancy and it smells bad sometimes.
chrischen 4y ago
Please contact me chris@instapainting.com (I also offered OP) if still looking for a job.
- guhsnamih 4y ago
  Thanks! I have one for the time being and I wish you good luck with your work. Best

neilv 4y ago

I don't know where you'd find it, but seems like one possibility would be match up one of those people who wants to bootstrap a startup with very little money. The kind that would normally use some overseas gig worker site, or used to post on Craigslist, but you'd probably be a better bet for them. Or maybe a business has an existing in-house Python application they need maintained, including frequent changes made on short notice, and they don't want to hire someone at several times the cost and try to retain them. They have to find a trustworthy contractor for a long-term relationship, and you might look like that. You could also do two of these kinds of engagements at once (to lower the cost even more, avoid any concern about looking like a de facto employee, add recent stuff to your resume faster, and not have all your eggs in the same basket).

nfriedly 4y ago

For what it's worth, I used to do work on freelancing sites ~10 years ago and just tended to ignore the race to the bottom. I initially charged $50/hr, and regularly raised my rates so that I was up over $150/hr by the time I stopped doing it. Of course I got passed over for a lot of jobs in favor of cheaper folks. But the jobs I did get were from clients who actually respected me. Also, more than once, a client who initially passed over me for someone cheaper came back a few months later and asked me to do the job after all. So, perhaps something like that could work for you. -- Regarding the $1,200 per month limit, I'm not sure what the rules are, but perhaps you could set up a corporation that takes on the freelancing jobs and then pays you a salary of $1,200 a month? That way you wouldn't have to turn down a job for paying too much. Maybe have the corp owned by a trust rather than you personally? I wouldn't want you to get in trouble and lose the disability, though, so talk to somebody who actually knows what they're talking about before doing any of this stuff.

Forge36 4y ago
Steps I'm seeing: 1. Find a lawyer 2. Consider a corporation 3. Find an external entity (friend, family, form a trust) to run business Run all plans through lawyer and revive their agreement in writing
- ceejayoz 4y ago
  > Run all plans through lawyer I don't think you appreciate how tight the budget of a disabled person on SSI is.
  - Forge36 4y ago
    They'll require help (Friends/family/someone). However I'm MUCH more worried about them losing SSI because "someone on the internet said this was OK". Granted I have no idea how much a lawyer costs (and last time I used one it came in <$300).
    - rnd0 4y ago
      I would be too, and going forward without legal advice is really fool-hardy. The trick imo would be finding an affordable lawyer who is also familiar with disability law.

jacknews 4y ago

It's hard to take Fiver seriously. For example a quick search for 'Ruby Rails' and one of the top service providers lists a premium service of 'full stack development app' delivered in 3 days, and including a 15 minute consultation, a project plan, and audit, for ... $20.

deleted 4y ago
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sgt 4y ago
Wait until Elon finds out...
- sgt 4y ago
  Funny - I was heavily upvoted. Then heavily downvoted again to 1 point. Not that I mind, but people get very emotional about Elon even here on HN.
jvanderbot 4y ago
If they have a stack set up, and just need to copy/paste 90% of it, I can see cranking out even 1 per day. And $20/day is above median wage for India, and might support a student really nicely. I would absolutely trust someone to copy/paste a stack for me, a total idiot when it comes to the client-facing 50% of the stack, as long as they plug into my APIs.
madengr 4y ago
[dead]
blowski 4y ago
In my experience, it's a loss leader designed to bleed you dry with never-ending "bug fixes" you have to pay for. 1. Put the cheapest junior they have to install and configure their default platform for you and present it. 2. You see progress, and decide spending another $20 will get you over the finish line. And people remain stuck on #2 forever. The more they spend, the more the sunk costs convince them to keep paying.

