Homeless alone • Hacker News Board

Re: Homeless alone

#181

Post by T2_t2 » Fri, May 06, 2016, 11:34 PM UTC

lowglow wrote: post #26

k-mcgrady wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

For me I've noticed a huge difference in creativity and authenticity in my products when I've devoted 100% of myself to it. There is a major problem in the industry. There is no one path to a successful business. I find my time is more valuable than my comfort. To each their own.

Why not Thailand? For $8 a night or less you get a bed, WiFi and living costs for food run in the dollars a day. $10 a day is possible, $20 a day is good living.

Even with the cost of a flight, that pays for itself in no time.

A Van just seems like so much hassle!

Re: Homeless alone

#182

Post by xyzzy4 » Fri, May 06, 2016, 11:36 PM UTC

joslin01 wrote: post #92

k-mcgrady wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can understand your point but you're not just giving up comfort - you're giving up something we all consider a basic necessity: shelter. I'm willing to bet the end result of your work, whether you do it your way, or do it part time, will be the same. I don't want to come off condescending but the attitude (and it's not unique to you, I've seen many other people with a similar attitude) seems like that of someone wh…

His Dodge Caravan is shelter, which is pretty fancy shelter if you were from a poor village in Africa so I think he'll be alright. If he's not brainwashed by pain = gain, then I think what he's doing is really cool.

That's not true, because in a poor village in Africa you'd have family to look after you and keep you well. You also won't have police harassing you all the time. Lastly, it is easier to find a legal and free place to use the bathroom in a poor African village.

Re: Homeless alone

#183

Post by dragonwriter » Fri, May 06, 2016, 11:37 PM UTC

JBReefer wrote: post #174

dragonwriter wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You go on welfare. If you have children, you may qualify for whatever your states implementation of Temporary Assistance for Needy Family (TANF) is -- which has a work requirement. If not, your jurisdiction may have a "General Assistance" program, but these tend to be very small benefits, and often restricted in how long someone deemed "employable", whether or not they actually can find employment, can be on them (…

What about compared to Singapore or Japan?

> What about compared to Singapore or Japan?

Not deeply familiar with either, but on review of a brief overview of the Japanese system it seems substantially more robust than the US system (though it also seems to have many similar structural difficulties.)

Re: Homeless alone

#184

Post by xyzzy4 » Fri, May 06, 2016, 11:39 PM UTC

duaneb wrote: post #171

sushid wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a highly absurd comment. No one I know is paying anything more than $3000/month and they all make well over $100k as software developers. I love how when people come up with these numbers they cite salary-only/pre-negotiation/entry-level income and then they compare this to a small-family sized rent expense to justify your "typical" SV absurdity. The fact is, many people make well over that with stock options…

3000/month is still absurd. I think 2000 is about the most you can justify on a 100k salary without having risking emergencies bankrupting you.

It depends also if the money is going towards rent or a mortgage. If it's the latter you can always sell your house to get more cash.

Re: Homeless alone

#185

Post by dragonwriter » Fri, May 06, 2016, 11:42 PM UTC

xyzzy4 wrote: post #184

duaneb wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

3000/month is still absurd. I think 2000 is about the most you can justify on a 100k salary without having risking emergencies bankrupting you.

It depends also if the money is going towards rent or a mortgage. If it's the latter you can always sell your house to get more cash.

> It depends also if the money is going towards rent or a mortgage. If it's the latter you can always sell your house to get more cash.

Not always, only if you have positive equity. Its quite possible to have a mortgage without that.

Re: Homeless alone

#186

Post by joslin01 » Fri, May 06, 2016, 11:42 PM UTC

toomuchtodo wrote: post #169

joslin01 wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you talking about? I said it probably makes financial sense too. I know the HN community abhors things like budgets getting in the way of universal healthcare & longer unemployment benefits, but there's a limit to what can be spent. Let me just say we should be spending a lot less money on war and a lot more money on welfare. Yet let me also say that the genesis of many ghettos was in a "war on poverty" that…

I wasn't referring to you in particular, but Americans as a whole. The thought that if you work hard, you will always succeed. This is not the case, of course. I agree with your post.

I just got done cleaning the dishes when I was like oh wait, maybe he wasn't referring to me? Sure enough. Sorry about that I understand now.

Re: Homeless alone

#187

Post by xyzzy4 » Fri, May 06, 2016, 11:46 PM UTC

bjkahn wrote: post #54

beachstartup wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you can easily do it if you have a bullshit dayjob, perhaps through no fault of your own (i.e. you work for a dysfunctional organization with tons of money and no direction) in fact... it's probably one of the best ways to launch a bootstrapped company. it's both the motivation and the sustenance to do something meaningful with your career. most people just surreptitiously look for a new job while on the clock, or di…

This sounds good. Did you specifically look for a dysfunctional organization or were you just lucky?

Look for a software company that believes heavily in Agile/Scrum and eats up half your time in Agile meetings.

Re: Homeless alone

#188

Post by xyzzy4 » Fri, May 06, 2016, 11:47 PM UTC

dragonwriter wrote: post #185

xyzzy4 wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends also if the money is going towards rent or a mortgage. If it's the latter you can always sell your house to get more cash.

> It depends also if the money is going towards rent or a mortgage. If it's the latter you can always sell your house to get more cash. Not always, only if you have positive equity. Its quite possible to have a mortgage without that.

Well it's probably foolish to go even more into debt with a mortgage if you are at risk of having a negative net worth.

Re: Homeless alone

#189

Post by ryanobjc » Fri, May 06, 2016, 11:48 PM UTC

chinathrow wrote: post #104

e40 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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."

I always see comments like this when people bring up failure stories. I get wanting to be positive, but surely at a certain point you're deluding yourself?

There is no comprehensive stats on this, but the big question is, of the people who went in to serious CC debt, how many of them became massive unicorn companies, or at least mildly successful?

Re: Homeless alone

#190

Post by dragonwriter » Fri, May 06, 2016, 11:48 PM UTC

xyzzy4 wrote: post #188

dragonwriter wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It depends also if the money is going towards rent or a mortgage. If it's the latter you can always sell your house to get more cash. Not always, only if you have positive equity. Its quite possible to have a mortgage without that.

Well it's probably foolish to go even more into debt with a mortgage if you are at risk of having a negative net worth.

> Well it's pretty foolish to go even more into debt with a mortgage if you are at risk of having a negative net worth.

Negative equity is usually something that happens after you take a mortgage. And whenever you take a mortgage, there is a risk of getting into a negative equity situation (though the degree of risk varies.)