111–120 of 125 posts
Another "been there, done that". If I could give advice to my 30 year old self, without doubt, it'll be: #1. Focus on finding the right job that works for you and pays the bills. Once you are back to feeling good start a side project.
I highly advise u choose safe routine, while spend your spare time on side projects. You can always find sparks on HN or Indiehackers websites, or some Internet Marketing related forums. Do you know PHP and wordpress? I personally have a very big project idea, but only need a very very high level technique involving design a wordpress plugin using PHP, if this can be done, it would be a very good side project and pas…
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Building a proof of concept is an incredibly expensive way to figure out what clients want. And many times you find out you're so far off that none of the project is reusable. Also plenty of clients will take meeting without an proof of concept. And this is especially true when you have a really good idea.
What is the better way to figure out what clients want? Conversations?
Before you write a line of code for #2, have a clear strategy for app distribution, user acquisition, free to paid conversion. It won’t just happen because you have a great product. Just remember to make a million a year, you need 10,000 people paying you $10 a month.
Or one person paying you 1 million...
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I don't take trips back home, I don't have a phone, I don't have health insurance, I have one pair of clothes and gym clothes. I have an 10 year old x200 ThinkPad that cost $90. It's very fast, I use Arch Linux+Libreboot+Vim. I've live in Ukraine, Moldova, Macedonia, Romania and Serbia. Normally I stay in Ukraine or Moldova though. My expenses are between $150-250 for housing (I live in youth hostels or Airbnb, I tra…
Very cool. What kind of work do you do? Also, do you speak Russian or just basic Russian to barely get by?
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I don't take trips back home, I don't have a phone, I don't have health insurance, I have one pair of clothes and gym clothes. I have an 10 year old x200 ThinkPad that cost $90. It's very fast, I use Arch Linux+Libreboot+Vim. I've live in Ukraine, Moldova, Macedonia, Romania and Serbia. Normally I stay in Ukraine or Moldova though. My expenses are between $150-250 for housing (I live in youth hostels or Airbnb, I tra…
Love to know more about you. Anyway to connect or blogging ?
Another "been there, done that". If I could give advice to my 30 year old self, without doubt, it'll be: #1. Focus on finding the right job that works for you and pays the bills. Once you are back to feeling good start a side project.
care to share how you come to that conclusion?
Slowly realised that nowadays, for us techies, there's a much better way of having a good life. Just find the right job (look long and hard), get paid well, hone your skills. I wasted a lot of time.
I wouldn't make any decisions while burnt out. Take some time and recover. Then I think you need to think about where you want to go in your career. Do you enjoy development and want to do nothing else? Don't start a business, because you'll end up doing a lot of other things. Are you interested in the control and passionate about your solution of your own business? Then start a company. Note that there's many other…
Any links or resources on getting started as a contractor/consultant?
Is a good one, though high level.
For nuts and bolts I don't have a good recommendation, other than take other software contractors to lunch and take a lot of notes.
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Very cool. What kind of work do you do? Also, do you speak Russian or just basic Russian to barely get by?
I can't speak any language other than English. I've never had any issues. You can generally get what you mean across by pointing and/or shaking your head
Start with contracting instead of getting a job. A contract will give you more flexibility to work on side projects since you have control over where and when you work while also providing cash flow. It will also teach you important skills on creating and running a business. If you can't sell yourself as a contractor, you will have a hard time selling your product. Once you have cash flow, start with trying to sell y…
Any tips on contracting? I have only got contracts through recruiters. Can you get them directly with the company?
Otherwise focus on a niche and build a brand that isn't based on your own name. That way other companies aren't assuming when they work with you they will only work with you. 1-to-1 interactions make scaling very difficult. If you've already done that, then it's time learn how to find your customers, understand their problems and how to solve them, market to them and sell. This is much easier when you focus on a niche rather than being a generalist programmer that can do anything.
Since this is an old comment, it's probably not worth going into the details here. If you're seriously interested, I'd be happy to help answer questions from my experience. Feel free to find my contact info from the website in my profile and reach out.