jmduke 4y ago

Have you considered technical writing? I've talked to a number of folks who are in a similar position, and writing (as opposed to generalist development) has a number of advantages: - It rewards experience though, except for niche-specific writing, does not require understanding of specific frameworks or programming languages - It is often 'important-but-not-urgent' work, so intermittent availability is less of a deal-breaker - Clear writing is very much an orthogonal skill from programming aptitude writ large, and you don't need to compete with new grads

snide 4y ago
This is solid advice. In large, technical companies you'd be surprised at the number of technical writers that aren't actually technical. Having someone that acts as a source writer, rather than as an editor for developers that are quickly rushing past the documentation requirements is a game-changer. The best technical writers I've worked with were always folks who understood programming and could write the docs from experience. I also find most technical documentation teams to be a lot more chill and flexible. Most of them have excellent team-minded work styles. How to get started in this field? You can't throw a stone without hitting an OSS project that wouldn't want help with its docs. It's a great way to build up a network and some Github activity.
- noduerme 4y ago
  Third this. One of the companies I develop for hired a technical writer to translate large pieces of our code into user-friendly manuals. She isn't a coder but she's a good writer and has a knack for finding problems and asking questions from the user's perspective. Most importantly, she's intellectually curious. She sort of fell into the position by being a regular employee who raised a lot of good questions about the old software as it existed. She's paid well by the client, picks her own hours and problems, has a hand in suggesting new features, sends me lists of questions and I answer as I do... in extreme detail and with tons of edge cases. She then just keeps testing things out and distills my technical babble down to the manuals that are used to train the managers.
pabs3 4y ago

b3lvedere 4y ago

>I've written some scripts and other little projects for people I know here and there for small amounts, but it is extremely inconsistent availability even though they trust what I deliver. Expand your network a little. Ask them for their help for new jobs. You helped them, maybe they can help you? How about becoming a (software) tester?

launchiterate 4y ago

Maybe creating a python udemy course with simple ai applications?

codingdave 4y ago

You might want to expand your focus - if you can't promise to commit to a long-term project due to your health concerns, try talking to local temp services. It won't be tech work, but it will be work and a paycheck. With low expectations of continued work. Low pay, too, but it sounds like you only want some money, not an amount so large to kick you out of your programs. I've also gotten tech gigs from temp gigs - "Hey, I know I'm just a temp, but I also do tech work and noticed some things I could automate for you, if you'd like some help."

deleted 4y ago
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globalise83 4y ago

I would recommend using your Python skills to write scripts that perform analytics tasks using JIRA Cloud REST API data. Every tech company I have worked in needed some kind of custom reports regarding development performance, time reporting, financial reporting, etc.... and there often weren't suitable plugins for just that task, and the reports themselves are highly valuable either for management purposes or compliance reasons, so they will pay you well. I have written several programs myself to do these tasks (during work hours), and it is quite satisfying to figure out how to get around the API constraints. Could be a nice little line of consulting and development work for you.

czbond 4y ago
Great, niche, high paying advice here.
mannymanman 4y ago
Where would you find clients for this? Also is there a youtube video that shows you how to extract this information from the API data?

VLM 4y ago

My experience is once you step off the path, you're done with corporate W-2. HR will blacklist you if you didn't work 40 hrs in the same job title or one step down last week. Its all about risk minimization and blame minimization for the hiring team, never about "finding someone who can do it" or "finding someone who has done it". Maybe the way to put it is we all know what it takes to work and do a job is not what it takes to get hired. I haven't worked W-2 in some years and its probable I'll never be allowed to work W-2 again beyond McDonalds-level jobs. If you step off the path once, you'll never be permitted the risk of stepping off again. Staffing-type companies work MUCH better. Someone in IT dept is on maternity leave until March, do whatever you can to help them for two months. Shockingly you can sometimes get 2x to even 3x their "regular" pay for temp. Plenty of companies have never read their Fred Brooks and think if a project is late they can throw talent at it and it'll get done quicker (spoiler alert, more bodies = later due date every time), regardless I don't mind profiting off their project management inexperience. A permanent-ish "grind away at the desk for years" at the corporate job is probably completely off the table; look for big upgrade projects, 2am maintenance/upgrade projects, etc. Baby sitting server upgrades at 2am is not glamorous, but it can be very profitable... Even less glamorous is taking the on call shift at 2am, but when you bill per hour it feels better... I could never work on call permanently, just a few months will burn most people completely out, but this contract ends on march 31st so I can wait it out. Recruiter-type companies are hit and miss. They usually take a HUGE percentage cut (so you're taking a huge pay cut) but its usually a fixed-ish percentage so they want you billing 40+ hours every week to maximize their cut. Its the same hoops for them to jump thru for a 3-month part time contract at $75 as for a 12-month full time contract at $175 so you're at the back of the list unless they're infinitely bored. Spoiler, they're almost never bored. Its kind of important to note if you need to report income monthly or annually. Monthly could be tricky, annual would likely be pretty easy. The work tends to be feast or famine; think of your relationship with your car mechanic, either you want it done yesterday and him working 24 hrs/day or you have zero interest in paying him a penny; this is how your clients will look at you. So if you're close to your income budget it'll be pretty easy to not sign a short term contract for awhile or until next year or whatever. On the other hand if you have to report income monthly that might be painful as you'll run into places that bill net-30, net-90, net-seems-like-forever and you'll suddenly get a check large enough to buy a car, but it'll be one and only one check. Here's two totally different phrases "So I see your monthly income is $30K" vs "Once, one month I got a single check for $30K, but that was the only check I got for about half a year".

