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Homeless alone

homelessalone.blogspot.com

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Re: Homeless alone

#101

Post by [deleted] »

k-mcgrady wrote: post #21
lowglow wrote: post #2

I recently sold everything I owned and started living out of my converted dodge caravan while I was prototyping what I wanted to build next. With an eye on my burn rate, I lived as cheaply as possible. I can tell you without a doubt that there is no natural system in place for homeless to get out of that rut, and it looks and feels dehumanizing. I wasn't completely broke but I couldn't keep affording rent as expensiv…

I'm not trying to be rude when asking this but why would you choose to become homeless to prototype a business/product?? I've seen this come up several times on HN over the last few years and every time it blows my mind, especially when the person then goes on to talk about how difficult life is. I'm guessing you're in tech as you're on HN - why not keep your day job and work on your business from 7pm-3am every night…

[deleted]

Re: Homeless alone

#102

Post by abalashov »

rubidium wrote: post #39
toomuchtodo wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can tell you without a doubt that there is no natural system in place for homeless to get out of that rut What would such a system look like? EDIT: Totally serious question. To build something, you must first architect it.

There are three legs to that stool: stable living situation, stable job, stable transportation. Without all three you can't get better. There's a guy I know who runs a business employing homeless. His rule is he never fires anyone. He understands that without a home/transportation, it can be impossible to make it to work. That gives them one stable leg to try and build the rest of their life from.

> His rule is he never fires anyone.

Just out of curiosity: what about reasons unrelated to absenteeism, like some sort of gross misconduct, drug or alcohol abuse on the job, untenable behavioural or psychiatric issues stemming from that, etc?

Re: Homeless alone

#103

Post by kaeluka »

stcredzero wrote: post #91
kaeluka wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You won't slap me in the face because you've got something to lose. A house, family, job, .. Someone homeless hasn't! edit: typo corrected!

No. Please believe me, you still have something to lose. (BTW, lose != loose)

I was not clear: I wanted to say that this is how I think the "reasoning" goes. Obviously, almost everyone has got something to lose.

Re: Homeless alone

#104

Post by chinathrow »

e40 wrote: post #87
lowglow wrote: post #2

I recently sold everything I owned and started living out of my converted dodge caravan while I was prototyping what I wanted to build next. With an eye on my burn rate, I lived as cheaply as possible. I can tell you without a doubt that there is no natural system in place for homeless to get out of that rut, and it looks and feels dehumanizing. I wasn't completely broke but I couldn't keep affording rent as expensiv…

A cautionary tale of what this can lead to: My brother's startup wasn't bring in much money and there was always the near promise it would. He went through all his savings and retirement funds and went close to $100k into CC debt. This was a swing of +$1m to -$70k. Yes, he had a problem (unacknowledged, btw) that was more dire than yours. Just be aware that this stuff can get out of control, if you let it. After gett…

The AirBnB founders also maxed out multiple credit cards.

https://medium.com/cs183c-blitzscaling-class-collection/scal...

"Joe and I both had ~$30K in credit card debt and this is what we were using to fund the company."

Re: Homeless alone

#105

Post by tryitnow »

k-mcgrady wrote: post #21
lowglow wrote: post #2

I recently sold everything I owned and started living out of my converted dodge caravan while I was prototyping what I wanted to build next. With an eye on my burn rate, I lived as cheaply as possible. I can tell you without a doubt that there is no natural system in place for homeless to get out of that rut, and it looks and feels dehumanizing. I wasn't completely broke but I couldn't keep affording rent as expensiv…

I'm not trying to be rude when asking this but why would you choose to become homeless to prototype a business/product?? I've seen this come up several times on HN over the last few years and every time it blows my mind, especially when the person then goes on to talk about how difficult life is. I'm guessing you're in tech as you're on HN - why not keep your day job and work on your business from 7pm-3am every night…

Work on your business from 7pm to 3am every night? Let's say you work 9am to 6pm. Let's assume you have to get up at 8am, that gives you, very optimistically, 5 hours of sleep. Some people can survive on that. Even more people think they can survive on that and just end up becoming crazy people who nobody wants to be around. The vast majority of are simply not physically equipped to do that.

