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Ask HN: Should I find a job or try to build a profitable project?

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Re: Ask HN: Should I find a job or try to build a profitable project?

#71

Post by accrual »

zaqwsxcde12 wrote: post #64

Take that 60K, go travel the world, it will go a long long way if you are thrifty about it. See how you feel about your project when you come back or work on it while traveling. Bet you will feel different whether your projects survives or not. Ignore all this you need to buy a house garbage, do you want to spend your life investing for your retirement, for when your dick wont work or live now, that is the question.…

This comment resonates with me. Is there a good resource for packing up your life and traveling for a while?

Background: I have a great and interesting remote job but the workload is high relative to the salary. I have 1 years salary saved. I could ask for a raise, but I would much rather spend a year traveling and improving myself.

Re: Ask HN: Should I find a job or try to build a profitable project?

#72

Post by gere »

rubicon33 wrote: post #33

Similar boat to you. Had the exact same question in my life. I decided for a totally different option, lets call it option #4: #4 Take an "easy" programming job and use your spare time on nights/weekends to build a software business. I chose this option because I wasn't willing to risk my savings. Plain and simple. I want to retire some day, and blowing 60k for a ~5% chance at making a profitable business wasn't wort…

This is a sensible advice, but how do you recognize an easy programming job?

Re: Ask HN: Should I find a job or try to build a profitable project?

#73

Post by mooreds »

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 routes, some outlined in other comments. In particular I spent years as a contractor/consultant on my own. It paid the bills and gave me a ton of freedom.

Re: Ask HN: Should I find a job or try to build a profitable project?

#74

Post by croh »

achingtooth wrote: post #69
csomar wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in a dirt-cheap country and I find it hard to believe that you can survive on $400/month. Do you take a trip back home? Do you factor in the price of your laptop/phone? Does this include clothes/medical expenses? Also, what country are you living in?

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 ?

Re: Ask HN: Should I find a job or try to build a profitable project?

#75

Post by mattmanser »

nathan11 wrote: post #18
driven20 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea, I'm not sure they are great ideas. My reasoning for the productivity app is because I want to build something I personally need and I haven't found a good solution. The yelp-like app is because I know I want to work with small businesses. I just don't know exactly how yet. So, you're right. I need to spend more time on my ideas. Thanks!

Be careful with the "build X for small businesses". It's deceptive to look around at small businesses, see them using bad tools and think there's opportunity there. The truth is there's usually a reason--the small businesses aren't willing to pay for better.

It's hard to find them too, it's better to build something where they come looking for you.

Re: Ask HN: Should I find a job or try to build a profitable project?

#76

Post by jlelonm »

gere wrote: post #72
rubicon33 wrote: post #33

Similar boat to you. Had the exact same question in my life. I decided for a totally different option, lets call it option #4: #4 Take an "easy" programming job and use your spare time on nights/weekends to build a software business. I chose this option because I wasn't willing to risk my savings. Plain and simple. I want to retire some day, and blowing 60k for a ~5% chance at making a profitable business wasn't wort…

This is a sensible advice, but how do you recognize an easy programming job?

It's hard to from the outside, but I would guess the biggest factor that correlates with easy is amount of red tape. The more bureaucratic, the more non-work is done in place of actual work, the easier the job.

So I'd say large corporations or government jobs would skew easier. Maybe work for a large government organization?

Re: Ask HN: Should I find a job or try to build a profitable project?

#77

Post by [deleted] »

gwbas1c wrote: post #42

Been there, done that. Honestly, it depends on your life goals and motivations. In my case, I tried starting a business for the wrong reasons, and realized that I'd rather be an early employee in someone else's startup; or be a co-founder in a very small team. When I was single, a full time job and side projects were perfectly fine. Once I met my wife, I didn't have a lot of time for side projects. The relationship j…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Should I find a job or try to build a profitable project?

#78

Post by jlelonm »

JamesBarney wrote: post #7
rognjen wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't entirely agree with this. I think it's useful to build a proof of concept even without any follow-up plans or objectives. Besides the fact that it'll be easier to visualize and present the idea to people, the act of building a proof of concept or a real MVP would be learning experiences themselves. In fact thinking about what's to be included as part of the MVP and prioritizing to fit within a pre-set deadlin…

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?

Re: Ask HN: Should I find a job or try to build a profitable project?

#80

Post by cageface »

jhabdas wrote: post #66
cageface wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah. I spent the better part of two years building something I really wanted to build that I thought people would really want to buy. Turned out I was wrong. If you're burning through your own savings you need to find out as early as possible if there actually is any real demand for your product.

That sucks. Did you open source it, at least?

I wrote a bunch of custom audio DSP code that I still tell myself I’m going to do something with one day.
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