91–100 of 197 posts
I feel obliged to comment, although not with my normal HN username. I’m 41. I retired two years ago at the age of 39. I spent 18 years working in Silicon Valley at four different companies of various sizes. At 29 I was promoted to a first-level manager. Two of the companies I worked for were successful while I was there, although not spectacularly so. Mostly I minimized my costs. For the last five years of my career,…
I feel obliged to comment, although not with my normal HN username. I’m 41. I retired two years ago at the age of 39. I spent 18 years working in Silicon Valley at four different companies of various sizes. At 29 I was promoted to a first-level manager. Two of the companies I worked for were successful while I was there, although not spectacularly so. Mostly I minimized my costs. For the last five years of my career,…
Reading this post was very uncomfortable, especially the follow-ups describing women as having "no intellectual curiosity", but also the general tone. I was also perplexed at how many others described this as an ideal life -- perhaps they were just referring to the raw facts (lots of fun, dating, throwing good parties, etc.) and not actually adopting many of the implicit attitudes in there. Still, I couldn't help but…
I feel obliged to comment, although not with my normal HN username. I’m 41. I retired two years ago at the age of 39. I spent 18 years working in Silicon Valley at four different companies of various sizes. At 29 I was promoted to a first-level manager. Two of the companies I worked for were successful while I was there, although not spectacularly so. Mostly I minimized my costs. For the last five years of my career,…
Reading this post was very uncomfortable, especially the follow-ups describing women as having "no intellectual curiosity", but also the general tone. I was also perplexed at how many others described this as an ideal life -- perhaps they were just referring to the raw facts (lots of fun, dating, throwing good parties, etc.) and not actually adopting many of the implicit attitudes in there. Still, I couldn't help but…
Maybe a "~19 year old college "bro" type" would be closer to the mark, given that the "brogrammer" label has been around for a while.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
As someone more or less in the OPs situation (greg), you stay in a hostel for a few days while looking at local ads or knocking on doors. If someone doesn't have a room or apt, they likely will take you to a neighbor who does. I've lived for many, many months on what people back home (US) spend on food per month. To do this, you might have to lower standards a little and increase the importance of having new experien…
>knocking on doors Specific doors, or you just approach families and ask them if they or someone else is looking for a lodger? I'm considering doing long stay travel this winter, and want to figure out some logistics beforehand. I was thinking of renting airbnb for a few days, then looking for something with these characteristics: * Private (could be attached to a family residence) * Meals cooked * Cleaning and laund…
As for my experience finding everything you're looking for in one place/with one family, I've done that but it was more about lucking out and finding nice people (they didn't even charge for "one more mouth to feed" or laundry). But those items don't need to be expensive at all if from a third party, especially if you're headed to a developing nation (or one hit hard by a crisis, like where I am, in Portugal).
As a side note, in general, the farther you venture from the best spot in the city, the cheaper it gets (and the more authentic your day-to-day experience when compared to the "average Joe") and the likelihood of better hospitality increases.
> Did you get "never have to work again rich" through software? Yes > How did you do it? Started a bootstrapped, profitable small/medium-sized business (not a startup in the traditional sense). Don't really want to go into more detail than that as I still run it. > What did it feel like when you first realized it was going to be true that you would never have to work again if you didn't want to? It didn't really have…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>knocking on doors Specific doors, or you just approach families and ask them if they or someone else is looking for a lodger? I'm considering doing long stay travel this winter, and want to figure out some logistics beforehand. I was thinking of renting airbnb for a few days, then looking for something with these characteristics: * Private (could be attached to a family residence) * Meals cooked * Cleaning and laund…
Not specific doors, just in areas I think I'd like to live. Getting all those characteristics in one place at the same time might be shooting too high but it's possible, I suppose. Finding a place to stay/rent, then talking with the people you're renting from or neighbors, you might have a better chance of hooking up the rest, even from a single person (ie, one person who cooks meals, will do cleaning and laundry). I…
In Cuba I found a lot of places that offered all of the above, but they're a special case where you need a license to rent to foreigners. That's a good idea about getting a house and then contracting out for work.
How do you deal with trust in those cases?
Yes. I sold IndexTank to LinkedIn among other things. It was a gradual process for me that started with the first dot-com boom. It wasn't as big of a deal as I thought it would be. I was 41. Cashing out stock from public companies I've been at, selling consulting services before building IndexTank, selling IndexTank. I don't think there is such a thing as overall happiness. I do live in the present more than I used t…
Hi Diego, Could you elaborate more on the cashing out of stock from public companies point? You sold IndexTank for 1.6 million dollars. I don't really consider that "never work again rich" in this day in age. Were the sales of your stock significant?
It's the same as getting between 30 and 40 years of an experimented developer's average salary where I work, so it would mean that I can live exactly as I do now (and I can't complain), but at home without needing to work anymore. Just good money to spend with family, travelling or improving your knowledge. Seems like a good deal to me.
I got extremely lucky. I got dragged kicking and screaming into being an early hire at Google.
> What did it feel like when you first realised it was going to be true that you would never have to work again if you didn't want to?
Kind of surreal. On the day of the IPO, one minute I was still a working stiff, and the next minute I was suddenly looking at an account with my name on it with more digits than I had ever seen before.
> How old were you?
39
> What was it specifically that made the cash that ended up in your pocket?
Not sure what you mean here. The IPO obviously, but that was set up by the work I did at Google, which in turn was set up by the work I'd done prior to that, which in turn was set up by going to college, which in turn was set up by doing geeky things in high school that college admissions committees liked.
> Do you feel happy in your life?
Yes, but it took a while to get here. Having money is certainly nicer than not having it, but it's no panacea. It comes with its own set of problems, and it has taken me a while to figure out how to deal with them (still working on that actually). Nice problems to have to be sure, I wouldn't trade my life for anyone else's. But even nice problems to have are still problems.
It's also important to realize that money is only useful as a lever to accomplish some other goal, and if you don't know what you want out of life, money is not going to help much in figuring it out. A lot of people who make money without first getting to know themselves well enough to know what they really want out of life end up being miserable because they discover that having money in and of itself doesn't make them happy and then they are lost.
BTW, one of the things I found that I really want out of life is to be productive. So even though I don't have to work any more, I still do. I'm actually busier now than I was when I had to work to pay the rent.