21–30 of 52 posts
how will you pay your bills?
When the project is finished, reevaluate. You may be surprised at what you think then.
Can you afford it? How will you pay for rent and food? Do you have a co-founder? I left my job last April, and barely made it 2 months without income. If you're not ready to start your company right now , then I recommend figuring out what you can do otherwise to improve your situation. In my case, I got a job at a much better company that's close to Boston. I'm learning a lot, I'm meeting tons of smart people, and I…
I do have time pressure, for different reasons. I'm 32 and while I can see myself doing some less life draining types of startups at an older age, the time is running out to do the wild thing.
I don't have a cofounder and I'm not in a good location to find one. My immediate plan is to become and establish myself as great cofounder material by cranking out a few failures on the cheap, while I try and find likeminded people online. I'm willing to move to a hotter startup hub to find a cofounder, but due to living costs I'm hesitant to do it before I have something to show my abilities. [PS: I guess there are also visa issues; I haven't studied this yet.]
Thanks for the feedback, and good luck to you too!
Sounds like an excellent justification for flaky procrastination. You can follow this plan and hope the things you learn on the way can be applied to your startup. Or you can take your best idea, work hard to build it and learn as you go.
The things I want to learn are fundamental enough that they'll apply to any programming task. I have tried learning as I go, and I agree it's best for most skills, but I've found there are learning tasks that demand more dedication.
Then again, this may just be my procrastinating self at work. :)
"... which I want for personal use: a subset/bastardization of the editor part of Jef Raskin's Humane Environment (AKA Archy) ..." added an article you are probably familiar with just the other day ~ http://rchi.raskincenter.org/index.php?title=Core_Principles Archys core principles are ... - data is sacred, never lose your work - train of thought is sacred - content & commands primal - never do more work than necess…
"... Jef did not want to incorporate what became the two most definitive aspects of Macintosh technology - the Motorola 68000 microprocessor and the mouse pointing device. Jef preferred the 6809, a cheaper but weaker processor which only had 16 bits of address space and would have been obsolete in just a year or two, since it couldn't address more than 64Kbytes. He was dead set against the mouse as well, preferring d…
I have one piece of advice for you. Make sure that some of your early failures include other people. Many issues that bring down startups at their core are about people, not technology.
Winter 2008 or summer 2009 is too far out. Work expands to fill time after all. If you aim for Summer 2008 you might be able to do this better.
how will you pay your bills?
My burn rate is very low. I live in a cheap locale, compared to where I earned my savings, and I own a bit of stock in the company I just left. I had already set up a quite suitable home office before quitting, and I don't foresee many big expenses barring EC2 fees.
Can you afford it? How will you pay for rent and food? Do you have a co-founder? I left my job last April, and barely made it 2 months without income. If you're not ready to start your company right now , then I recommend figuring out what you can do otherwise to improve your situation. In my case, I got a job at a much better company that's close to Boston. I'm learning a lot, I'm meeting tons of smart people, and I…
I can afford to sustain my current frugal lifestyle past the timeframe I set in the original post. I'm selling part of the shares I own in my ex employer (I was an early employee back in the time. I left when they released the game, then came back a couple years later as a contractor). I do have time pressure, for different reasons. I'm 32 and while I can see myself doing some less life draining types of startups at…
Where are you located?
That's a big step and it takes courage. Good for you. I like most of your plan, except for one point: Why the 4-month delay? Study and a pet project!!! Doesn't seem like a high priority thing for someone who's betting his career on a startup. It sounds like an excuse to delay starting the hard work of a startup. Plus, I'm guessing that you'll be living off of your savings. If that's the case, then you have a limited…
As for the time, as I said in other reply I feel I'm more limited by age than cash.
Thanks for the feedback!