How to Survive as a Solo Dev for Like a Decade or So • Hacker News Board

Re: How to Survive as a Solo Dev for Like a Decade or So

#151

Post by jmspring » Fri, May 05, 2017, 5:01 AM UTC

I've worked as part of a larger local remote team for a number of years. I'm dealing with customers, group meetings, or hackfests on about a 3-5 day a month basis. Outside of that, I'm fully remote.

I used to have a garage office, but the last several months the coffee table is the remote office. Soma.fm queued up when I start working. I take breaks for bike rides/lunch/exercise, if I feel the need to be "social", the local brewery (more like park + brewery) has outside seating and friends are there.

Solo - just gauge how much interaction you need and when you need it.

Re: How to Survive as a Solo Dev for Like a Decade or So

#152

Post by mcbain » Fri, May 05, 2017, 5:01 AM UTC

lscharen wrote: post #81

mstade wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I kill two birds with one stone: my apartment is actually two in disguise. I have two front doors, one leading to a third of the apartment (it's a rather large 4-bed) which is quite literally closed off from the rest by simply locking the internal door that connects the two. It may sound silly to have to literally exit the apartment to enter the office when it's literally next door, but it does have some value. Also…

I totally get it; I also need a separate space to switch mindsets. Your setup reminds me of an article I read many years ago on these sorts of "tricks" to stay disciplined when working from home. One of the tips an individual used was to 1. Walk out his front door 2. Lock it 3. Walk around the block 4. Re-enter the house And he was now in "work mode". At the end of the day, he reversed the process by walking around t…

When I was working remote for 12 months I did the same kind of thing. I had the added extra of living alone as well.

It forced me to get up, shower, put clothes on, see some kind of sunlight, even have a tiny bit of face to face interaction with another human at the convenience store/cafe/sidewalk, and then get home, log in, and probably just procrastinate for an hour or so anyway - but at least I was clean and dressed.

Re: How to Survive as a Solo Dev for Like a Decade or So

#153

Post by brndnmtthws » Fri, May 05, 2017, 5:07 AM UTC

ianamartin wrote: post #133

brndnmtthws wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can get shared space in a WeWork for about $350/month. Includes coffee, water, great internet, and if you're like me and enjoy interacting with humans, it does the trick. This is my preferred situation these days. Plus, when you travel, you can use WeWorks around the world (for a nominal fee). I even made a video about it: https://youtu.be/912WN4gUBCs Edit: I'm not affiliated with WeWork (aside from being a custo…

My experience with coworking spaces in NYC (specifically WeWork and Coworkrs) is that there's very little in the way of peace and quiet there--especially at the lowest price point. If you need to take calls, too bad. It's like trying to work out of a frat house most of the time. It's probably totally fine for certain types of work, but for me it wasn't a good place when you had to really focus on solving problems and…

Indeed, it's the equivalent of working in an "open floor plan" office.

Re: How to Survive as a Solo Dev for Like a Decade or So

#154

Post by coldtea » Fri, May 05, 2017, 6:45 AM UTC

raamdev wrote: post #8

> I find it astonishing that startup indie devs pay out for an office, with all the extra bills that entails. Work from home, keep your overheads as close to zero as possible. I've been a solo dev for nearly a decade (8 years) and I found that sometimes it makes complete sense to pay for an office. Before my daughter was born, I was able to work from almost anywhere: noisy cafes, at home, the library, etc. But after…

>I've been a solo dev for nearly a decade (8 years) and I found that sometimes it makes complete sense to pay for an office. Before my daughter was born, I was able to work from almost anywhere: noisy cafes, at home, the library, etc. But after she was born it was like my brain needed a space away from home where I could close a door and have a room all to myself, a place where I couldn't hear family sounds or be within walking distance of anyone I knew.

Or you could invest in some sound insulation and a good lock.

Re: How to Survive as a Solo Dev for Like a Decade or So

#155

Post by coldtea » Fri, May 05, 2017, 6:46 AM UTC

cortesoft wrote: post #76

mstade wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I kill two birds with one stone: my apartment is actually two in disguise. I have two front doors, one leading to a third of the apartment (it's a rather large 4-bed) which is quite literally closed off from the rest by simply locking the internal door that connects the two. It may sound silly to have to literally exit the apartment to enter the office when it's literally next door, but it does have some value. Also…

This isn't really different than renting an office, just that your office is REALLY close to your apartment.

It's totally different in that you don't pay an extra rent. The office is just a room in the house with "which is quite literally closed off from the rest by simply locking the internal door that connects the two".

