Life in a Studio Apartment with My Wife and Two Sons • Hacker News Board

Re: Life in a Studio Apartment with My Wife and Two Sons

#171

Post by rco8786 » Sun, Nov 08, 2015, 2:23 PM UTC

codingdave wrote: post #71

sotojuan wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who does not want to live there either, I can see why people move there. It's simply where the most opportunities are. The idea is to move there and live uncomfortably until you network your way to an awesome, high paying job. Alternatively, the tech companies there usually do more interesting stuff than in other area. Here in NYC most are related to advertising or media—stuff not easy to get exited about.…

It is absolutely not where the most opportunities are. It is the place where the most startups are, which means the top of the opportunity pile eclipses other locations in terms of earning potential and networking. But quantitatively, the most programming jobs per capita are in Washington, Colorado, and Utah.

Source for those #s? Curious

Re: Life in a Studio Apartment with My Wife and Two Sons

#172

Post by cbr » Sun, Nov 08, 2015, 2:29 PM UTC

hluska wrote: post #89

This is off topic, but in March 2016, I'll become a dad for the first time and I was wondering if some more experienced parents could answer a question for me. That article has a black board with a tally of diapers changed today. The count was up to thirty. Is that somewhat accurate/possible??? If so, holy shit, I'm investing in cloth....

The number of cloth diapers you need to buy is roughly proportional to the amount you'll go through in one day. So learning that babies typically go through 3X diapers/day instead of X doesn't actually change the cloth/disposable tradeoff.

That said, 30 seems high to me. Our kid probably peaked at about 8/day.

(We started with cloth diapers, but the amount of time washing them was just too high.)

Re: Life in a Studio Apartment with My Wife and Two Sons

#173

Post by hobscrk777 » Sun, Nov 08, 2015, 3:32 PM UTC

kzhahou wrote: post #160

bsder wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Austin is more hype than substance. And it has gotten really expensive as well. San Diego, for example, stomps all over Austin in terms of software jobs, and Austin's hardware scene is laughable.

What are the SD companies?

I, too, would be interested to hear the response.

Re: Life in a Studio Apartment with My Wife and Two Sons

#174

Post by wj » Sun, Nov 08, 2015, 4:11 PM UTC

ashark wrote: post #97

hluska wrote: post #89

This is off topic, but in March 2016, I'll become a dad for the first time and I was wondering if some more experienced parents could answer a question for me. That article has a black board with a tally of diapers changed today. The count was up to thirty. Is that somewhat accurate/possible??? If so, holy shit, I'm investing in cloth....

Nah, that's way high. Diaper pro tip: very young babies (first few months) require a "5-minute rule" on changing poo diapers. You see them doing it, or smell it, wait 5 minutes to change it. It's very likely it'll be a 2-stage operation, and if you change it too early you'll waste a diaper when wave 2 hits right after you're done (after if you're lucky ). They can live with it for a few minutes. Congrats, and good lu…

I would counter that the first nine months are also where you can easily get away with taking the baby out to a restaurant. After that you have a period of a few years where that is difficult as they have difficulty staying in one spot for any length of time.

Re: Life in a Studio Apartment with My Wife and Two Sons

#175

Post by JabavuAdams » Sun, Nov 08, 2015, 8:53 PM UTC

eghad wrote: post #141

JabavuAdams wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is who you're living next to, at that price point, in another city. Basically, if you live where all of the minimum-wage people live, you're going to get spill-over from all the typical problems in such a neighbourhood.

Yeah, the assumption that all low-income neighborhoods have problems that you should be afraid of "spilling over" is a poor one.

It would be obvious to say that I haven't lived in every low-income neighbourhood, but I've lived in one. So, I'll list the least severe of my complaints and see whether you think they're not representative of low-income neighbourhoods.

I live in Canada, but feel free to comment on US / Commonwealth / Europe.

* Majority of students in elementary school's parents did not attend college.

* Less than a majority of high-school students continue to University

* Engineer, Doctor, or Lawyer is a very uncommon profession among my neighbours.

* Any non-domestic, non store-robbery, assault with a weapon (stabbing or shooting) within the neighbourhood within the last two years.

