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I secretly lived in my office for 500 days

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Re: I secretly lived in my office for 500 days

#61

Post by Retra »

copsarebastards wrote: post #58
digisign wrote: post #56

Must have been pioneer in this area. A bit over ten years ago I once had a good job in Santa Monica, but was tired of paying ridiculous rent for a shoebox that I was never at. So I packed up, slept in the underground parking garage, and went to the gym every day. Was in the best shape of my life and saved 40k that year, which I later turned into a 2-year trip around the world. Was definitely worth it.

How did that work for your sex life? Bringing ladies home to a van is my main reason for not wanting to do this.

Just don't date homeless women.

Re: I secretly lived in my office for 500 days

#62

Post by patmcguire »

mikelat wrote: post #41
peter303 wrote: post #21

I read a couple of essays from googliers who did this. Google provides nearly all your needs in office- free food, recreation, laundry- save a many hour sleep spot. And people work and hang out 12, 15 hours then. So why pay high rent only to sleep and put up with terrible commute traffic. In the open office environment of new techs finding sleep spots is harder. But many sleep in their vehicles in a climate rarely fr…

I'm surprised this isn't already a perk at working at some of these companies, but then again I'm assuming they'd be subjected to a whole swarm of regulations regarding living conditions.

Yeah. South Bay hates housing, loves offices.

Re: I secretly lived in my office for 500 days

#63

Post by Retra »

crucifiction wrote: post #44
sliverstorm wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it boils down to "work now, play later" vs. "work now, play now" philosophies. On the one hand you have the people who give 100% of their day to work, with the goal of building up F-U money and never working again. On the other hand you have the people who make less & save less and plan on working longer, but take more of their day for themselves. I don't think I can say either philosophy is wrong, but they d…

If cumulative happiness over your life is the goal then the first one is clearly the wrong approach. The probability that you will die/become incapacitated/have health issues before you can either build up or enjoy for a long period of time that F-U money puts a discount on the entire end state.

Why would cumulative happiness be a goal? Happiness is not a things that accumulates.

Re: I secretly lived in my office for 500 days

#64

Post by Retra »

shanemhansen wrote: post #15

I've heard people who live with their parents proclaim how great it is. They don't have to pay rent or do their own laundry or anything us terrible materialistic people do. It's great for saving money. For reasons that I hope would be obvious I'm not interested in that sort of "lifestyle choice". This guy is worse because at least people who are mooching off their parents aren't literally stealing from them.

What is being stolen?

Re: I secretly lived in my office for 500 days

#65

Post by austenallred »

I lived in my car under similar-ish circumstances. Was getting a company off the ground, needed to be in Silicon Valley to raise money, was unwilling to pay $800/month for a single terrible bedroom, and had read a lot of Thoreau and already given away almost everything I owned to vagabond around China.

It's kind of a pain living on $200-300 a month, but it's really not that bad. You start to realize that most of the stuff people spend their whole lives working to buy they don't need. The forced routine of going to a gym is one I've tried not to get out of the habit of. I actually think it's a very healthy way of life, assuming you find a way to eat well.

More here: http://austenallred.com/voluntarily-homeless-in-silicon-vall...

Now I have an apartment (am married with a baby on the way), but I put about half of what I earn into killing debt/building a savings. I'll be debt-free next month with 10k in the bank, having had 0 savings and 20k in debt a couple years ago. I only pay myself 50k/yr.

Re: I secretly lived in my office for 500 days

#66

Post by oAlbe »

digisign wrote: post #56

Must have been pioneer in this area. A bit over ten years ago I once had a good job in Santa Monica, but was tired of paying ridiculous rent for a shoebox that I was never at. So I packed up, slept in the underground parking garage, and went to the gym every day. Was in the best shape of my life and saved 40k that year, which I later turned into a 2-year trip around the world. Was definitely worth it.

Doesn't this affect your health? An year is a pretty long time to spend sleeping in a car seat, that is definitely less comfortable than an actual bed. Plus there is to consider that in an underground garage humidity levels should be pretty high, which can cause headaches (to say the least) and make the entire thing of sleeping in a car seat even worst for the back. How did it work out for you? (geniune question)

Re: I secretly lived in my office for 500 days

#67

Post by VLM »

copsarebastards wrote: post #58
digisign wrote: post #56

Must have been pioneer in this area. A bit over ten years ago I once had a good job in Santa Monica, but was tired of paying ridiculous rent for a shoebox that I was never at. So I packed up, slept in the underground parking garage, and went to the gym every day. Was in the best shape of my life and saved 40k that year, which I later turned into a 2-year trip around the world. Was definitely worth it.

How did that work for your sex life? Bringing ladies home to a van is my main reason for not wanting to do this.

At $40K/yr savings, as long as you spend less than $770 per saturday night hotel rental you come out ahead (assuming you get lucky every single saturday night...)

Something to think about when you have that kind of savings going on, is taking a weekend getaway every single weekend is quite affordable.

Re: I secretly lived in my office for 500 days

#69

Post by VLM »

ZanyProgrammer wrote: post #22
peter303 wrote: post #21

I read a couple of essays from googliers who did this. Google provides nearly all your needs in office- free food, recreation, laundry- save a many hour sleep spot. And people work and hang out 12, 15 hours then. So why pay high rent only to sleep and put up with terrible commute traffic. In the open office environment of new techs finding sleep spots is harder. But many sleep in their vehicles in a climate rarely fr…

If I got paid a Google salary, there's no way I couldn't afford to find an apartment in Santa Clara County. Note I didn't say fancy condo, 3 bedroom ranch house with two car garage and spacious lawn, or townhouse.

I talked to a google recruiter a couple years ago and if I took the job and moved to mountain view, my current lifestyle of "3 bedroom ranch house with two car garage and spacious lawn" would be utterly impossible, so goodbye.

This was very close to the national peak of the housing bubble, things may have gotten better since then.

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