5 ms·

I quit my job, sold my house, sold all my stuff and moved to a lazy beach town near the equator. Never felt happier, never felt more rested, never thought as cl

by nso 12y ago

I quit my job, sold my house, sold all my stuff and moved to a lazy beach town near the equator. Never felt happier, never felt more rested, never thought as clearly as I do now. Totally not answering you question when it comes to finishing the project, but sometimes you just have to call it quits because your health is more important than yet-another-website. If you are ever in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico -- give me a shout and we'll hang out :)

mattgreenrocks 12y ago
This is awesome. Do you still work?
nether 12y ago
How old are you?
elpachuco 12y ago
"Feo y sentido como los jarros de Oaxaca." Just a useful saying in Mexican Spanish when you want to poke fun at someone that has a thin skin. In english: Ugly and easy to break (thin skinned) like the mugs of Oaxaca.
toddrew 12y ago
I did the same. Mexico for a couple years (I love Mazunte and Zipolite!) then Guatemala and Chile. Actually moving back to Toronto from Guatemala in a few days after almost 5 years to work with a startup there. The thing I've found most effective to combat my own burnout has always been a change of scenery and behaviour and getting a fresh perspective on my work. I would recommend heading somewhere nice, warm, and cheap, and finish your project from there.
forgotpasswd3x 12y ago
What kind of income would I need to bring in to move to a place like that and live comfortably? How is your internet connection?
- toomuchtodo 12y ago
  About $10-15K/year.
- stingraycharles 12y ago
  I live in Cambodia. I pay $250 a month for a villa, electricity is around $20 a month and water is free. Food costs me around $5 a day -- which is a lot. You could live off $2 a day if you want. For internet I use a sattelite connection, which gives me 4mbit full duplex for $25 a month. Life is great, but after 10 months spending time here I feel like I'm still recovering from the rat race back home. I'm spending my full time on hacking away on Haskell projects, just learning for the sake of learning, and I feel that slowly I am starting to miss home again, so I'll probably return somewhere at the end of the year.
  - graeme 12y ago
    How did you arrange it? And is someone cooking/cleaning/shopping for you, or do you do that yourself?
    - ConSeannery 12y ago
      ...does your mom still cook/clean/shop for you? Other countries are not alien planets which are devoid of grocery stores and somewhere you can buy a broom. Just grab a backpack and go. This whole 'arrangement' thing is very american. Use hostelworld, go stay at some hostels for a while. Meet people and have an adventure. Backpack around your target country (or countries) and find a city you like. Ask the people that work at the hostel there how to get set up with a place. Or, get to a country and take language classes at a school somewhere and ask your professors.
      - graeme 12y ago
        This sort of comment isn't useful. You might have tried asking about my experiences before assuming things. I've lived in six different countries, I speak five languages. I've stayed in hostels, or in apartments, I've cooked for myself and I've had others cook for me. Right now I'm in production mode with my business, and having someone else cook is a massive boost to productivity. That's why I asked. Am not interested in hostel travel right now.
aerovistae 12y ago
Do you speak Spanish??
- mod 12y ago
  Not GP, but I moved to Costa Rica for a few months in 2013. Depending where you go, you can get away with very little to no English. I was in a (tiny) surfing town, Playa Grande. It gets a lot of foreign surfers, and so all the locals speak English. Many ex-pats live there year-round. Nearby is Tamarindo, very similar there, and a much bigger town. I can order food and ask for directions and have basic conversations in spanish, if they slow down for me--but I found speaking spanish was always just for fun, and virtually never a necessity.
  - czbond 12y ago
    Hey Thanks for posting - I'm thinking of doing the same in Costa Rica from Dallas,TX for a bit. What would a decent house to rent go for in the area?
    - mod 12y ago
      Depending on your level of luxury, you can rent for 300-2k per month. I stayed in this exact place: https://surfproperties.wordpress.com/house-for-rent-in-playa-grande-guanacaste-550mo-275week/ https://surfproperties.wordpress.com/house-for-rent-in-playa... The owners live a few steps away in their own home. The wife cleans your place once per week. The man will taxi you around as-needed (he charges normal rates, which are pretty high there--gas is expensive). They are FANTASTIC people, they made my stay much better than it might have been. There's a wall around the property and a gate that gets locked at night, but in all honesty, I've never felt safer anywhere in my life than I did in Playa Grande--wall or no wall. Edit: I paid $550/month for that place in the off-season. The prices listed seem a little high, they were going to charge me $600/month in season (US winter is their season, US summer is their winter, and it's pretty rainy).
  - ptaipale 12y ago
    I suppose you mean you can get away with little to no Spanish, so English is OK?
greggman 12y ago
I'd be really curious to hear your story. Clearly you're still reading HN once in a while. Are you doing your own projects? How much time do you spend on the computer vs other stuff? Was your burn out the computer itself or just doing stuff on it you didn't want to do for other people? I quit 19 months ago and have been traveling and goofing off since. I can't say it's made me any happier. I spent 9 months last year working on my own project which was kind of fun but also kind of not fun. Looking back over my life so far what I think I need is (a) more balance as in stuff not computing and (b) partners as in when I am computing I don't want to be alone. I want to collaborate with a few people at the same location I really like working with on something we all want to do. I'm not sure how to get from where I am to that though except to go to meetups, hackathons, etc and hope I meet some guys before I run out of money and need a job again. not sure if any of that helps the OP.
akuma73 12y ago
Maybe this should be another Ask-HN question... How do you escape the rat race? What are the logistics? Cost of living? Taxes? Immigration? etc...
- toomuchtodo 12y ago
  https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence combined with https://www.reddit.com/r/digitalnomad https://www.reddit.com/r/digitalnomad
toomuchtodo 12y ago
> Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico I'm absolutely shocked at how good the google street view coverage is of that entire city/area.
oulu2006 12y ago
Sounds like a great plan; I'm moving to Brazil for a bit to do the same thing. Not for too long the first time, but with an intention to scope out the place and find some incubators I can hack in; been learning portuguese for the last year to make it easier for me to do. I found English fluency was a lot less in Brazil than it was in other non-english speaking countries I had been to.
- anonymous_ 12y ago
  Hey, Brazil is big. Any idea where you're going to?
- rafaelnco 12y ago
  If you've got the chance to do some travel, check these out: http://revistapegn.globo.com/Como-comecar/fotos/2014/11/conheca-14-melhores-cidades-brasileiras-para-abrir-um-negocio.html http://revistapegn.globo.com/Como-comecar/fotos/2014/11/conh...
- karaujo 12y ago
  Don't come to Sao Paulo, we don't have water here. It's not raining enough lately.
yanokwa 12y ago
Ha! I also sold all my stuff and I'm in Puerto Escondido too. Wanna grab a beer?
- nandemo 12y ago
  Looks like that puerto isn't very escondido after all...
robodale 12y ago
You, sir, are living my dream. It's gonna be Puerto Morelos, Quintana Roo, Mexico for me.