dsego 4y ago

You could try Toptal. It's a bit different from other freelancing sites.

neon_electro 4y ago
Toptal doesn't deserve our support: https://www.theinformation.com/articles/at-booming-toptal-no-stock-for-employees-or-investors https://www.theinformation.com/articles/at-booming-toptal-no...
ricardobayes 4y ago
I run far, far away from companies that openly advertise that they hire the top X percent of talent. There should be talent agencies dedicated for the "rest" that still generate good solid value, but also don't charge top dollar.
- dsego 4y ago
  They technically hire the top percent that pass their screening process. Those are the candidates that put in the effort to solve coding challenges and work on test projects. And once you're in, you don't have to go through any assessments again, there is no bidding on projects or race to the bottom, you set your rate and you can find hourly, part-time or full time work that suits your skill set.
  - base3 4y ago
    Can you suggest a few such agencies?

deleted 4y ago

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mcv 4y ago

> I've been disabled since 2018, and my skills in software as such have largely become outdated. I always find this such a weird claim. Sure, lots has happened in the past 5 years, but there's still tons of software out there that's older than 5 years, most major programming languages are decades old, and anything new can be learned. If you want to be able to make money quickly, it's far more interesting to look at what you can do, than worry about what you might not yet know. Python is still around and still as relevant as ever. > I'm in my early-to-mid 30s for reference. I'm not really able to get off disability as the condition is severe. My personal opinion is that if your condition is that severe, you shouldn't have to work at all, but of course that's of no help to you right now.

phphphphp 4y ago
I wouldn’t describe it as weird because people who struggle with a disability can lose their confidence over time in things unrelated to their disability, but I certainly agree with your point: if somebody could write code 5 years ago, they can do it today. Modern technology is just old technology with some different bells and whistles, the principles are all the same, and as has always been the case, most code that professionals are writing is very simple. Technology is 90% confidence, and very little skill. The biggest challenge for the OP is convincing himself that he isn’t damaged goods who needs charity, he’s a competent developer with some restrictions on his availability so he’s available for part-time work.
- mcv 4y ago
  I once knew a guy who was severely spastic, bound to a motorised wheelchair, could barely move or talk, but inside his head he was really smart and good with computers. Despite his complete disability, he was able to land a programming job with a company willing to accommodate for his disability, and he did very good work there. Then the department where he worked was disbanded and everybody was laid off. All his coworkers got unemployment benefits, but he couldn't, because he was disabled. So he had to get disability instead. So he applied, and was told that this wasn't a new disability, so he had to apply for something for inborn disabilities, which was a slightly different agency. So he did, and was told that that was only for people who have never been able to work, and since he had had a job, it didn't apply to him. Personally I think everybody who manages to work and make money despite their disability, should just be able to keep everything without losing their disability pay. We should be rewarding them, but instead we're punishing them.

sailfast 4y ago

Unsure what is possible but perhaps remote tier 2-3 technical support for some might be an option? Potentially for a federal agency that hires contractors for such purposes? Often hard to find people that can do the job right, and I’d imagine post COVID that remote is very doable. Unsure on flexibility but for escalations it’s nice to have somebody you can call whenever they’re available. Edit: sounds like this type of job might lose you part of your disability so this may not be an option.

