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Ask HN: How to survive as a homeless engineer?

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Re: Ask HN: How to survive as a homeless engineer?

#71

Post by gremlinsinc »

Just wanted to chime in, I'm in Utah and can totally relate. (My car will be repo'd next friday if I don't have enough, and we're struggling w/ eviction possibilities too.

For me, I had an employer not pay me 2 months of wages.. 14k. The CEO is a corrupt scam-artist, and me and all other devs/ex employees have filed wage claims, but he went to jail for check fraud, and I'm assuming he's poor too, possibly a drug abuser according to one dev, so yeah--I'm probably never seeing the 15k I'm owed :( ...

It's been a real struggle, the depression has made it so for about 2 weeks I couldn't get out of my chair, I just felt if I move it would be to jump off a roof or something. It gets better though (i think)...

My saving grace is reddit.com/forhire -- 90% of my freelance clients have come from there, it's a great resource. I just got 2 clients this week, so hopefully they pay and I can knock out their things fast enough to build up my security net a bit.

My advice look at the for hire posts for devs, find the one that sticks out the most, copy their layout, replace the content with your details, and post it.

Do this once per week -- Monday at 7am eastern seems to be best / most trafficked time according to a reddit stat's site I checked out.

Then just keep posting other places too, and following up. Hopefully you find something. I know how hard it is though, good luck!

Re: Ask HN: How to survive as a homeless engineer?

#72

Post by anonymouse_321 »

OP asking for survival tips. Avoiding the crisis is best, sure. But if that doesn't work right off, keeping body and soul together needs food. Studied this a bit when I thought we might be looking at an economic meltdown on a large scale. YMMV, this is result of reading and practicing from comfort. Most canned foods are very low on the calories per dollar scale. On the other hand they need no refrigeration and most can be safely eaten without preparation, being already fully cooked. Sites like Survivalblog are a wealth of staying alive info. There are many sites about surviving homelessness too. Find a LDS cannery in your area and ask if they sell to the public. Most will. A six pack of #10 can filled with oats or pasta or dry milk goes a long way for very little coin. They have a pragmatic mission to help folks before a crisis. Get a wide-mouthed thermos bottle or two. In goes a half cup of oats, a pinch of salt, dab of butter if you have it. Flavor to taste and ability. Add a cup of boiling water, seal and let sit 5-10 minutes. Ta-da, a hearty breakfast for a few cents. Thank Kurt Saxon, regardless of his politics. If you still have a roof and electrical power, consider a thrift-store bread machine. A few practice runs with some recipes off the 'net or from the library. '5 minute a day artisan bread' works well. A rice cooker is another great tool for keeping well fed on the cheap. Add a wok and you can work up a near infinite variety of stir-fry tasties. Look at 'Eternal Soup' for how some of our ancestors made safe use of all nutritional calories that came their way in trying times. If you are looking at longer term low-cost food intake, remember complete proteins and micronutrients. Vitamins. We can get by for quite a while on body reserves but the symptoms of deficiency won't help an already tough situation. Healing slower, getting sick more easily, worsened depression, insomnia, and the ever-popular teeth falling out. Sprouting beans, wheat berries, getting a few ounces of ascorbic acid for doctoring up the bread dough... do a bit of homework. Keep a healthy mindset.

Blessings to you and yours.

Re: Ask HN: How to survive as a homeless engineer?

#73

Post by justboxing »

I see several offers for laptop and other assistance, so you need to create an email address for this (if worried about getting found out, embarassed etc with using real email address) and put it in your about page right now, so that these kind folks can get in touch with you, and you can get a head start and try to avoid going homeless....

Who knows, you may even be able to get some short contract from someone here and stay afloat for a few weeks / months.

Wishing you the best!

Re: Ask HN: How to survive as a homeless engineer?

#74

Post by Stratoscope »

bwb wrote: post #70
bmelton wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are Republicans who agree with you on healthcare. Let's not forget that Obama's ACA was a rehash of Romneycare. There are Republicans in favor of gay marriage. The attorneys in US v Windsor, which overturned the Defense of Marriage Act signed into law by Bill Clinton, were Republicans. There are Republicans who support charity, a strong social safety net, and taking care of their friends and neighbors.