Re: How to Survive as a Solo Dev for Like a Decade or So

#156

Post by erikb » Fri, May 05, 2017, 8:37 AM UTC

derefr wrote: post #124

erikb wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also thought so. But I have yet to experience one start-up project that doesn't demand so much of your time that you worry you won't get to take the 10 minute walk to the super market today. If you can do that, you can easily with the same amount of energy work a side project.

Physical energy/time, and mental/emotional energy, are different things. Software development, for whatever reason, directly spends "spoons" (in the sense of https://butyoudontlooksick.com/articles/written-by-christine... ) at a high rate. Because of this, it's hard to do much else that requires willpower after putting in a day's work as a programmer. You can do habitual things just fine; or procrastinative things. B…

Yes, after 6 hours of hard software engineering work your capacity for the day is pretty much exhausted and you start doing bad work, but if you put these bad additional hours into your day job or your hobby doesn't make much difference energy wise.

Re: How to Survive as a Solo Dev for Like a Decade or So

#157

Post by davemac8 » Fri, May 05, 2017, 10:06 AM UTC

hire_charts wrote: post #21

raamdev wrote: post #8

> I find it astonishing that startup indie devs pay out for an office, with all the extra bills that entails. Work from home, keep your overheads as close to zero as possible. I've been a solo dev for nearly a decade (8 years) and I found that sometimes it makes complete sense to pay for an office. Before my daughter was born, I was able to work from almost anywhere: noisy cafes, at home, the library, etc. But after…

$350/mo seems _extremely_ reasonable for a quiet studio. I don't think that's the kind of office expense the poster was talking about. For instance, in NYC, $350/month would barely get you a "hot desk" (i.e. chair at a table) in a coworking space.

I'm a solo dev, paying $550 AUD a month for a permanent desk at a great open plan tech community space. It's in an inner city suburb (Richmond) which is the tech hub of Melbourne, Australia.

I live about 22K out of town, in the green wedge with lots of trees. I like how I am still physically connected each day to the vibrant Melbourne tech community, but can come home to the family and be in a more open, natural space. I am so much more productive when I am in the office and it works well, when meeting clients, to have an address in town.

Best tax-deductible money I have ever spent.

Re: How to Survive as a Solo Dev for Like a Decade or So

#158

Post by p0nce » Fri, May 05, 2017, 12:00 PM UTC

badloginagain wrote: post #93

p0nce wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doing this very often. Abstracting the background noise and conversation is a skill that can be trained. It's even better in public libraries, because the noise is 10x lower than the typical open-space environment. You also make random encounters which usually turns out great. The only things that could be a blocker is music with vocals, for that I use earbuds. I tend to think of different places like psychological a…

+1 for libraries. Support your local library! More importantly, if you can relegate the hustle and noise from a cafe into white noise, you'll be doing yourself a favour if you end up working in a crowded office. A loud office is the worst kind of problem, because it's rarely a dealbreaker- meaning you have to endure it.

It's harder in the office because it's a social group, the chatter may talk about you, your project, etc.. So the expectation is that you listen to it.

Re: How to Survive as a Solo Dev for Like a Decade or So

#159

Post by pault » Fri, May 05, 2017, 12:24 PM UTC

fnayr wrote: post #138

Tushon wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm gonna call a hard citation please on "most accountants don't recommend" you taking a deduction that could get you a boatload of reduced tax liability.

Well I definitely got that recommendation too. His exact advice was that I shouldn't take it unless the office was it's own sealed off room that was NEVER used for ANY other purpose. He certainly scared me out of taking the deduction.

That's funny because turbotax always suggests this.

Re: How to Survive as a Solo Dev for Like a Decade or So

#160

Post by Mikushi » Fri, May 05, 2017, 12:56 PM UTC

lacampbell wrote: post #140

Mikushi wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, I just moved to Product Management as I want to have the mental energy to work on my own stuff. While I was a full time Software Engineer I'd get some done but would be way to fried to get any real progress going.

How did you transition from dev to product management? I'm keen to stay in this industry, but I am thinking seriously about getting away from the coding side of things. I'm part BA at the moment.

Managed to find a company where the product fitted my technical knowledge, took a bit of a pay cut as well but well worth it.

It's been a few months and I do not miss coding full time one bit, hell even no longer being involved deeply in tech is a breath of fresh air.

I've had previous management experience (CTO in small start up, Lead Dev ...) so I managed to leverage that during my interview process, then it was mostly showing I was really interested in growing a product and see it succeed.