chrischen 4y ago

I’ve employed people in a similar position to yours at Instapainting.com. Willing to train and pay you while you train, and also dole part time work as you see fit for software engineering services. Please email me chris@instapainting.com

bitcoinmoney 4y ago
[flagged]
MagicMoonlight 4y ago
Your business doesn’t seem very sustainable, photorealistic paintings for less than minimum wage won’t lead to long term workers.

ezedv 4y ago

Have you thought about becoming a Blockchain developer? You mentioned that you wrote Python scripts for automating and you did other front-end web development. I would like to share with you this article: https://www.ratherlabs.com/post/the-roadmap-to-become-a-blockchain-gladiator https://www.ratherlabs.com/post/the-roadmap-to-become-a-bloc... It was written by Federico Caccia, CEO of Rather Labs. From understanding the basics to mastering advanced concepts, this comprehensive guide has it all. Let me know if it was useful for you! Good luck with everything!

grugagag 4y ago

Naive question but can you do it through a friend? You get the contract on your friend/relative name, you do the work, you pay his/her taxes for that work and whatever overhead then the friend dispenses you enough money so you don’t lose disability?

moneywoes 4y ago
Isn’t that fraud?
- marcus0x62 4y ago
  Yes.

WaitWhatHuh 4y ago

I feel for you, I'm a bit younger then you and in a similar situation. Been offered several jobs at tech startups for marketing positions that I had to turn down besides being offered the world and back. Can't risk losing the medicaid/medicare combo. Have you looked into an efficiency apartment or talking to some old people who are landlords? They'll sometimes have places they'd rather stick a "low maintenance/guaranteed payment" tenant. I regularly notice my landlord just "Forgetting" to update the cost per month on my rent portal but my lease stating a different amount. One thing you can do is work for people in the crypto world, building Rust/Solidity games for others can be profitable AND most importantly its paid out in crypto. Just don't try withdrawing said crypto in your name cough. -- Beyond working in the crypto world/getting paid in crypto I can't see a way out of this hellish hole for either of us.

pabs3 4y ago

Maybe some of the open source bounty services listed on the FOSSjobs wiki? https://fossjobs.net/ https://fossjobs.net/ https://github.com/fossjobs/fossjobs/wiki/resources https://github.com/fossjobs/fossjobs/wiki/resources

bbarn 4y ago

You mention Python and CMS - are there not thousands of Django development jobs out there? A quick search found them in high income areas and tons of remote positions as well. Even if you don't know Django itself, if you have python and CMS - it should be a natural step. It's not super sexy or new but it's very embedded in some companies.

pmarreck 4y ago

2018 is not that far out of date, dude.

Madmallard 4y ago
I'm sure my skillset is timeless. It's just the modern web tech stacks would require probably weeks of ramp up from me, and that's hard to commit to in my position.

ernestipark 4y ago

$1200/m as a decent software engineer should be really doable, whether writing software directly or not. It just might take some work to get creative and figure out where the right niches are. I think you really want to explore more non-traditional routes, since $1200 is not much for a full time job, and probably too low end for traditional consulting as well. For instance: * I would get on all the expert networks (GLG, Guidepoint, Alphasights, Deepbench, etc) and get really good there. These can be a bit of overhead, but it only takes a few gigs per month to get close to $1200/month. Charge $100-$300/call. reddit.com/r/expertneworks will give you more detail * Do you know friends/ppl in your network who work at startups or are indie hackers/solo software shops? If you're still a solid engineer, but you have a cost cap, you could be really useful to some startups who need flexible help thats not 40 hrs/week. You can also offer to be a generalist doing software, documentation, other stuff as well since you're not trying to optimize salary. A jack of all trades who can pitch in on software could be very useful for the right startup. * Some others have suggested it too, but I'd explore the Fiverrs/Upworks and see if you can find an optimal niche where you're working, say, 10-15 hours/month and hitting that $1200. I think it's doable if you figure out what works well on those networks. I've written a bit more about ways to get part-time work here (https://blog.parttimetech.io/p/work-part-time-as-a-software-engineer https://blog.parttimetech.io/p/work-part-time-as-a-software-...), hopefully some of the tips there and resources can be helpful. I've had friends with disabilities leverage part-time to be able to stay in the workforce, hope you can as well.

