8 ms·
This is exactly how I feel. The circumstances I live in are much worse than I could be the ones I could be living in (I'm currently living in the back of my Hon
by austenallred 13y ago
This is exactly how I feel. The circumstances I live in are much worse than I could be the ones I could be living in (I'm currently living in the back of my Honda Civic, parking somewhere in Palo Alto or Redwood City), but I don't care. I've honestly never been happier. I'm doing what I love, building something I feel is sorely needed, and that's all that really matters.
I sleep better now on the air mattress in the trunk of my car now than I did working a mind-numbing job and sleeping in a king-sized bed.
- dreamdu5t 13y agoHow long have you been doing this?
- austenallred 13y agoSo far one week in Silicon Valley, but I honestly feel it's sustainable. Park your car and sleep in it wherever there are other cars (no one notices you), work in the Hacker Dojo, shower at the Gold's Gym down the street in Mountain View. Total burn rate per month? $200-ish. http://www.austenallred.com/voluntarily-homeless-in-silicon-valley/ http://www.austenallred.com/voluntarily-homeless-in-silicon-...
- the_cat_kittles 13y agokeep that up for 5 years with a good engineer salary and you will be in really good shape!
- ambiate 13y agoThe cat kittles speaks the truth. Minimum living and investing 50% of your income into a 401k for 5-7 years in your twenties. Invest the other 35% or so into diverse CDs with ranging lock periods (or flipping things on craigslist, both have a decent ROI). Five or so years of pain for a solid path afterwards.
- s_baby 13y agoThat doesn't include the cost of wrecking your back from sleeping in the back of a honda civic.
- dredmorbius 13y agoWith a decent air mattress you should be OK. More back harm from failing to left. Squats and deads, my man.
- embwbam 13y agoI also highly recommend Wealthfront.com for super easy diversified investing. (Once you've maxed your HSA and IRA)
- _lex 13y agoI'd recommend vanguard.com . From what I can tell, wealthfront is largely repurchasing vanguard funds and selling them downstream.
- greghinch 13y agoAnd then when you are older and your body less resilient and your obligations much higher, you cash in and do all the fun, adventurous stuff you missed out on in your 20s, right? Concentrating on savings is betting against your own future earning potential. Generally this advice comes from people who always hate their jobs. Better advice: get a job you enjoy. You'll never work a day in your life
- bluehat 13y agoThere's a Dojo nomad community, we hooked Kurt up with them when he arrived, you may want to find them. They're good folks and offer each other great tips. But, for the love of christ, please don't sleep in the Dojo ever, it endangers our zoning. We've had enough trouble with that can of worms already, and I don't ever want to see the zoning board again except maybe at a nice party.
- austenallred 13y agoAwesome; I'd love to get hooked up with them. Also, I promise I will never sleep in the Dojo :)
- pyre 13y ago| please don't sleep in the Dojo ever, it | endangers our zoning That seems odd. I've heard of people sleeping in the office before, does that endanger the zoning of that particular company, or does the Hacker Dojo have specific circumstances?
- shin_lao 13y agoHow do you go to the toilets?
- austenallred 13y agoIn the Hacker Dojo
- joonix 13y agoI'm not the Parent but if I'm ever a transient I'll hold onto my $30/mo 24-Hour Fitness membership for dear life. Toilets and hot showers all over the country.
- jeffasinger 13y agoI imagine the parent has access to a coworking space during the day, and a 24 hour or similar fitness place for showers, bathrooms and exercise.
- jsonne 13y agoGood lord why? There are so many other tech hubs where housing is reasonable. How are you supposed to do your most inspired work if you can't get a decent night's sleep.
- brudgers 13y agoThere are theatre people in Milwaukee and Houston and DC. But if you want to be on Broadway, you gotta' bite the big apple. Des Moines is for sleeping.
- jsonne 13y agoI've seen some cool companies and some badass people come out of Des Moines. Don't knock it.
- brudgers 13y agoMy wife's family is from Iowa, but nobody would mistake Des Moines for the city that never sleeps. Even its most fervent partisans. That's the way analogies work.
- joonix 13y agoSilicon Valley is one big, dark, empty sleepy suburb at night. I don't think the liveliness of street culture has anything to do with a city's status as a tech hub. Personally I would want to be in Des Moines if I was selling agriculture software, or something like that. Parent's startup deals with journalism, perhaps better off in NYC. SV is not the end-all, be-all for everyone, especially since Parent is bootstrapping and the VC ecosystem means nothing to him.
- austenallred 13y agoJournalism - kind of, depending on your definition of journalism. And it's not a media play, it's a hard technology play, so SV is a better fit.
- blazespin 13y agoCool. So instead of a hacker house, we need a hacker parking lot. Or even better, a hacker parkade. Like in RPO, but maybe constructed a little better so you can drive in and out.
- mjmahone17 13y agoYou mean a trailer park? Like the ones that have been torn down to make room for luxury buildings?
- _lex 13y agoActually, a trailer park would probably be a huge deal. The biggest problem would always be knowing who just wants a cheap place to live vs a cheap place to hack.
- wiml 13y agoWhy do you want to make that distinction?
- jlgreco 13y agoBecause if he doesn't then the idea doesn't sound too interesting anymore. Communal or otherwise affordable non-traditional housing for people of like interests isn't a new concept and there is a lot to be said for it. Trailer parks for the general public are not a new concept either, and there is arguably much less to be said for them.