81–90 of 184 posts
Must say I'm a bit jealous - when I started my company, I didn't have any need to decline VC coffee invites... it was all I could do to get enough interested parties to even get moving. Good tips on time mgmt though, I guess
Are you based in San Fran though? Sounds like the city flowing with VC cash
3. Don’t go it alone Using the money time duality is a bit cheating to be honest. At least in my experience people with 9-17 jobs don't have that kind of money to hire people.
I think we should be respectful of the audience that this blog post is and isn't for -- where it says that VC's can be "quite persistent" asking for coffees, this kind of shows you the kind of audience this is written for. And yes, if you're the kind of person that in the words of the article: >I would say “Hey, during these next couple months it will be very tough for me to meet in person, but I’d love to still help…
>where it says that VC's can be "quite persistent" asking for coffees
Lets be pragmatic. How many VC's are we talk about, 5? 10? Can we not read a little bit of a veiled humble brag into this point on the fact that the number isn't mentioned and that if the number is 5 that the author couldn't spare 5 hours over "multi months" to meet with someone signing checks? Which brings me on to-
>If you're the kind of person for whom "many VCs were extremely persistent"
What does this person do that they seem to fart rainbows when every one of the most talented engineers that I know has to hustle to get these sorts of doors opened? We can only assume that something else is at play.
Which brings me on to Op's point-
>in my experience people with 9-17 jobs don't have that kind of money to hire people.
This is entirely correct, most startups can't trade money for time but the author doesn't reveal her fountain of money which further undermines the blogpost.
I can't help but think the author has her priorities completely messed up. A brand new baby and a husband with cancer, and she decides that starting a company is the best use of her time? Sorry, but it's beyond bizarre to me. Just because you can do something by sacrificing your health and your time with your family members doesn't mean that you should.
After having a baby I struggled to switch from marathon coding sessions to trying to punch out code in hour, half hour or even 10 minute increments. The best advice is what she said - plan and divide tasks ruthlessly. There's always bits of time to work on your task list on your phone or flesh out a bit of meta-code in your to-do list, and now I'm able to do the brunt of the "thinking" work in the shower or wherever,…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have two kids, and my coding time is suffering. How the heck did you code while up with your kid at 3am? What was the kid doing??
The kid was sleeping on my chest. I call it the one handed editor for this reason: http://blog.teddyhyde.com/2013/04/03/teddy-hyde-the-no-compr...
Clients had no idea how delicately I was hitting the keys when writing their code. Deadlines could be missed if he didn't sleep as expected.
As soon as he woke up it was back to being a full time dad. I like to believe that I'm way more productive now since I've become a father - being a parent that's also part of the workforce requires both discipline and creativity.
I have a related question for the author or anyone: How do you keep your energy up to code in the evenings on your own project, after a full day of coding at the office?
I would say this really depends heavily on how motivated you are to begin with. When I was working on my side project while I had a full time job, I would: 1. Get off work at 6 and get home at 6:30. 2. Eat something very simple (no carbs because it will make me sleepy) 3. Start working from 7:00 4. Work till 6:00am (that's 11 hours, which is 3 hours more than my day job) 5. Go to sleep at 6:00 and wake up at 10am and…
I agree with the sentiment though-- you really do need the motivation to just DO it. I get good sleep, but I do work longer hours than most people, and I've done so for years. But I genuinely have been only getting healthier and less stressed over time. Work smarter, not harder-- and I've just been getting smarter about how to handle my time.
Depends on what your goals are of course. Quality of life is a big one for me, and that puts my health high on my priorities-- I can't enjoy my riches if I'm sick and dead. But sometimes it's "I can't enjoy my health if I don't have money to eat" so I get the flip side, cause I've been there in work-til-you-drop mode out of necessity.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would say this really depends heavily on how motivated you are to begin with. When I was working on my side project while I had a full time job, I would: 1. Get off work at 6 and get home at 6:30. 2. Eat something very simple (no carbs because it will make me sleepy) 3. Start working from 7:00 4. Work till 6:00am (that's 11 hours, which is 3 hours more than my day job) 5. Go to sleep at 6:00 and wake up at 10am and…
Wow, this does seem intense. Did you work through the weekend? Did your performance at your day job suffer? How did you manage to keep focused during the late night/ early morning hours?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would say this really depends heavily on how motivated you are to begin with. When I was working on my side project while I had a full time job, I would: 1. Get off work at 6 and get home at 6:30. 2. Eat something very simple (no carbs because it will make me sleepy) 3. Start working from 7:00 4. Work till 6:00am (that's 11 hours, which is 3 hours more than my day job) 5. Go to sleep at 6:00 and wake up at 10am and…
Wow, this does seem intense. Did you work through the weekend? Did your performance at your day job suffer? How did you manage to keep focused during the late night/ early morning hours?
Most of the times I would work like this for a 2~3 weeks to a couple of months without being exhausted. But when that does happen, I would take a break for as many days I want. Normally this break never lasts over 3-4 days. (Like I said, it is important that you are working on the right thing. Otherwise you will never pull this off. For example if the main motivation for your work is you're just looking for some easy way to create a side project that will give you good enough passive income, you are probably not passionate enough about the problem and will give up. In my case I truly believed in what i was working on so it didn't make sense to just go slow on it)
As for my day job performance, it didn't really suffer because most people don't really focus 100% at work anyway.
While I was going through this lifestyle, I tried my best to stay disciplined. For example, I would start working immediately after I arrive at work, with no web browsing. And no web browsing while I am working. If you stick to this principle, you'd be amazed how much you can get done in half the time you normally spend at work. Then with the extra time I have on my hand I would take a nap etc. so I don't get too physically tired.