lukewrites 4y ago
Little typo in your first bullet: should be reddit.com/r/expertnetworks/

bjacobt 4y ago

You could try moonlight work, they seem to have some python jobs available. I like it better than Upwork and Fiver. Another option could be to freelance as a code reviewer, I've never tried it but it seems interesting [1] [0] https://www.moonlightwork.com/ https://www.moonlightwork.com/ [1] https://app.pullrequest.com/signups/reviewer https://app.pullrequest.com/signups/reviewer

dbg31415 4y ago

Look for a “support” contract type roles. “I’ll be on call to support your XYZ system for $1200 a month.” Or y’know, how every many clients you want to take on to get there.

kraussvonespy 4y ago

COBOL. Spend a couple of months getting back into the coding mindset by digging into COBOL, then find a local company that needs help maintaining old COBOL programs. I've gotten calls from local colleges asking me if: a) I want to teach COBOL courses as adjunct (nope) or b) if I'd have any interest in helping to maintain for them or other area employers (not yet but maybe someday).

erellsworth 4y ago

I did about 6 months as a part time TA for a virtual coding bootcamp a while back to earn a little extra cash. The pay wasn't great, but it was easy work and not too many hours. Might be ideal for someone in your situation. On a side note, this is why means testing kinda sucks. Sorry that you have to deal with it.

Madmallard 4y ago
Means testing?
- erellsworth 4y ago
  Means testing is when the government uses your income to determine eligibility for a benefit. It's why you have to worry about making "too much" money to continue qualifying for disability assistance.
  - Madmallard 4y ago
    Oh okay I see yeah

RektBoy 4y ago

[flagged]

tarotuser 4y ago

From all the comments thus far posted here, I think you'd be best off finding work "under the table", cash only. Yes, this would be defrauding the SSDI system, in the technical sense. But given the significant rise in damned near everything, SSDI is grossly unacceptable in its benefits and requirements. (I mean, this isn't a case of a Scrooge McDuck collecting piles of money into the money bin. You've got both feet square in the poverty class, with SSDI serving as the very poverty trap.) SSDI will remove you from their roles if you make "too much". You'll be forced to a different disability agency that will do everything in its power to not cover you. If a workplace does significantly accommodate, that will forever be used to prove that you're not disabled; just lazy. This country's (USA) politicians do not care about you.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
skinnymuch 4y ago
One of the best comments here.

terhechte 4y ago

I might have something for you. I'm helping out a small company that has web dashboards which sometimes need to be updated. The stack is Python/Flask running on AWS Beanstalk. Frontend is vanilla HTML with JS/CSS. There's currently quite some work to improve the performance of queries by writing things as JSON to S3. "Queries" means Python Pandas. All in all it is a simple stack. The complexity is in the detailed pandas code, but there's a data scientist who works on that. It is a US company. Obviously I'm not the founder so I can't guarantee anything, but if you're interested: My profile contains my contact information.

linuxftw 4y ago

Man small and medium sized local businesses need website help and marketing help. Try posting ads on craigslist and facebook. I used to do this 10-15 years ago and had some small success, though it wasn't something I tried to do full time. You can work as much or as little as you want. People pay way too much for websites, so there's a long tail of customers that you can actually save money and do a decent job for, you just have to seek them out. Many small businesses prefer to work for someone local as well. Many small businesses are happy to pay $X/month to their web master to keep the site alive as well, since they know nothing about computers. Many web agencies charge over $100/month to do essentially nothing, and charge for change fees. If you have a very trusted friend or family member to structure a corporation for you, then you can earn a modest 'wage' and they uh, aren't very good at not leaving envelopes full of cash at your place. That part's obviously up to you, probably not legal, but everyone breaks the speed limit now and then.

dennis_jeeves1 4y ago

I feel for you. Besides the obvious fact that you have a disability it also seems like overall society has shunned you . I have an acquaintance in a similar situation who can actually still code and has been out of the market for around 20 years. Nobody wants to employ him. For those who are worried about a similar fate happening to them ( yes, I'm worried). I'd say that you have to form long term alliances with conscientious long term thinking people to partially alleviate situations like this. p.s: I'm fully aware that insurance can take into account certain obviously visible disabilities (like a last a lost limb), but there are others where insurance will not be useful, for example chronic fatigue syndrome.

