Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Homeless alone

homelessalone.blogspot.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

201–210 of 284 posts

Re: Homeless alone

#201

Post by st3v3r »

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.

They kinda are. There are a number of things that have been done elsewhere in the world with success, but when it comes to America, we have to be unique and special.

Re: Homeless alone

#202

Post by ilyaeck »

It's great that so many people are driven to help this guy: donate money, etc. But stories like this can/should to be leveraged to raise awareness and engage the society to solve this problem. In a country that prides itself on abundance and opportunities, homelessness is a disgrace to us all.

Startup folks - looking for a real problem to solve? How about a system to help pool people like this out of misery?

Re: Homeless alone

#203

Post by wutbrodo »

padmanabhan01 wrote: post #47
lowglow wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct. I had decided what I wanted to do with the time I have.

Aren't you hijacking the topic of homelessness here then? When people say homeless they don't mean someone who is homeless out of choice and can get out of it whenever they want to?

Wasn't his original comment about how his (atypical) experience not living in a house gave him a bit of an insight into some of the issues that "real" homelessness creates for people? I don't see anywhere that he claimed he was just as disadvantaged as the average homeless person or anything like that.

Re: Homeless alone

#204

Post by lighttower »

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…

Yours, sir, is one of the most human statements I've read in recent years.

Re: Homeless alone

#205

Post by lighttower »

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.

What did you build during that time?

Re: Homeless alone

#206

Post by toomuchtodo »

st3v3r wrote: post #201
joslin01 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They kinda are. There are a number of things that have been done elsewhere in the world with success, but when it comes to America, we have to be unique and special.

"You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else." -- Churchill

Re: Homeless alone

#207

Post by toomuchtodo »

dragonwriter wrote: post #159
toomuchtodo wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried to get Medicaid in a state? Because I have for a family member (Indiana). There's a waitlist, and even on it, your monthly out of pocket costs are very high (the person in question had zero income , and was still required to cough up $400-$1000 for prescriptions and copays, with no income!).

Note that this varies from state to state considerably. So, in some states, the experience may be very different. (Especially as to the monthly out of pocket once you qualify.)

I realize that. That was my comment's point. Refurb made a broad generalization ("Medicaid is available to low income individuals.") that is factually inaccurate across most of the US states.

Re: Homeless alone

#209

Post by dang »

homero wrote: post #123
calcsam wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dude, I'm not sure if you're trolling or serious. If you're serious...it's not worth it. Life is long. Find other ways of motivating yourself. Commit publicly to shipping something awesome. Find a community of badasses to support you. Don't do this.

Idk. A van with a Wi-Fi antenna sounds fun. I'm excited. Getting some cases of vodka and a gun.

Please stop posting unsubstantive comments to HN.

Re: Homeless alone

#210

Post by jacalata »

tryitnow wrote: post #105
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…

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.

That's probably at least as true for voluntary homelessness.
Post reply on HN