by nso 12y ago

mattgreenrocks 12y ago

This is awesome. Do you still work?

nether 12y ago

How old are you?

elpachuco 12y ago

"Feo y sentido como los jarros de Oaxaca." Just a useful saying in Mexican Spanish when you want to poke fun at someone that has a thin skin. In english: Ugly and easy to break (thin skinned) like the mugs of Oaxaca.

toddrew 12y ago

I did the same. Mexico for a couple years (I love Mazunte and Zipolite!) then Guatemala and Chile. Actually moving back to Toronto from Guatemala in a few days after almost 5 years to work with a startup there. The thing I've found most effective to combat my own burnout has always been a change of scenery and behaviour and getting a fresh perspective on my work. I would recommend heading somewhere nice, warm, and cheap, and finish your project from there.

forgotpasswd3x 12y ago

What kind of income would I need to bring in to move to a place like that and live comfortably? How is your internet connection?

toomuchtodo 12y ago
About $10-15K/year.
stingraycharles 12y ago
I live in Cambodia. I pay $250 a month for a villa, electricity is around $20 a month and water is free. Food costs me around $5 a day -- which is a lot. You could live off $2 a day if you want. For internet I use a sattelite connection, which gives me 4mbit full duplex for $25 a month. Life is great, but after 10 months spending time here I feel like I'm still recovering from the rat race back home. I'm spending my full time on hacking away on Haskell projects, just learning for the sake of learning, and I feel that slowly I am starting to miss home again, so I'll probably return somewhere at the end of the year.
- graeme 12y ago
  How did you arrange it? And is someone cooking/cleaning/shopping for you, or do you do that yourself?
  - ConSeannery 12y ago
    ...does your mom still cook/clean/shop for you? Other countries are not alien planets which are devoid of grocery stores and somewhere you can buy a broom. Just grab a backpack and go. This whole 'arrangement' thing is very american. Use hostelworld, go stay at some hostels for a while. Meet people and have an adventure. Backpack around your target country (or countries) and find a city you like. Ask the people that work at the hostel there how to get set up with a place. Or, get to a country and take language classes at a school somewhere and ask your professors.
    - graeme 12y ago
      This sort of comment isn't useful. You might have tried asking about my experiences before assuming things. I've lived in six different countries, I speak five languages. I've stayed in hostels, or in apartments, I've cooked for myself and I've had others cook for me. Right now I'm in production mode with my business, and having someone else cook is a massive boost to productivity. That's why I asked. Am not interested in hostel travel right now.

