Game Programmer Quits Job To Sell Street Food, Doubles Salary • Hacker News Board

Re: Game Programmer Quits Job To Sell Street Food, Doubles Salary

#41

Post by cabalamat » Mon, Jul 22, 2013, 2:53 PM UTC

LekkoscPiwa wrote: post #27

The average age of the US farmer is 58. In Japan it is 68. There is less and less land available for agriculture. Less and less fresh water (agriculture uses 90% of fresh water in the US). The weather gets worse by the year to produce food. On the other hand there are more and more people in the world. So supply is diminishing while demand is high. That's why food is more and more expensive almost every quarter. All…

> Farmers are going to drive Maserati's in the future

Or people who own farmland?

Re: Game Programmer Quits Job To Sell Street Food, Doubles Salary

#42

Post by rubinelli » Mon, Jul 22, 2013, 2:54 PM UTC

LekkoscPiwa wrote: post #27

The average age of the US farmer is 58. In Japan it is 68. There is less and less land available for agriculture. Less and less fresh water (agriculture uses 90% of fresh water in the US). The weather gets worse by the year to produce food. On the other hand there are more and more people in the world. So supply is diminishing while demand is high. That's why food is more and more expensive almost every quarter. All…

Farmers are getting older because small-scale farms are disappearing. Agriculture is an incredibly hard business, and unless you have scale, one bad year will wipe you out. Now, those few that do have more land than some sovereign states and the machinery to work it are making some serious money, so working for them is a perfectly viable career strategy.

Re: Game Programmer Quits Job To Sell Street Food, Doubles Salary

#43

Post by _delirium » Mon, Jul 22, 2013, 2:54 PM UTC

LekkoscPiwa wrote: post #27

The average age of the US farmer is 58. In Japan it is 68. There is less and less land available for agriculture. Less and less fresh water (agriculture uses 90% of fresh water in the US). The weather gets worse by the year to produce food. On the other hand there are more and more people in the world. So supply is diminishing while demand is high. That's why food is more and more expensive almost every quarter. All…

I'd be interested in the source of the U.S. figure. My guess is that this is only looking at independent farmers. But they produce a declining share of agricultural output. What's the average age of an Archer Daniels Midland employee?

Re: Game Programmer Quits Job To Sell Street Food, Doubles Salary

#44

Post by simpleglider » Mon, Jul 22, 2013, 2:56 PM UTC

JPKab wrote: post #3

The streetfood business is awful in the long term. I hope he can quickly move into a brick and mortar restaurant. Depending on the municipality, streetfood vendors get nailed by all sorts of random fines, get shunted around to various "permitted areas" which may or may not have lots of foot traffic, and the worst part: the low barrier to entry. Competitors can come in super quickly, and when they do, they can lower t…

He's in China, so that's less of an issue.

Re: Game Programmer Quits Job To Sell Street Food, Doubles Salary

#45

Post by tocomment » Mon, Jul 22, 2013, 2:58 PM UTC

pilom wrote: post #30

tocomment wrote: post #17

What are other promising businesses programmers in the US can start?

Cutting spending and keeping my programming job instead of starting a new business has worked out really well for me. Passive investing of my savings earns me $500/month and I don't have to do any work at all. Other options for those outside of SV is landlording. In some mid-west cities you can earn over $10,000/year/house after all taxes and expenses (including saving for long term expenses like roofs). Not exactly…

What kind of passive investments do you have? It seems like you're lucky to get a 3% return on dividend paying stocks.

Re: Game Programmer Quits Job To Sell Street Food, Doubles Salary

#46

Post by jasonkester » Mon, Jul 22, 2013, 2:59 PM UTC

tocomment wrote: post #17

What are other promising businesses programmers in the US can start?

Programming Computers For Money.

Seriously, it's bordering on the most lucrative profession in the US. If "Selling Hotdogs" sounds like it might make you even 1/10 as much, you're simply not charging enough.

So if you're looking for a business that doesn't involve selling your time for money, your best option is Software Product Company. Build something people need enough to pay you $50/month for it. The math works out quite nicely.

Re: Game Programmer Quits Job To Sell Street Food, Doubles Salary

#47

Post by justinhj » Mon, Jul 22, 2013, 3:01 PM UTC

alex_c wrote: post #24

Ygg2 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that even with all that they are better than a game programmer is really sad. Game programmers are the equivalent of children workers in a sweatshop.

Why is that really sad? More people need food than games. More people want to make games than sell street food. The food business is brutally hard work, and I have a lot of respect for anyone doing it (well). There's no a priori reason why game programmers should be rewarded more than street food vendors.

You'd need to sell a lot of bread to make even an average US game programmers salary. The reason being that the work is creative and technically skilled. There are fewer people able to do it and that pushes up salaries. Like any industry there are exploitative employers, but it's just a case of finding or making a good place to work. The video game business is constantly changing in terms of the types of games people will pay for and the technology used. There's a never ending demand for new games.

Re: Game Programmer Quits Job To Sell Street Food, Doubles Salary

#48

Post by pilom » Mon, Jul 22, 2013, 3:03 PM UTC

aestra wrote: post #40

pilom wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cutting spending and keeping my programming job instead of starting a new business has worked out really well for me. Passive investing of my savings earns me $500/month and I don't have to do any work at all. Other options for those outside of SV is landlording. In some mid-west cities you can earn over $10,000/year/house after all taxes and expenses (including saving for long term expenses like roofs). Not exactly…

Landlording can be very profitable in some areas or a huge money pit in some areas. My parents did it for years and barely broke even, or lost a ton of money if you include labor costs. Plus you get people waking you up in the middle of the night when they lock themselves out.

I agree entirely with the fact that real estate it is very hit or miss. But worst case scenario (assuming you have insurance) is you have to sell the house at a depressed price and take a loss on your time. With a restaurant (where 50%+ are out of business in 3 years) you rent the space, lose all the money you spent on rent, and on food and on employees etc. Very easy to lose everything with a restaurant, but you need to be fairly unlucky to loose more than you put into a house (i.e. you bought in 2007)

That being said, saving lots of money and living off of dividends is the way to go.

Re: Game Programmer Quits Job To Sell Street Food, Doubles Salary

#49

Post by pilom » Mon, Jul 22, 2013, 3:05 PM UTC

simpleglider wrote: post #44

JPKab wrote: post #3

The streetfood business is awful in the long term. I hope he can quickly move into a brick and mortar restaurant. Depending on the municipality, streetfood vendors get nailed by all sorts of random fines, get shunted around to various "permitted areas" which may or may not have lots of foot traffic, and the worst part: the low barrier to entry. Competitors can come in super quickly, and when they do, they can lower t…

He's in China, so that's less of an issue.

So the fines may be less of an issue, but I feel like there are more possible competitors and probably even less of a barrier to entry.

Re: Game Programmer Quits Job To Sell Street Food, Doubles Salary

#50

Post by pcl » Mon, Jul 22, 2013, 3:10 PM UTC

nodata wrote: post #13

untog wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unexpected health issues? That's a little more tricky.

And what does an American employee do about unexpected (long term) health issues? (For short term issues there is insurance, whether in the form of savings or actual insurance.)

Long-term disability coverage has been part of all the insurance plans I've had over the years in the US. I assume that it's pretty common across US insurance plans, at least for full-time employees.

Such coverage pays some percentage of your salary for many years from the beginning of a long-term disability. I think that both of those numbers vary widely from plan to plan.