181–190 of 197 posts
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> Made money off being the 100th engineer at a company which had a huge IPO ($2m+) If you don't mind, can I ask for clarification: I'm assuming that the "$2m+" was your stock option worth, and the company itself IPO'd for a much larger number (a few billions)?
yes, $2m+ was my take after taxes (california). Yes, company IPO'd for many billions.
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> No cofounder = no accelerator = constantly stuck in neutral. I cofounded a startup that was eventually sold for $64 million. My cofounder forced me out of the company and stole all of my equity from me, costing me nearly $13M. So cofounders are not all they're cracked up to be. As for the general negative tone, businesses fail - you don't, unless you quit trying. My advice: work on something with a short path to re…
How well did you know the cofounder beforehand? This is very much part of my frustration. I put my pseudo-resume on CFL and got blasted with dozens of requests, so many that I had to put assholish "don't contact me unless" prerequisites on my profile. But here's the thing I've realized (and maybe you did, more painfully): I know not to get involved with a stranger or even an acquaintance that I haven't known for year…
I knew him very well....for about 5 years beforehand, and there are few entrepreneurs that come with a better resume and bankroll (which is why I agreed to take 20% of the company as a cofounder - he put up all the money and his history and contacts all but assured a successful exit).
What I didn't really know about was his temper and emotional issues when it came to business. He was essentially a completely different person. I thought I knew him well, and it turns out I wasn't even close. The beginning of the end turned out to be when one of his 7 ex-fiances (not exaggerating here btw) started flirting with me at a party and kept contacting me even after I told her it was a bad idea. I didn't reciprocate, but it didn't matter. After that, it all went downhill.
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I think the "bro" word is incredibly sexist towards men and negative. It's a cliché we're trying to accuse people of, and it doesn't cover the diversity of programmer styles and the desperation many of us are into about our sector not having enough women. We don't get stronger by repeating those humiliating words. I believe, if we want to reach peace, we must drop this word "brogrammer" and the idea of tagging people…
Labels are troublesome, but the specific use here seems appropriate: it's a man who is in a technical field and who people see as having an immature attitude towards women and perhaps even life in general. Sure, "not all men" and all that - but, well, yes this man.
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But in the areas you want to live, you just knock at a variety of doors. They're not places that have advertised? In Cuba I found a lot of places that offered all of the above, but they're a special case where you need a license to rent to foreigners. That's a good idea about getting a house and then contracting out for work. How do you deal with trust in those cases?
"They're not places that have advertised?" Correct, some of my best results were from just talking to people about finding a place, knocking on doors, etc. Trust is tough cause in one case I had rented a room which included a separate kitchen and bathroom/shower (reasonable for the price I was paying, $150). Well, the renter put another person in my room at one point, charging that person the same as me and therefore…
That's the benefit of doing the hostel thing and talking with people that have been where you're going. Some will say what's in your LP and some might have other suggestions. The staff as well -- they might have friends in another city or tell you where they stay, bc it's cheaper for them, and maybe hook you up.
There's also the AirBnB w/o paying: couchsurfing.org - which has been around a while.
personlurking mentioned Portugal - it's been a while but when I was in the Algarve during a summer trip there tended to be some little old ladies always letting their places out. They looked quite nice and, if you were staying a week or more, were reasonably priced. Even better if you find some companions.
Yes > How did you do it? By not wanting to own anything, living in cheap countries, and finding things that I absolutely love doing that also happen to make some money :) > What did it feel like when you first realised it was going to be true that you would never have to work again if you didn't want to? The realization happened a couple of weeks ago and it was incredible. Seriously. It felt like pure, absolute freed…
You ever listen to the "Travel Like A Boss" podcast? This is a show about location independent entrepreneurs who mostly do drop-shipping. A lot of them live in and around South East Asia and are from the U.S. It's a lifestyle that wasn't possible until the mid-2000s. These guys make $1000 a month from this online stores yet they live like kings in these low-rent countries. For me it's one of the most interesting soci…
I was able to keep my US salary, but we live much better here.
> How did you do it? I got extremely lucky. I got dragged kicking and screaming into being an early hire at Google. > What did it feel like when you first realised it was going to be true that you would never have to work again if you didn't want to? Kind of surreal. On the day of the IPO, one minute I was still a working stiff, and the next minute I was suddenly looking at an account with my name on it with more dig…
> How did you do it? I got extremely lucky. I got dragged kicking and screaming into being an early hire at Google. > What did it feel like when you first realised it was going to be true that you would never have to work again if you didn't want to? Kind of surreal. On the day of the IPO, one minute I was still a working stiff, and the next minute I was suddenly looking at an account with my name on it with more dig…
Ha. From your username I thought you might be Peter Norvig.
I feel obliged to comment, although not with my normal HN username. I’m 41. I retired two years ago at the age of 39. I spent 18 years working in Silicon Valley at four different companies of various sizes. At 29 I was promoted to a first-level manager. Two of the companies I worked for were successful while I was there, although not spectacularly so. Mostly I minimized my costs. For the last five years of my career,…
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Reading this post was very uncomfortable, especially the follow-ups describing women as having "no intellectual curiosity", but also the general tone. I was also perplexed at how many others described this as an ideal life -- perhaps they were just referring to the raw facts (lots of fun, dating, throwing good parties, etc.) and not actually adopting many of the implicit attitudes in there. Still, I couldn't help but…
I felt very much the same way reading this. I typically associate these actions (namely glorified partying and objectifying women) with severe lack of confidence, self awareness and, and individuality. These are not qualities I would expect from an emotionally mature 41 year old that is retired and happy. It sounds like iretired missed something early on (while 'busting his ass' presumably), and is trying to play cat…
I think he would get bored of that party life in another year or so, marry one of his girlfriends and move back to Silicon Valley for another venture.
Edit: I take it back. I missed couple of other iretired comments. Now he seems to be totally fake: much younger than 41, never been successful manager and never actually cashed out.
Dang is right: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7978950