Madmallard 4y ago
I think if I wasn't so sick that it's probable I could make a living off my own software creations.
- dennis_jeeves1 4y ago
  I presume you are indicating a business. It's not easy to pull of a software business or even contract if you have been out of touch for say 5 years. A business/contract is difficult for even healthy people if they are out of touch.
  - Madmallard 4y ago
    Yeah I just mean I've already had leads with multiple things like mobile game ads (SIPS, MIPS, SIP generator), NFT mint sniping (Solana), and videogame bots that I've made when desperate for money while disabled. Just seems like if I was able to put 40 hours a week on these things I'd easily be making enough to survive. But yeah of course I could be wrong about how difficult it is.
    - dennis_jeeves1 4y ago
      I think, the obvious thing to do in such a situation if you're fairly confident,( I know you said you weren't) is to engage another underemployed coder and then share the profits. I see that you have put your contact information on your profile, hopefully someone will contact you. By the way, speaking about this subject, I'm reminded about the War Apms : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_Amps https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_Amps

Glench 4y ago

Hey, sorry to hear about your situation. I'm in a similar boat — very low and variable ability to work for a couple years. I haven't seen this suggestion elsewhere in the thread and it's worked ok for me so I'll mention it. I started a small SaaS. It was initially a decent chunk of work (as you indicated in the section about monetizing applications you've written), but now provides consistent income that's not tied to my time or, critically, my energy levels. And even the initial push wasn't that bad since I spread out a lot of the work over time to match my abilities. My physical difficulties were actually kind of a blessing in a way because it forced me to do things that were absolutely critical and cut out everything else. Needless to say, making a SaaS is an art and a risky one. It requires a good eye for applications that will make money, practice validating ideas and solutions, ways of acquiring new users, ongoing customer support and feature development, etc. One way you might de-risk a SaaS is by doing contract work for companies that give you insights into problems they're having and help you build solutions while still getting paid until you can spin out an app. I actually think browser extensions are also an underappreciated way to get started indie hacking but I'm biased: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/why-browser-extensions-are-a-good-way-to-start-indie-hacking-d534627540 https://www.indiehackers.com/post/why-browser-extensions-are... Anyway, stay positive, friend! It's hard to be in our position without an ongoing practice of self-compassion and positivity.

redskull 4y ago

disability caps out at 185 or 195? (One of these two numbers) a week...where are you getting 1200 from?

marcus0x62 4y ago
OP is probably on SSDI. Max payout per month is $3627. Average payment is $1358/month. https://evansdisability.com/blog/social-security-disability-benefits-pay-chart/ https://evansdisability.com/blog/social-security-disability-...
Madmallard 4y ago
I'm referring to SSDI and private disability companies in the United States. Particularly, phone calls with representatives from these companies. It may very well be different now I haven't exactly asked about it in a couple of years now. Before it was 20% of your pre-disability income per month. Since I was a software engineer, that came up to around $1200. If I google it looks like $1470 for SSDI in 2023 is your maximum earnable income in 2023. But I haven't really tried to even meet these numbers for fear of losing disability coverage by some shady for-profit disability company means.

encoderer 4y ago

Remote email/chat based technical support could be an option. Mostly repetitive and rote but it would give you the chance to use some detective skills and help a few people.

wing-_-nuts 4y ago

I'm a software developer with cerebral palsy. I hope you don't take this question the wrong way, but what sort of condition disables you from working as a software developer? I only ask because I worked very hard to get into this career imagining that it would be almost impossible to be disabled enough that I could not write code without some sort of cognitive impairment. Your post suggests I'm missing a risk factor I haven't accounted for?

