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

sizefivegames.com

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

#161

Post by koonsolo »

Nition wrote: post #120
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'm not sure about the US but here in New Zealand, even if you just work in a room in your usual home, you can claim that percent of your home's costs in your business expenses.[1] So I definitely wouldn't say you're doing anything immoral tax-wise. [1] http://www.ird.govt.nz/business-income-tax/expenses/homebus-...

Same here in Belgium

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

#162

Post by lukas099 »

coldtea wrote: post #155
cortesoft wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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".

I'm assuming the rent for the double-apartment is greater than it would be for the single-apartment, so you are paying extra rent.

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

#163

Post by dionidium »

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.

The nearest WeWork to me in NYC charges $450/mo for a "hot desk" and $500/mo for a dedicated desk.

https://www.wework.com/buildings/w-43rd-st--new-york-city--N...

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

#164

Post by Arizhel »

makapuf wrote: post #104
Arizhel wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Currently, with a wife, a kid, and all her kid-friends, carrying on loudly and ransacking the house at all hours, I couldn't imagine making a "bedroom converted to office" work for actual productive remote work. I can't imagine making a setup like this work for even maintaining basic sanity. Every time I read a post like this, I realize I did the right thing by not having kids. I'm constantly stressed out as it is b…

Your body will trick your mind to love your children. It happens often after the fact - I know it did. Humanity wouldn't survive if not. And I now find hard not to go ransacking the house with them ;)

You may love your children, but that doesn't mean you don't get stressed out by them. It's quite normal for parents to want to take time away from their kids, even having kid-free vacations without them as well as just "date nights". So obviously even people who aren't condemned to work in open offices and who have kids like some peace and quiet now and then.

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

#165

Post by artifaxx »

erikb wrote: post #108
artifaxx wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It really depends on the person, thats great you recognize that you do well in the corporate world. Unfortunately in many places the company would own your spare projects due to the intellectual property assignment rules in their employment contracts. Beyond that some of us strongly dislike conformity and being a replaceable cog in the corporate machine. Connecting with one's customers and seeing directly how what yo…

I feel much less replaceable, since I have rights. You can say "nope" to your boss. You can't do that to your customer if he's the only one paying your rent this month. And the smaller you are the more others will push you around, not because they are mean but because they don't have to think about you, and just like you they are tired and barely get done more than 80% of what they want to do. And in some cases peopl…

This definitely depends on a lot of factors. If you do work where you are easily replaceable sure. Most software developers don't have anything special rights wise as so few unionize. As an independent developer if you choose work in niches where the demand is greater than supply you can fire your painful customers anytime and move on to other ones. Different solutions work for different people.

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

#166

Post by bartread »

gm-conspiracy wrote: post #127
bartread wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel similarly. Where I'm working at the moment, apart from the noise and distraction of an overcrowded open plan office, there are people in my face literally all the time due to meetings, questions, pairing, dealing with outages, and other miscellaneous interruptions. As an introvert this all becomes seriously draining so home is very much my escape. I don't think I'm alone in this either - plenty of introverts i…

Find another job, please. Even if you made less, not having to commute would make you feel better.

You called it: I could probably tolerate everything else were it not for that journey.

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

#167

Post by coldtea »

lukas099 wrote: post #162
coldtea wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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".

I'm assuming the rent for the double-apartment is greater than it would be for the single-apartment, so you are paying extra rent.

Tons of houses people already live in have an extra entrance or backdoor -- it's just a locked door between the other rooms. They could live in the same house and pay the same rent without using one room as a separate office -- as millions do.

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

#168

Post by tonyedgecombe »

vpresident wrote: post #143

Being an indie developer for 10 years feels too much for me. I mean, once you do 2-3 games and you have a little success, I think you should use that notoriety to gather more talent and assemble a team. Forget starting a startup, studio, being an entrepreneur. I say you should continue doing what you do, but instead of doing all the development yourself and outsourcing the graphics or the sound effects, just bring th…

But then you are an employer rather than developer, not all of us want that.

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

#169

Post by tripzilch »

steinso wrote: post #40
throw9966 wrote: post #17

The best advice that I got was don't quit your full time job. My desktop sharewares dont sell that often nowadays, but its enough to pay my rent and monthly expenses. The salary that I get from my full time job goes direct to my bank untouched. > "Working from a cafe" 100% agree. For me, no work gets done from a cafe. I wonder what work people do by sitting at Starbucks. I cant write one line of code if I am being co…

I am very productive in a cafe environment, I like the atmosphere and it is a nice change. I just pop in some noise cancelling headphones and code away. At a cafe there is a lot of noise, but other than that there is really no distractions.

noise cancelling headphones may be the best €250 I ever spent.

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

#170

Post by jtfairbank »

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…

Can you link a news article or study about the similarities between programmers at the end of the day and adults with ADHD? Just curious... for a friend... ;)
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