Re: Homeless alone

#106

Post by toomuchtodo »

joslin01 wrote: post #100
thesimon wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cheers. Probably makes sense considering the "freedom" mentality in the US where everyone has to work for himself compared to the welfare state mentality in Europe. Actually makes me feel a bit good for paying my taxes :)

I'm sure there's financial sense behind it too. Americans aren't just cowboys firing off their "freedom" guns at every major decision we come to.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugged_individualism

Which works fine until you realize you don't operate in a vacuum, and your destiny is influenced by forces outside of your control.

Re: Homeless alone

#107

Post by kwikiel »

homero wrote: post #59
beachstartup wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how can you devote 100% of yourself (or as much as is possible) to something when so much of your cognitive resources are devoted to surviving day to day? are you sure you've thought this through?

Hacker squats are getting more popular and are extremely important. All I need is $5/month for digital ocean. No other bills is freeing. While the Facebook slaves think their $100k salary is a lot but go into debt with $7000/month condos.

It's actually possible to run a startup entirely on 5$ droplet. I would suggest switching to Vultr (still 5$ but 0.75 GB and block storage and they accept bitcoin)

It's motivating to get that first paying clients quickly to pay for server. (ramen profitable)

Re: Homeless alone

#108

Post by lexhaynes »

k-mcgrady wrote: post #21
lowglow wrote: post #2

I recently sold everything I owned and started living out of my converted dodge caravan while I was prototyping what I wanted to build next. With an eye on my burn rate, I lived as cheaply as possible. I can tell you without a doubt that there is no natural system in place for homeless to get out of that rut, and it looks and feels dehumanizing. I wasn't completely broke but I couldn't keep affording rent as expensiv…

I'm not trying to be rude when asking this but why would you choose to become homeless to prototype a business/product?? I've seen this come up several times on HN over the last few years and every time it blows my mind, especially when the person then goes on to talk about how difficult life is. I'm guessing you're in tech as you're on HN - why not keep your day job and work on your business from 7pm-3am every night…

My father has been homeless at times. I'm not sure why anyone would CHOOSE that path. Having a home, even if that means a bed in a shared room, or a small sublet in an apartment, is pretty crucial to one's sense of well-being and safety.

It's hard for me to understand how someone can get productive work done when they don't have a comfortable, safe place to rest their mind for a few hours.

Re: Homeless alone

#109

Post by vt240 »

vt240 wrote: post #16
Tharkun wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What happens after that?

At least in Washington State, unemployment payout is almost immediate, within two weeks of losing your job. You can use the time before it runs out to apply for other federal or state assistance programs. These may take longer and have more complex qualifications.

My only first hand experience is with Washington. When I was furloughed in 2008 it was relatively easy and pain free to receive benefits, at least by government standards. My room mate at the time was only able to find part time work in retail at the end of unemployment and was easily able to obtain supplemental food assistance from the state. I won't argue the rules and regulations are a complex mess. For example, I would think it would be easy and in the governments best interest to try and transition people from the unemployment program into school/university programs, but that is near impossible with the way the regulations are written.

Re: Homeless alone

#110

Post by Mz »

lowglow wrote: post #2

I recently sold everything I owned and started living out of my converted dodge caravan while I was prototyping what I wanted to build next. With an eye on my burn rate, I lived as cheaply as possible. I can tell you without a doubt that there is no natural system in place for homeless to get out of that rut, and it looks and feels dehumanizing. I wasn't completely broke but I couldn't keep affording rent as expensiv…

I am on the street for health reasons, not to start a business (and getting pretty grumpy about it), but if you find it that hard cope, you might want to check out my blog: http://sandiegohomelesssurvivalguide.blogspot.com/

People do realize I am homeless if they see me often enough, but they don't realize it upon meeting me the first time. I am less open about it than I used to be, because fuck prejudice and what judgey, uncampassionate, unhelpful assholes the vast majority of people are.

Best of luck.

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