sterlind 4y ago
Possible factors: Too many doctor's appointments. Severe fatigue. Progressive illness with increasing disability. Issues typing. Personally, I have hEDS, nTOS and thoracic myelopathy. I was barely able to type for months. There's dictation software, but the learning curve is substantial, everything becomes slow and error-prone, and you have to spend much of your concentration on dictation itself. That and fatigue kept me from working for six months while I rehabbed and adapted.
tptacek 4y ago
This is none of our business.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
skinnymuch 4y ago
I can give my story. I’ll try to be succinct. I got my problems while rich at 17. I was kicked out of high school and then community college so that hurt. I was told I had no issues by free clinic people. By 23 I was broke and had not paid any taxes. That excluded me from some help. My anxiety took care of the rest — I had nothing. I did nothing. I sat around in the bubble that is my parent’s upper middle class house worried about everything. I lived below the poverty line until last year. Many years I made nothing. I believe I was disabled and am still disabled. I found left wing politics and felt more at home. They provided answers to why my life had been so bad. Same politics convinced me I have to start working soon. There’s no excuse. So I began a tech interview bootcamp to break into the industry. I’ve programmed for for years (freelance a bit, partial SaaS attempts, community projects, half done portfolio projects). I am sure I will be fine from here on out. I don’t think you’re missing anything. I don’t know about cerebral palsy but I’m sure you will always have work. Good job succeeding at life even with cerebral palsy!

flanbiscuit 4y ago

2018 is not that long ago. I know things develop fast in technology but doesn't mean every single company hiring is keeping up. I would look into agency work and look for agencies that deal with boring enterprise clients. For instance, I used to work for an agency that strictly served pharmaceutical clients. I did full-stack but there were co-workers that only handled front-end, and I'm not talking about modern front-ends using React/Vue/etc, I'm talking about people writing just HTML and CSS, no build steps. These sites ranged from the simplest front-ends ("brochure websites") with simple forms to capture data, to the most basic CRUD app. This is not sexy work but it pays well and can be easy for the more experienced devs. I eventually left because I needed to learn more and do harder things, but if you just need to make money it's not a bad place to work. Some places to start, there are few top mega companies (known as "the big four") that own most of the advertising companies in this space. Go to their sites and see which of their companies work in the "Health" space and then go to their individual sites and check out their posted jobs 1. IPG (Interpublic Group), look at the multiple "Health" options in the "Capabilities" dropdown on this page: https://www.interpublic.com/our-companies/ https://www.interpublic.com/our-companies/ 2. Publicis Groupe - https://www.publicisgroupe.com/en/services/services-publicis-health-en https://www.publicisgroupe.com/en/services/services-publicis... 3. WPP plc - look into the companies mentioned on this page: https://www.wpp.com/featured/work/list?topic=Healthcare%20and%20Pharma https://www.wpp.com/featured/work/list?topic=Healthcare%20an... 4. Omnicom Group - check out https://www.omnicomgroup.com/newsroom/agency/bbdo/ https://www.omnicomgroup.com/newsroom/agency/bbdo/

xtrohnx 4y ago

I've found myself doing a bit of side work for small non-profits, and they tend to use older CMSs for their sites. They also tend to not have anyone on staff who fully manages the website - it usually falls under whoever is in charge of marketing or development (in the non-profit sense). One non-profit in particular reached out to have me on a monthly retainer to just pop in to their WordPress site to make sure things are updated and there are no security issues. They also ask me to do some content updates if they're overwhelmed and not sure of the best way to do it. Time wise, I'll spend maybe 15-20 minutes a month going through their checklist of ToDos, and they send a small but consistent check each month. Maybe you could use your experience in CMS automation and reach out to a few smaller non-profits/businesses to see if you might be able to get a similar situation going? It could be a win-win; you can pull a consistent amount every month, and it's a huge relief to the marketing coordinator to not have to deal with administration they're not comfortable with.

AlwaysRock 4y ago

outco is almost always hiring for tech coaches. Lots of bootcamps are always hiring for coaches. It really doesnt mater what your background is, you will probably know more than the typical person coming through the progress. These are typically 1099 or part time W-2 positions which allow you to pick your hours.

gigatexal 4y ago

Maybe this could help get you by? https://www.userinterviews.com/hello https://www.userinterviews.com/hello disclaimer: I have no relationship with them. I just heard they were a sponsor of Talk Python To Me -- a podcast I listen to and I thought the idea was interesting.

gigatexal 4y ago

Also have you considered becoming a remote-actuary? We refi'd our house in the US and had to sign documents while living in Berlin and the bank allowed the use of an actuary which we found via a broker online -- I can't remember which. Apparently they can make decent money and you can decide how many gigs to take.

