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Ask HN: What you up to? (Who doesn't want to be hired?)

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651–660 of 874 posts

Re: Ask HN: What you up to? (Who doesn't want to be hired?)

#651
post #459

Don’t think this is novel, but I’ve mentioned on an HN thread before that my friend and I were building (and have now built) a tiny house. We’d been complaining for years that housing was too expensive and so after doing a house flip and stops and starts on trying to build a spec house we decided to try a tiny house to see if we could build something move-in ready that looks (somewhat) nice and also is inexpensive. J…

It looks like a place I’d like to live in <3

Would love to hear if there’s any reason in particular you say that. Like have you been thinking of trying a different way of living, is your current situation untenable for some reason (financial or otherwise) or maybe you just mean it as a way of complimenting the design/build?

And regardless of the reason thank you for making a fellow HNer feel good about their side project!

Re: Ask HN: What you up to? (Who doesn't want to be hired?)

#652

I won the IPO lottery and I’m in the middle ground between rich enough to never work again but not quite rich enough for the yachts/mansions/private jets lifestyle. I haven’t worked in 6 months and I’m struggling to find a larger meaning to my life beyond getting yet another tech job. I’ve considered going to college for a math degree, moving to my parents home country, and joining the military (among many other opti…

Congratulations. I was exactly your age almost 20 years ago and in a similar situation. The dotcom crash was just breaking and partly by luck and partly by judgement I had chosen that moment to exit and divest myself of those shares. My advice would be that you do the same, get a good financial advisor, stay grounded, take care of your future and lock that down, then think about what you want to do next. Spending hours somewhere like Reddit will rob you of the time you have. Ultimately I switched to investing in startups before eventually returning to “the trenches” myself when I was ready. Good luck to you.

Re: Ask HN: What you up to? (Who doesn't want to be hired?)

#653
I'm a fairly happy-go-lucky kind of guy and I'm just focusing on raising my kids.

For all of you who shared your success stories. I admire your passion, love, and luck! I hope nothing but the best for you in the future.

For those who are down in their luck at the moment, I hope you can get the help you need and ride thru the bad times.

Re: Ask HN: What you up to? (Who doesn't want to be hired?)

#654

Don’t think this is novel, but I’ve mentioned on an HN thread before that my friend and I were building (and have now built) a tiny house. We’d been complaining for years that housing was too expensive and so after doing a house flip and stops and starts on trying to build a spec house we decided to try a tiny house to see if we could build something move-in ready that looks (somewhat) nice and also is inexpensive. J…

That looks really cool, but can I ask why you chose that colour? Do you live somewhere really cold?

It was strictly an aesthetic choice and as another commenter points out it doesn’t impact the livability if you build it with proper insulation.

You can read about the performance of the exterior black color in high temperatures on the website where we listed all the materials we used to build the house, how much they cost and details about the construction: https://www.weshelterpeople.com/materials-and-costs

Re: Ask HN: What you up to? (Who doesn't want to be hired?)

#655
post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That looks really cool, but can I ask why you chose that colour? Do you live somewhere really cold?

With proper insulation, and framing techniques you can get a away with a dark metal surface in most any climate. Not saying they actually did that but it's not impossible. For a deeper breakdown on this topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0o-yN8N-mXM

Thanks for pointing this out because you’re totally right. When we were picking black as the color we were somewhat convinced it wouldn’t be an issue but it was nice to get confirmation once we built it, which we did by testing the interior temp on hot days to see how hot the interior would get.

Re: Ask HN: What you up to? (Who doesn't want to be hired?)

#656

I won the IPO lottery and I’m in the middle ground between rich enough to never work again but not quite rich enough for the yachts/mansions/private jets lifestyle. I haven’t worked in 6 months and I’m struggling to find a larger meaning to my life beyond getting yet another tech job. I’ve considered going to college for a math degree, moving to my parents home country, and joining the military (among many other opti…

Get into gardening. It’s the ultimate leisure activity for people with too much time. And it’s a natural segue to fancy cooking which is also a fantastic time sink.

Re: Ask HN: What you up to? (Who doesn't want to be hired?)

#657
post #394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If from the Coinbase IPO, you just got out of lockout and you're new to that amount of money. You're probably still near 100% invested in Coinbase and need to divest into something more diversified and less volatile than Coinbase before you can sit on your hands and look at the number in your brokerage account as if it was real retirement grade money. Plus you'll need to pay a ton of taxes on the capital gain. So don…

There's a Ask HN thread, maybe a few, of people who hit it rich and later lost it. The common theme is it's easier to make lots of money than it is to keep it, which is a little unintuitive.

The scenarios where that can happen:

1. Bad budgeting or lack of diversification. "95% of my money was in Enron"

2. Confirmation Bias. "I build a successful company once, I can do it again, but this time with my own money"

3. Hedonic Treadmill. "Flying commercial is so annoying, I'm going to fly private, and figure out how to pay for it later"

Re: Ask HN: What you up to? (Who doesn't want to be hired?)

#658
post #152

I started selling spice blends, the flavor being "Beef Noodle Soup". After seeing "Everything but the Bagel" at Trader Joe's, I thought it was the first spice blend I saw named after a dish. Interesting! If people can have bagels anywhere, what else would people want to have anywhere? I asked my partner what sort of flavors would be familiar to people we knew, and she came up with the triumvirate: Pho, Ramen, and Bee…

I like a good pho, and the noodles are dead simple. If there were an easy broth, I'd make it all the time! Ditto for vegetarian ramen broth, though the noodles in that case are non-trivial (but there are some decently-easy options out there). Please do a show HN when you add more flavors!

The problem with Pho and Ramen is that there isn't' an easy way. The reason it is so damn good is because it has 8+ hours to break down gelatin and collagen in animal bones. With Ramen, there are so many other components to it that all add up to the perfect bowl that require a lot of effort. If it were any simpler, it just wouldn't be ramen. I'm sure it is the same for Pho, but I don't have any experience making Pho.

And that's the best part. It's one of the few dishes we can't just "simplify" and break down into some fast and casual chain restaurant.

Re: Ask HN: What you up to? (Who doesn't want to be hired?)

#659
post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That looks really cool, but can I ask why you chose that colour? Do you live somewhere really cold?

I wouldn't mind hearing about their approach to handling weather also as it kind of looks like SoCal which closely matches the climate I live in. If that is the case then black may not have been ideal! It should help during winter though. If your peak heat is only 30c or something you could probably get away with it.

I happen to be from Socal but we built this and the pics were shot in Northern New Mexico where my friend lives and where it is a bit more mild than Socal. That said it does get some hot days with a punishing sun during the summer (may top out around 100f/37c in a heat wave) and we were able to “test” the exterior this past summer in conditions pretty close to that. You can read about it on the website. Just scroll down to the section about the exterior metal: https://www.weshelterpeople.com/materials-and-costs

Important to point out that because of our location it would not need AC in the summer because evenings cool down adequately but if you wanted to use it anywhere in Socal that’s not directly adjacent to the beach you would “need” to have AC. I put the need in quotes because there are plenty of people in Socal who still live without AC, but I don’t think anyone would say those folks are comfortable doing so. It’s mostly a financial issue for anyone inland or as I said they live near the beach where a decent number of house and apartment rentals still don’t have AC.

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