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Comment by blhack | Hacker News Reader

What are you working on right now, Zach?

Why not start living the crazy-startup-founder lifestyle today? That's what I'm trying to do. [1]The time I spend at my current job is like sleeping to me. It's time during a 24 hour period that I just plain will not get back. I have to do it or I will die.

But the hours I spend not sleeping are hours that I spend reading, and hacking, and writing, and more reading, and more hacking.

As much as I'd prefer the weather (and the availability of coffee) in the Bay Area to the weather in Phoenix, I can't make the move happen right now, so I'm just doing the "crazy hours" thing anyway :)

[1]: I just want to clarify that I don't mean I'm slacking off at my job, if anything, being in "work" mode 100% of the time, as well as having a passion for learning new stuff has benefited my employer. When I say "sleeping", I just mean something that I don't have a choice about doing.

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I am working on my current startup idea, right now it is simply a side project. I work for myself as it is so sleep is certainly a commodity in my life. I am hacking just about all day every day and enjoying the heck out of it.

unfortunately I am in Louisiana and with a shortage of hackers to network with here moving to the bay area just seems to make sense for my work as well as my sanity :)

Do you have a hackerspace? Or any local meetup groups of coders? Is there a University nearby?

I'm partially talking to myself here (so please excuse me), but I don't think "The Bay" is that magical.

I was born and raised in the Bay Area and here's what is magical: incredible weather, unbelievably diverse set of cultures, one of the world's most beautiful cities, easy access to beaches, mountains, Monterey/Carmel, active lifestyle of residents, open minded communities, world class universities, unbridled enthusiasm for tech and startup culture, tons of success around you which acts as a great motivator. The not so magical part - after slaving away for a few years, bouncing from startup to startup, you come to the realization that being employee number seven at the next Google is kind of like winning the lottery. You're approaching 30 (or a bit past it), are getting ready to settle down and start a family and need job stability and health insurance - so you go get a stuffy corporate job with Apple or Cisco or HP or Oracle or EA or Netflix or Google or Salesforce or ... you get the point. But then you notice something; while you may not be wealthy beyond your wildest dreams, the magic is still there for you and your family to enjoy - and, although you are now an upstanding member of society with real mortgage payments, you wouldn't trade your hacker startup years for anything.

unfortunately no ... no hackerspace, no local coders to speak of really (probably less than 20 programming jobs in out city of 250,000 people)

most of those are older married guys to boot. I started early and honestly had no idea you could even make a living doing this so i just did it for fun and kind of accidentally built something people wanted.

Basically now that I have done that and I realize what is possible as a hacker and in business I plan on repeating, hopefully on a larger scale

>unfortunately no ... no hackerspace, no local coders to speak of really

Out of curiosity, what was it? If you're already making money, then disregard everything I said, move to the bay.

What I was referring to was a company I have already sold.

It just happens to be what made me realize you could make a living writing software.

Unfortunately I am still under an NDA with the first exit so all I can really say is that it was mostly sharepoint plugins in the legal industry. What I work on now is completely at my discretion and I only do what I like, most of what I do these days is for fun and for the experience.

I have done some work lately for political campaigns and businesses(custom robo-calling apps, calendaring systems for a group of sleep clinics, a product and inventory management system for a manufacturing company etc) but thats just how I make money to pay the day by day bills, my projects are things I am passionate about and love to do, I guess I feel like moving to the bay area would help me get away from the stuff im doing now since I will know less people and I think it would force me to build something I truly WANT to work on instead of constantly accepting projects because there is good money in it and the people know me.

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