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A Dark Room: From Sabbatical Year to $800k

failory.com

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Re: A Dark Room: From Sabbatical Year to $800k

#81

Post by amirrajan »

loteck wrote: post #27

This guy made a lot of really questionable decisions. Put his future and family at risk. His only hit was porting someone else's hit game to iOS. He himself admits he is working again now only so he can build a stash and gamble it all again. I hope he finds success some day, but given his track record, I'm very skeptical of his conclusions.

>questionable decisions

That’s an understatement.

>His only hit was porting someone else’s game

Yep. He’s a hack job for sure. There is no way he’ll be successful in future stuff tbh.

Re: A Dark Room: From Sabbatical Year to $800k

#82

Post by always_good »

jabgrabdthrow wrote: post #53
GuiA wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or maybe you learned tons and it makes your 10th attempt more likely to succeed? Ultimately these ponderations are kind of meaningless in the absence of great data to frame them with.

At which number would you no longer make the point you just made? 100 failed startups? 50,000? You’ve got a lot of faith in people. My number is maybe 5.

Dunno, depends on the kinds of startups you're trying to create. For example, I don't think you're "bad at startups" just because you create more ambitious ones with a higher chance of failure. Some people are at a place where they can take more risks, it doesn't make them an abject failure.

Re: A Dark Room: From Sabbatical Year to $800k

#83

Post by midnightclubbed »

ajkjk wrote: post #66
ghostbrainalpha wrote: post #11

The math on this makes no sense at all. > - Live off of $15k a year. Don't buy a house. Don't buy a fancy car. Just save. - Do this for a year. - Land a job that makes you $100k a year. Save the rest. Max out your 401k contribution. - Celebrate by living off of $30k a year. - Do this for three years. - Land a job that makes you $140k a year. Save the rest. Max out your 401k contribution. Get a Roth, put $5k a year in…

Those numbers are ridiculous. I saved up about $100k in 3 years at a tech job and I haven't worked in the last two years on that, no problem (living in a not-inexpensive US city with a car, also).

His actual income (after Apple and paying the original game creator) was $276k - which replenished the savings he had cashed-out for development time and then gave him several more years of development on sequels/prequels.

Re: A Dark Room: From Sabbatical Year to $800k

#84

Post by TheCoelacanth »

fsloth wrote: post #68
justinpombrio wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're also not independent trials. If you just failed 9 times in a row, you're probably not the best at startups.

What I recall of chances of success, earlier failures do not correlate with success - either way. So basically one is throwing fair dice every time. I might be recall wrong...

That is with dice.

Startups are not independent random events because some people are better at making startups than other people are.

Re: A Dark Room: From Sabbatical Year to $800k

#85

Post by dougmwne »

His budget numbers & supposed savings vs. sabbatical runway shock me. The 401k bit fits his "roll the dice" theme, but should never have been necessary. I can't help but feel we have an unreliable narrator who's not telling us the full story about finances and motivations.

The truth would be so much more interesting and instructive. What setback really led to needing to clock out and cash out? What was really left of that 800k after the app store cut and taxes and marketing and mistakes? Was it only money that pushed him back into the workplace or something more?

Real life is messy and I can see the hole where he cut that part out of his story.

Re: A Dark Room: From Sabbatical Year to $800k

#86

Post by rco8786 »

downandout wrote: post #69

I have never been directly employed at a large Silicon Valley tech company. Is it really that difficult to work on side projects on your nights/weekends while working at these places? To be sure, it would take longer to get your projects finished, but you would also be doing so with the benefit of a steady paycheck and health insurance. If you happen to hit the lottery with your finished project, great - quit your jo…

> Is it really that difficult to work on side projects on your nights/weekends

It doesn't really have anything to do with "large Silicon Valley tech company". I have a life outside of work, friends, family, etc that I spend most of my nights and weekends curating. Working 40+ hours a week anywhere makes it hard to launch something at night without being young and single or sacrificing time with your family.

Re: A Dark Room: From Sabbatical Year to $800k

#87

Post by always_good »

canes123456 wrote: post #51
fragsworth wrote: post #5

This is incredibly depressing. It hits home for me because I'm in a very similar situation. I and one other guy almost went broke making Clicker Heroes, but it turned out to be a great success. But so far since then every project has not been worth doing. > I didn't do ads, I didn't do micro-transactions, scummy energy bars, and all those other bullshit monetization tactics. We did this in Clicker Heroes, and I don't…

> We did this in Clicker Heroes, and I don't like that we did. But I'm learning more and more that it's hard to compete against scummy tactics. Props to for going against the HN hive mind. F2P is successful because most people choose it and will not pay for software. There are real issues with it but it not pure evil like HN thinks.

Same with ads.

Re: A Dark Room: From Sabbatical Year to $800k

#89

Post by rubicon33 »

CryoLogic wrote: post #38
rubicon33 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's awesome. I love hearing about how this scenario is for people in other countries. Here in California, I don't think that's possible. Cost of living is too high to live for 3 years off of 2 years of savings. Maybe if you were very careful with spending and had a good rent situation, you might be able to do it.

If you are single and don't have children you can always leave CA for a few years, cut your expenses in half by living in a low COL area and come back if it doesn't work out.

Yup, that is a good point. I would definitely recommend anyone with the drive and interest in striking out on their own, do so in their early - mid 20's ... Move somewhere really cheap, and make it happen! You won't be able to do that (or it will be very difficult) once you find a partner because their career may be geographically restricted. Even more difficult if you have children.

Re: A Dark Room: From Sabbatical Year to $800k

#90

Post by defen »

downandout wrote: post #69

I have never been directly employed at a large Silicon Valley tech company. Is it really that difficult to work on side projects on your nights/weekends while working at these places? To be sure, it would take longer to get your projects finished, but you would also be doing so with the benefit of a steady paycheck and health insurance. If you happen to hit the lottery with your finished project, great - quit your jo…

If you work at a big Silicon Valley tech company, odds are that your employment contract says that they own whatever you do on your own time, if it's at all related to anything the company does (not just stuff you work on at the company or using company resources; anything they do).
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