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I quit my job. Today is Day 16

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Re: I quit my job. Today is Day 16

#31

Post by vtbose »

Swizec wrote: post #21
gedrap wrote: post #13

>>> I’ve felt the pull. However, personal motivation to succeed keeps the wheels churning. I really like your point about motivation. I'm a freelancer and working from home, and I used to think that nutrition, physical activity etc has a lot to do with it. Yeah sure it does but recently I think at the end of the day, it's just about will power and deep, personal motivation. If you are not enjoying it, no diet will ma…

With the current market for engineers, if you aren't enjoying your work most of the time, you're doing something wrong and should probably find a more interesting project to work on. Fire yourself if you have to. That said, good diet, healthy social life, and exercise are of paramount importance to will power. The better balanced your life, the more will power you're going to have. But it's also important to manage w…

Second the Timer comment. For me, something as simple as the Pomodoro http://tomato-timer.com/# is really helpful.

Re: I quit my job. Today is Day 16

#32

Post by timjahn »

kull wrote: post #29
elwell wrote: post #7

Freelance Inbox piques my interest, but have you considered a commission fee business model as opposed to monthly payments? I'd like to try it out your service without putting any money up, and if it works well I wouldn't mind paying a certain percentage (or flat rate) to you if the lead turned out to be profitable.

For commission based model you should check matchist.com. Also give a try www.area301.com - it is free leads aggregator which is not blidnly scarping job posts but it does some magic behind the scene to remove low quality leads.

Thanks for the matchist shoutout Dan!

Re: I quit my job. Today is Day 16

#33

Post by Swizec »

gedrap wrote: post #26
Swizec wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With the current market for engineers, if you aren't enjoying your work most of the time, you're doing something wrong and should probably find a more interesting project to work on. Fire yourself if you have to. That said, good diet, healthy social life, and exercise are of paramount importance to will power. The better balanced your life, the more will power you're going to have. But it's also important to manage w…

Good points! >>> With the current market for engineers, if you aren't enjoying your work most of the time, you're doing something wrong and should probably find a more interesting project to work on. Fire yourself if you have to. Yup, I'm starting a new job in 1.5 week, extremely excited :) >>> Even leave things for tomorrow. That is also very true, blogged about it too a while ago as well [0]. Trying to get somethin…

> Trying to get something done for 3hrs can be replaced by 1hr burst next day

I've often found that impossible bugs that I struggle with for hours on end and just can't figure out no matter what I do, get solved in 10 minutes next morning.

Now how do I teach this to junior developers? I've worked on teams where juniors will frequently overwork themselves in an effort to "pay their dues" or whatnot, or just because they feel they should offset their lack of skill with stronger work ethics and I am fairly convinced it's counterproductive. But I can't seem to find words to explain this to them. Or maybe I'm wrong and the "leave it for tomorrow" only works when you've reached a certain level of skill.

These are the questions that keep me up at night.

Re: I quit my job. Today is Day 16

#34

Post by endersshadow »

keslert wrote: post #25
danielweber wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wants me to do something but I can't tell what. Tweet things, maybe?

Thanks for the feedback guys. It is supposed to make tweeting easier, but apparently it's not doing a very good job (although it probably does make you want to tweet nasty things about me :) I'll look into a better solution.

I find that many-a-web developers don't realize that people impulsively highlight sections as they read them. I usually triple-click to highlight a paragraph as I read it. It's just a habit, but it's apparently one I share with many people. This also frustrates me to no end on the NYT site, and it's the sole reason I'm not a subscriber.

Re: I quit my job. Today is Day 16

#35

Post by ark15 »

I don't have any words of wisdom since there are too many people here who are smarter than I am that you should be listening to.

But for whatever it is worth -

I signed up to freelanceinbox to show my support.

Not sure how useful it would be since my niche is enterprise web applications but I am going to keep my subscription alive for at least a few months to see if anything converts.

I also promise to sign up for your pro community when you launch that.

If there is at least one lead that converts into a decent client every month, I'd be happy to pay 2-3x of what you are charging right now.

Good luck!

Re: I quit my job. Today is Day 16

#36

Post by elwell »

jarrett wrote: post #20
elwell wrote: post #7

Freelance Inbox piques my interest, but have you considered a commission fee business model as opposed to monthly payments? I'd like to try it out your service without putting any money up, and if it works well I wouldn't mind paying a certain percentage (or flat rate) to you if the lead turned out to be profitable.

I suspect that collecting on such commissions would be a real challenge. I'm not saying the service's customers are dishonest, but...it's easy to "forget" to pay your commission when it's on the honor system. Other bills come in, other responsibilities push it out of one's mind. Human psychology may thus work against an honor-based commission system. As a customer who's rooting for the success of Freelance Inbox, I w…

Good point about it being exclusive

Re: I quit my job. Today is Day 16

#37

Post by clarky07 »

I remember those days. Quitting was really exciting. I got more work done in the first few months after I quit than probably at any other time in my life. I'm on day 1100ish now and it doesn't come as easy, but it is still pretty awesome working for myself. It's still kinda scary, but I consider the experiment at least pretty successful considering I'm still at it 3+ years later. Good luck to you.

Re: I quit my job. Today is Day 16

#38

Post by gedrap »

Swizec wrote: post #33
gedrap wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good points! >>> With the current market for engineers, if you aren't enjoying your work most of the time, you're doing something wrong and should probably find a more interesting project to work on. Fire yourself if you have to. Yup, I'm starting a new job in 1.5 week, extremely excited :) >>> Even leave things for tomorrow. That is also very true, blogged about it too a while ago as well [0]. Trying to get somethin…

> Trying to get something done for 3hrs can be replaced by 1hr burst next day I've often found that impossible bugs that I struggle with for hours on end and just can't figure out no matter what I do, get solved in 10 minutes next morning. Now how do I teach this to junior developers? I've worked on teams where juniors will frequently overwork themselves in an effort to "pay their dues" or whatnot, or just because th…

Good point again!

Programming largely is creative, with some degree of standard and quite autopilot code. Creative work can't be produced by staring at a blinking cursor.

I agree with counter productivity, and I strongly agree with companies who approach this with 'just get it done, whenever you want'. Twitter certainly does so, Netflix I believe does.

>>> Or maybe I'm wrong and the "leave it for tomorrow" only works when you've reached a certain level of skill.

I think there is some skill involved, or more accurately, experience. The problems we are solving are often unique but still share something in common. After solving a bunch of them, you have a gut feeling when something's going right, and when you must to take a step back.

And it has to do with corporate people and managers, not everyone understands how programming works. Young developers are afraid to look lazy in front of their non-technical managers. It's often important just to appear working hard, e.g. reading HN in terminal ;)

Re: I quit my job. Today is Day 16

#39

Post by thatjoist »

endersshadow wrote: post #34
keslert wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the feedback guys. It is supposed to make tweeting easier, but apparently it's not doing a very good job (although it probably does make you want to tweet nasty things about me :) I'll look into a better solution.

I find that many-a-web developers don't realize that people impulsively highlight sections as they read them. I usually triple-click to highlight a paragraph as I read it. It's just a habit, but it's apparently one I share with many people. This also frustrates me to no end on the NYT site, and it's the sole reason I'm not a subscriber.

Highlighting text you're reading increases readability as it adds a visual clue to where on the page you are reading if you look away from the page.

A lot of people pick up the habit without being taught it because of that.

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