Re: Life in a Studio Apartment with My Wife and Two Sons

#176

Post by michmeagher » Sun, Nov 08, 2015, 9:05 PM UTC

hluska wrote: post #89

This is off topic, but in March 2016, I'll become a dad for the first time and I was wondering if some more experienced parents could answer a question for me. That article has a black board with a tally of diapers changed today. The count was up to thirty. Is that somewhat accurate/possible??? If so, holy shit, I'm investing in cloth....

Congrats! I vaguely contemplated cloth and now am so glad I didn't. It would have crushed my soul to put on a laundered and stuffed cloth diaper only to have my son dirty it while I was changing him.

Re: Life in a Studio Apartment with My Wife and Two Sons

#177

Post by michmeagher » Sun, Nov 08, 2015, 9:40 PM UTC

greg-kroleski wrote: post #58

ChuckMcM wrote: post #38

I really like the insight about density. I temporarily changed my living situation from a 4 bedroom house where my kids had moved out, to a 2 br apartment and I recognized the density issue but had not conceptualized it so clearly as the author did.

One of my favorite parts about living in constraints is it forces me to build new mental models.

This is exactly the approach we had to adopt when we travelled around Europe in a camper (a sweet 1970s converted Ford Transit). I loved having to be creative about finding space and making sure every thing we took with us had multiple functions if possible.

I wish I could say we have kept this up now we are back living in the "real world" but some of the spirit has rubbed off and we're definitely much better at becoming less attached to particular belongings.

I strongly believe that most belongings end up becoming burdens if you don't establish a process of questioning their utility on a somewhat regular basis.

Thanks for the article! Really thought-provoking.

Re: Life in a Studio Apartment with My Wife and Two Sons

#178

Post by sawthat » Sun, Nov 08, 2015, 10:02 PM UTC

7Figures2Commas wrote: post #59

sawthat wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone keeps asking this question. The answer: they are hiring remote workers. But my question: where is the evidence that tech companies are not able to be profitable with their high payroll costs?

> But my question: where is the evidence that tech companies are not able to be profitable with their high payroll costs? You could look at the growing number of layoffs at post-seed stage companies[1]. Or you could look at startups that voluntarily publish financial information. Take, for example, this one[2], which, as of June, was spending $525,000/month on payroll (equating to an all-in cost of $146,000/year per…

I worked in Colorado after the .com crash, the tech industry was devastated there, Bay Area companies that had opened offices in the area reconsolidated back in the Bay Area, rather than take advantage of lower payroll costs in Denver. It sounds good on paper to move out of the area, in practice it hadn't happened yet.

Re: Life in a Studio Apartment with My Wife and Two Sons

#179

Post by sawthat » Sun, Nov 08, 2015, 10:04 PM UTC

7Figures2Commas wrote: post #96

charlesdm wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He said tech companies, not startups. For tech companies, it doesn't really matter. They have unlimited money (relative to the cost of an employee). For startups, it does.

1. Since when did "tech company" come to mean "non-startup"? Lots of startups are by definition technology companies. 2. Many people in the Bay Area are employed by angel and venture-backed startups, so how does it make sense to ignore them? If and when there's a significant downturn that results in the unsustainable startup herd being culled, not all startup employees are going to find six-figure replacement jobs at…

Of course, but there is no evidence that operating in Tulsa would prevent that.

Re: Life in a Studio Apartment with My Wife and Two Sons

#180

Post by sokoloff » Sun, Nov 08, 2015, 11:55 PM UTC

PhantomGremlin wrote: post #156

hluska wrote: post #89

This is off topic, but in March 2016, I'll become a dad for the first time and I was wondering if some more experienced parents could answer a question for me. That article has a black board with a tally of diapers changed today. The count was up to thirty. Is that somewhat accurate/possible??? If so, holy shit, I'm investing in cloth....

There are only two words you need to know about handling disposable diapers. I'm surprised nobody has mentioned it here yet. It's "better than sliced bread": Diaper Genie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaper_Genie

If you take only one thing away from this thread, this should be it. It's phenomenal and worth every penny, IMO.

Incidentally, this is the first time since the change that I miss having the upvote score on an item.