sixhobbits 4y ago

a few people mentioned technical writing so I will also just plug my repo quickly which has my favourite resources to learn more about tech writing and also a list of companies that pay for it (often per article so very flexible). https://github.com/sixhobbits/technical-writing https://github.com/sixhobbits/technical-writing

nubb 4y ago

unpopular opinion on hn but crypto and web3 is an amazing industry

bonestamp2 4y ago

Depending on your disability, you might already be qualified to be an expert consultant on software development to accommodate users with your disability. If not, that's fine too, and you can quickly become knowledgeable in disability consulting for web applications (how to structure html/css so that pages can be read by screen readers). There is a lot of work in this field and when you're really good, you can make that $1200 in one day. If a particular job requires several days of work, you could ask the client if you can bill them $1200 at a time over several months.

maerF0x0 4y ago

I'm not certain about the accounting details in the USA, but at least in Canada starting a company is a fantastic way to control your income to keep you subthreshold (you pay yourself at the threshold, and defer excess income to future years) Perhaps someone more aware of US Law could confirm/correct this line of thinking.

zackmorris 4y ago

Here are some tangible options, depending on whether your disability status allows them: * Donating plasma: up to $900/month in my city, note that they may be able to work around medication(s), but it might be considered taxable income: https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/tax-credits-deductions/discussion/plasma-donation-as-taxable-income/00/754466 https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/tax-credits-deductions/dis... * Bacon (no affiliation): usually temp and handyman work, but it's worth signing up to see if they offer clerical/remote work as part of an anti-discrimination effort for the disabled: https://www.baconwork.com https://www.baconwork.com * Support others in your situation: your technical skills are in high demand at agencies that advocate for the disabled, perhaps you could contact someone at: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/disability-employment/ https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/disability-employm... I would add that I struggled for many of the last 20 years under a scarcity mindset. But reconnecting as part of a community really helped me see that we all have equal dignity and a desire to be of service. For me, mustering the faith to try new things for a couple of weeks, while being mindful about setting boundaries and having fallback options, really helped get me back to healthy and sustainable work.

nelsonenzo 4y ago

Teaching conversational English online can easily earn $15-25/hr, especially if you have an American accent. The hours might be weird but once you have some students, they become consistent.

lukewrites 4y ago
To follow up on this, something completely overlooked in "teaching English" is being able to do language instruction in a specialist field. I did this for Lenovo employees in Beijing and earned much more per hour than any contract work recruiters shovel my way...and that was 12 years ago. As with anything, the hard work is finding the first jobs. Connect with China or Japan based folks and go from there. OP feel free to email me (my hn handle at icloud) if you'd like to talk more about this.

roundandround 4y ago

The semi-tech-savvy small business people I encounter tend to manage CMS, WordPress, etc, sites for less tech savvy small businesses as a kind of support contract. I think it has similar downsides as consulting except that it can provide a very fixed income while the amount of work to do varies instead of having income swings.

FlopV 4y ago

What's the best way to contact you? How many hours are you looking to reasonably put in?

Madmallard 4y ago
I put some contact information on my profile. We can discuss further from there.

bmo333 4y ago

Learn to trade. Trade stocks, options, or futures. Just pick one and get good at it. It takes 2-4 yrs to be profitable due to needed behavior changes and knowledge and experience needed.

aws_ls 4y ago

You say you have problem solving competence. Then if you can do 3 easy to medium algorithmic coding problems in 1.5 hours, you do stand a chance at some remote work companies like Toptal. You may have to brush up your skills to do a mock project as well. Example React for UI and a backend language (Python/Java/Go anything really). Also you can work part time via this, its not necessarily full time. Edit: Wish you good luck, whichever path you choose.

Madmallard 4y ago
I can solve hard algorithms questions. I've worked at FAANG. It's just not the problem unfortunately. I cannot actually work consistently due to my disability and because of the way disability is setup I cannot really work and get a 1099 or W2 or I risk losing coverage which is just entirely unacceptable right now.

funnygryn 4y ago

Hey, get in touch with me at andrea@techinterview.coach - we are expanding our coaches #s and it's a fun and rewarding side gig :)

schwartzworld 4y ago

If you're not working, you have lots of time to learn new things. Why limit yourself to your existing skill set? You don't mention vision issues, so frontend, which is what I do, is probably well within your reach.