After 180 Websites, I’m Ready to Start the Rest of My Life as a Coder

Post by jamesaguilar » Thu, Oct 03, 2013, 5:06 PM UTC

ars_technician wrote: post #94

jamesaguilar wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can do it there too. I'd guess the average entry-level programmer in SF makes 80k a year. 2000/mo on rent (which is honestly a pretty nice place if you're sharing) leaves you with 20k to play with while still saving netting about 20k after taxes. Of course, if you live in the valley, you could save more , but the point is to illustrate that many (single, no dependents) tech workers can live in SF and still save.

Your math implies 64k after taxes, which is only 20% and is completely wrong. The effective tax rate in Cali after federal and state is closer to 40%. That leaves 48k after taxes. Take out the 24k you blew on the 2k/mo apt and you're down to 24k and you haven't even put food on your plate or paid for transportation costs. Take out 4k for food assuming you don't eat at nice restaurants. Take out 2k for a train pass an…

Post by jorgeleo » Thu, Oct 03, 2013, 5:07 PM UTC

mseebach wrote: post #33

jorgeleo wrote: post #12

"The project certainly hasn’t given me a comprehensive understanding of software development, but it has laid a broad foundation for me to jump off of" No it has not, and no it has not. Don't get me wrong A+ for the effort... but it is a very small niche oriented effort. Comprehensive? Watch Rich Hickey talks ( http://www.infoq.com/author/Rich-Hickey ), try reading and exercising data structures (b-tree, rb-tree, bit…

That's pretty elitist. You seem to confuse "coder" with "computer scientist" or "software engineer". As the ecosystem of toolsets, frameworks and libraries mature, the number of opportunities for well-informed "commoners" with the right motivation to make computers do what they want them to increases violently. Lemma 1: Simple CRUD-style web-apps and scripts can be very useful. Lemma 2: Before-mentioned tools can be…

Post by thenomad » Thu, Oct 03, 2013, 5:08 PM UTC

adt2bt wrote: post #9

Congratulations, Jennifer. I really appreciate the lessons learned here. Like my favorite college professor (and I'm sure many others, as it is a fairly popular quote) would say: Sometimes you have something that looks really ugly and gross. You can liken it to having to eat a slimy, bumpy frog. The best way to eat the frog, is just to swallow it. Once you get in the habit of swallowing your frogs, the rest of your d…

Post by ceejayoz » Thu, Oct 03, 2013, 5:08 PM UTC

petea wrote: post #38

I don't know why she has never mentioned someone she worked with at all. I commented about this about her 70 days ago. --- So let's see her repository ( https://github.com/jendewalt/jennifer_dewalt ). This girl not only became a competent front end developer in 100 days, but looking at the Gemfile, she knows how to use capistrano, redis, capistrano, paperclip, omniauth and devise? She knows the best practices for Rai…

Post by jamesaguilar » Thu, Oct 03, 2013, 5:09 PM UTC

ars_technician wrote: post #106

jamesaguilar wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know the cost of living at least in SF, and it is my contention that most entry level engineers should be able to save six months expenses per year trivially. Of course, if you eat out every night and blow all your money on booze, partying, and the most upscale apartment you can find, it would be harder. But a person who is making any real effort would not find it difficult.

>But a person who is making any real effort would not find it difficult. As long as they don't have a family or want to build equity in a home. The justifications for the costs in this thread are so myopic that it's baffling.