Ya and there is prob a racoon that fucked a bear out there too :). Good for that racoon! Yay for finding insignificant details that pale in comparison to the big picture. Do you want to stand on the deck of the titanic pointing out all the little boats that are still floating or talk about the HUGE boat that is sinking under your feet?

You're not going to win friends with this kind of belligerent talk.

Why don't you stick with the approach you took in your other top-level comment, which I thought was pretty great:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17317062

Re: Ask HN: How to survive as a homeless engineer?

#76

Post by s2g »

bmelton wrote: post #52
bwb wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are supposed to be an American community, not a bunch of people who don't lend a hand when someone makes a misstep or hits a wall. I am disgusted how selfish such a huge chunk of this country has become... half this country can't remember what empathy is, and they have slowly destroyed our social safety net. I want the government to do more to help people in this type of position get back on their feet so that the…

> half this country can't remember what empathy is Not that I disagree with your overall point, but while I might be being overly sensitive here, I think it's implicit that 9 times out of 10, when someone refers to "half the country", what they mean to say is "the half of the country not affiliated with the political party to which I am affiliated." Yes, there are selfish people, but largely, that selfishness is not…

Republicans actively try to destroy any sort of reasonable social safety net. I really don't care how partisan you think I'm being, the republican viewpoint on this is cruel and wrong and I think extremely low of anyone who supports it.

Extremely low.

Re: Ask HN: How to survive as a homeless engineer?

#77

Post by s2g »

bmelton wrote: post #67
bwb wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't like either political party, but that doesn't mean they are equal in how terrible they are, too many people try to equivocate. We absolutely should do more to castigate people by party line, especially when their beliefs are based on propaganda. The Republican party is destroying the future of this country. The Republican media and formal political party have convinced the majority of its members that people…

There are Republicans who agree with you on healthcare. Let's not forget that Obama's ACA was a rehash of Romneycare. There are Republicans in favor of gay marriage. The attorneys in US v Windsor, which overturned the Defense of Marriage Act signed into law by Bill Clinton, were Republicans. There are Republicans who support charity, a strong social safety net, and taking care of their friends and neighbors.

and then they talk about all that and go out and vote for people who support none of those things.

Actions speak a lot louder than words. If you vote republican you absolutely stand behind those things.

Re: Ask HN: How to survive as a homeless engineer?

#78

Post by s2g »

Stratoscope wrote: post #74
bwb wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ya and there is prob a racoon that fucked a bear out there too :). Good for that racoon! Yay for finding insignificant details that pale in comparison to the big picture. Do you want to stand on the deck of the titanic pointing out all the little boats that are still floating or talk about the HUGE boat that is sinking under your feet?

You're not going to win friends with this kind of belligerent talk. Why don't you stick with the approach you took in your other top-level comment, which I thought was pretty great: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17317062

> You're not going to win friends with this kind of belligerent talk.

8 years of a president talking reasonably got us the rise of the alt-right.

I'm all for belligerence and not letting people weasel their way out of support for disgusting beliefs.

Re: Ask HN: How to survive as a homeless engineer?

#79

Post by [deleted] »

auslegung wrote: post #2

This sucks! I'm so sorry to hear man. I've spent a lot of time with people who are homeless, which has caused me to think about this very question though I haven't had to put any of this into practice so grain of salt. - Get a membership to a cheap gym so you can use their shower (and potentially wifi) if the shelter doesn't work out. In many areas it's possible to get a membership for $10-20/month. Clean your clothe…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How to survive as a homeless engineer?

#80

Post by guy_c »

How much is your rent? How much short are you from paying the due rent?

If your rent is at low-end for your area, then I'd try to avoid getting evicted. Getting evicted could trigger more expenses (moving costs, new deposits, etc.). Putting you deeper in the red.

I'd first sell everything non-critical. If you get evicted a big pile of possessions is going to be a burden anyway.

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