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You probably should be looking for a job rather than attempting to go through Odesk. The problem with making a living on anything but a W2 is that the level of

by gexla 12y ago

You probably should be looking for a job rather than attempting to go through Odesk. The problem with making a living on anything but a W2 is that the level of difficulty goes way up. I imagine living in poverty while attempting to run a business is quite common, there is even a term for being modestly profitable - ramen profitable. Most people in your same position probably don't want to do that. You need someone who can take care of the "running a business" parts. Maybe that isn't so easy these days though, I don't know. You could do a search for posts by Patio11. He might even pop in as mentioning Odesk is the magical word to summon him. His posts are gold but they assume that you are actually into running a business. It's hard for me to weigh in on your social issues as I don't have the same problem. You generally get better with practice though. Are there meetups that you can go to? Are there support groups for people who have the same sorts of issues? Maybe you could start out with social events for people who share your traits and then branch out from there. ETA: I think most important is to be talking to people who share your condition. People who have been able to deal with it. Running a freelance / consulting business is hard enough. It's even more difficult when you add a condition like yours. The market right now (and possibly more so when you first got started) is such that its pretty easy to get development gigs, especially for those willing to work for cheap. That may not last forever though.

oregonic 12y ago
Thank you for your thoughtfulness. Reading blogs like Patio11's have always made me optimistic about being able to work for myself (when I looked him up and saw "Bingo Card Creator" I immediately remembered a post from years back that he wrote about bringing that product to market). If I am marketing myself for a full time job or a freelance gig, it seems like I need some kind of public personal built on social media to back up a resume. I don't have that kind of footprint, and I feel like I need to change that. If I tweet a bunch, ask/answer a bunch of questions on Stack Exchange, and create some useful library for a fashionable language on Github, does that solve this problem? Or is that a total simplification?
- patio11 12y ago
  it seems like I need some kind of public personal built on social media to back up a resume. Absolutely not required. Many of the best engineers I know don't maintain any social media accounts at all. Many more lurk rather than e.g. writing 500k words a year in a publicly visible fashion. Tweeting, answering questions on Stack Exchange, and creating a useful library does not cause engagements to magically offer themselves to you. Convincing people that you can create something which makes their business better is, generally, what gets one engagements. If one hypothetically wants to, one can create online artifacts which tend to widen the funnel for inbound interest, but then you still have to sell the inbound leads on working with you. Even if you have 500k+ words of fairly high quality online, you still might find yourself getting most actual consulting leads in meatspace. (This was true for me.) Many folks have no substantial inbound interest from folks wanting them to work, and have to meet people in e.g. meetups, conferences, and the local community to get engagements. That's not the worse thing in the world. I personally rapidly lose capability to continue high-level interactions after the first hour or two, but luckily an hour or two is all you need to put up with for e.g. a client meeting or a meetup. If you can't do an hour, do thirty minutes and leave early. If you can't do thirty minutes, do ten minutes, and work your way up.
  - dennisgorelik 12y ago
    > rapidly lose capability to continue high-level interactions after the first hour or two Good self-observation. I think I can handle it a little bit longer, but after 3+ hours of intensive conversation with new people I notice that: 1) I still enjoy conversation. 2) Still understand all the words. 3) Have hard time to grasp new ideas in conversation (due to mental overload) in spite that the ideas should have been reasonably easy to understand.
  - oregonic 12y ago
    Thank you for your reply and thank you for correcting me on this misconception. It seems I am putting too much energy into trying to fix a perceived problem instead of focusing on the more pressing concern of actual socialization. Your time limit advice is solid. I can do an hour, maybe even 2 with fellow nerds before I get too overstimulated. I almost forgot I am capable of this, so thanks for the reminder. It makes me feel better about getting a job since I should have some time to recoup in my cube in between meetings if there aren't constant interrupts. Maybe a job with constant interrupts and/or meetings I should just avoid.

by gexla 12y ago

oregonic 12y ago

Thank you for your thoughtfulness. Reading blogs like Patio11's have always made me optimistic about being able to work for myself (when I looked him up and saw "Bingo Card Creator" I immediately remembered a post from years back that he wrote about bringing that product to market). If I am marketing myself for a full time job or a freelance gig, it seems like I need some kind of public personal built on social media to back up a resume. I don't have that kind of footprint, and I feel like I need to change that. If I tweet a bunch, ask/answer a bunch of questions on Stack Exchange, and create some useful library for a fashionable language on Github, does that solve this problem? Or is that a total simplification?

patio11 12y ago
it seems like I need some kind of public personal built on social media to back up a resume. Absolutely not required. Many of the best engineers I know don't maintain any social media accounts at all. Many more lurk rather than e.g. writing 500k words a year in a publicly visible fashion. Tweeting, answering questions on Stack Exchange, and creating a useful library does not cause engagements to magically offer themselves to you. Convincing people that you can create something which makes their business better is, generally, what gets one engagements. If one hypothetically wants to, one can create online artifacts which tend to widen the funnel for inbound interest, but then you still have to sell the inbound leads on working with you. Even if you have 500k+ words of fairly high quality online, you still might find yourself getting most actual consulting leads in meatspace. (This was true for me.) Many folks have no substantial inbound interest from folks wanting them to work, and have to meet people in e.g. meetups, conferences, and the local community to get engagements. That's not the worse thing in the world. I personally rapidly lose capability to continue high-level interactions after the first hour or two, but luckily an hour or two is all you need to put up with for e.g. a client meeting or a meetup. If you can't do an hour, do thirty minutes and leave early. If you can't do thirty minutes, do ten minutes, and work your way up.
- dennisgorelik 12y ago
  > rapidly lose capability to continue high-level interactions after the first hour or two Good self-observation. I think I can handle it a little bit longer, but after 3+ hours of intensive conversation with new people I notice that: 1) I still enjoy conversation. 2) Still understand all the words. 3) Have hard time to grasp new ideas in conversation (due to mental overload) in spite that the ideas should have been reasonably easy to understand.
- oregonic 12y ago
  Thank you for your reply and thank you for correcting me on this misconception. It seems I am putting too much energy into trying to fix a perceived problem instead of focusing on the more pressing concern of actual socialization. Your time limit advice is solid. I can do an hour, maybe even 2 with fellow nerds before I get too overstimulated. I almost forgot I am capable of this, so thanks for the reminder. It makes me feel better about getting a job since I should have some time to recoup in my cube in between meetings if there aren't constant interrupts. Maybe a job with constant interrupts and/or meetings I should just avoid.