aerovistae 12y ago

Do you speak Spanish??

mod 12y ago
Not GP, but I moved to Costa Rica for a few months in 2013. Depending where you go, you can get away with very little to no English. I was in a (tiny) surfing town, Playa Grande. It gets a lot of foreign surfers, and so all the locals speak English. Many ex-pats live there year-round. Nearby is Tamarindo, very similar there, and a much bigger town. I can order food and ask for directions and have basic conversations in spanish, if they slow down for me--but I found speaking spanish was always just for fun, and virtually never a necessity.
- czbond 12y ago
  Hey Thanks for posting - I'm thinking of doing the same in Costa Rica from Dallas,TX for a bit. What would a decent house to rent go for in the area?
  - mod 12y ago
    Depending on your level of luxury, you can rent for 300-2k per month. I stayed in this exact place: https://surfproperties.wordpress.com/house-for-rent-in-playa-grande-guanacaste-550mo-275week/ https://surfproperties.wordpress.com/house-for-rent-in-playa... The owners live a few steps away in their own home. The wife cleans your place once per week. The man will taxi you around as-needed (he charges normal rates, which are pretty high there--gas is expensive). They are FANTASTIC people, they made my stay much better than it might have been. There's a wall around the property and a gate that gets locked at night, but in all honesty, I've never felt safer anywhere in my life than I did in Playa Grande--wall or no wall. Edit: I paid $550/month for that place in the off-season. The prices listed seem a little high, they were going to charge me $600/month in season (US winter is their season, US summer is their winter, and it's pretty rainy).
- ptaipale 12y ago
  I suppose you mean you can get away with little to no Spanish, so English is OK?

greggman 12y ago

I'd be really curious to hear your story. Clearly you're still reading HN once in a while. Are you doing your own projects? How much time do you spend on the computer vs other stuff? Was your burn out the computer itself or just doing stuff on it you didn't want to do for other people? I quit 19 months ago and have been traveling and goofing off since. I can't say it's made me any happier. I spent 9 months last year working on my own project which was kind of fun but also kind of not fun. Looking back over my life so far what I think I need is (a) more balance as in stuff not computing and (b) partners as in when I am computing I don't want to be alone. I want to collaborate with a few people at the same location I really like working with on something we all want to do. I'm not sure how to get from where I am to that though except to go to meetups, hackathons, etc and hope I meet some guys before I run out of money and need a job again. not sure if any of that helps the OP.

akuma73 12y ago

Maybe this should be another Ask-HN question... How do you escape the rat race? What are the logistics? Cost of living? Taxes? Immigration? etc...

toomuchtodo 12y ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence combined with https://www.reddit.com/r/digitalnomad https://www.reddit.com/r/digitalnomad

toomuchtodo 12y ago

> Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico I'm absolutely shocked at how good the google street view coverage is of that entire city/area.

oulu2006 12y ago

Sounds like a great plan; I'm moving to Brazil for a bit to do the same thing. Not for too long the first time, but with an intention to scope out the place and find some incubators I can hack in; been learning portuguese for the last year to make it easier for me to do. I found English fluency was a lot less in Brazil than it was in other non-english speaking countries I had been to.

anonymous_ 12y ago
Hey, Brazil is big. Any idea where you're going to?
rafaelnco 12y ago
If you've got the chance to do some travel, check these out: http://revistapegn.globo.com/Como-comecar/fotos/2014/11/conheca-14-melhores-cidades-brasileiras-para-abrir-um-negocio.html http://revistapegn.globo.com/Como-comecar/fotos/2014/11/conh...
karaujo 12y ago
Don't come to Sao Paulo, we don't have water here. It's not raining enough lately.

yanokwa 12y ago

Ha! I also sold all my stuff and I'm in Puerto Escondido too. Wanna grab a beer?

nandemo 12y ago
Looks like that puerto isn't very escondido after all...

robodale 12y ago

You, sir, are living my dream. It's gonna be Puerto Morelos, Quintana Roo, Mexico for me.