Hacker News Reader

Comment by austenallred | Hacker News Reader

This is exactly how I feel. The circumstances I live in are much worse than I could be the ones I could be living in (I'm currently living in the back of my Honda Civic, parking somewhere in Palo Alto or Redwood City), but I don't care. I've honestly never been happier. I'm doing what I love, building something I feel is sorely needed, and that's all that really matters.

I sleep better now on the air mattress in the trunk of my car now than I did working a mind-numbing job and sleeping in a king-sized bed.

View on HN

Good lord why? There are so many other tech hubs where housing is reasonable. How are you supposed to do your most inspired work if you can't get a decent night's sleep.

There are theatre people in Milwaukee and Houston and DC. But if you want to be on Broadway, you gotta' bite the big apple. Des Moines is for sleeping.

I've seen some cool companies and some badass people come out of Des Moines. Don't knock it.

My wife's family is from Iowa, but nobody would mistake Des Moines for the city that never sleeps. Even its most fervent partisans. That's the way analogies work.

Silicon Valley is one big, dark, empty sleepy suburb at night. I don't think the liveliness of street culture has anything to do with a city's status as a tech hub. Personally I would want to be in Des Moines if I was selling agriculture software, or something like that. Parent's startup deals with journalism, perhaps better off in NYC. SV is not the end-all, be-all for everyone, especially since Parent is bootstrapping and the VC ecosystem means nothing to him.

Journalism - kind of, depending on your definition of journalism. And it's not a media play, it's a hard technology play, so SV is a better fit.

Des Moines is big for financials. Specifically insurance.

If you're young and a dancer, New York offers a high number of opportunities because there is a critical mass. Silicon Valley is analogous in regard to software startups. Des Moines may be great for soybean biotech, but that ain't the fellow's business - nor is it a young person's game. Obviously, neither is insurance. Sleeping in a Civic isn't my cup of tea - I'd need at least a Grand Caravan - but that doesn't make it wrong for everyone.

And a young person can wind up living in their car despite playing to expectations and not pursuing their dreams. That and short is just the way life is.

These days, I'd argue that the computing equivalent of the theater person's NYC is simply "the internet".

Sure, maybe silicon valley is slightly better, but it doesn't look like a particularly compelling advantage, certainly not anything close to the divide between doing theater in NYC and doing it in Milwaukee.

On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog, and few people care where your doghouse is.

I'd like to think that's try since I'm not in Silicon Valley. But sometimes it does feel like most of the deals that are made are due to personal connections - people who are running into each other at events, parties, coffee shops, etc.

There's a huge premium, when consulting, to being there in person. One of the easier ways to do a startup without investors (or homelessness) in this area is to work 3-6 months out of the year as a contractor. My impression is that getting those jobs is way easier here than anywhere else.

/my impression/ is that it's similar when getting VC money, but I don't have direct experience with that like I have with consulting.

People you meet in person, in my experience, are more likely to do business deals with you, and you are going to run into more people of the calibre you want to have partnerships with in this area than anywhere else.

The main problem I have with this is that it would put so much pressure on your startup. You need to be built to resist failure, and if you've literally invested everything, you're in for a hard time.

Not to say that you shouldn't invest almost everything, and this is a cool hack, but it's not sustainable, at least emotionally.

I don't feel like there's that much pressure on the startup, I'm just concentrating full-time on it for a while. If I run out of savings I'll pick up some freelance stuff and keep working on it, just not full-time. I guess it all depends on your unique circumstances.

I'm sorry, but describing homelessness as "a cool hack" is pretty twisted.

> I'm sorry, but

Are you? Are you really sorry?

There's a saying. Anything which was said before a but doesn't really count. I think this guy has a point.

I don't think in that context it represents an apology or even empathy. It means "allow me to politely tell you that you are full of shit!"

Kinda like saying "have a nice day" to somebody who was just rude to you.

Go get to know real homeless people, we are not talking about homelessness here. Though I think the OP is taking it a bit far, I think it would be fine to do it for a week or something if you opened up a huge opportunity for you.

There are a lot of people that I suspect you would consider "real" homeless that live out of their cars.

The main difference here is that I assume he is making decent money. More than you would expect of someone that is "really" homeless anyway.

You can be house-full and yet still homeless. Dwellings are becoming more and more just that, it seems. Not a "home". Not a Fortress of Solitude, if you will.

So why keep up the charade if you're out of the weather anyway?

How do you go to the toilets?

In the Hacker Dojo

I'm not the Parent but if I'm ever a transient I'll hold onto my $30/mo 24-Hour Fitness membership for dear life. Toilets and hot showers all over the country.

I imagine the parent has access to a coworking space during the day, and a 24 hour or similar fitness place for showers, bathrooms and exercise.

How long have you been doing this?

So far one week in Silicon Valley, but I honestly feel it's sustainable. Park your car and sleep in it wherever there are other cars (no one notices you), work in the Hacker Dojo, shower at the Gold's Gym down the street in Mountain View. Total burn rate per month? $200-ish. http://www.austenallred.com/voluntarily-homeless-in-silicon-...

keep that up for 5 years with a good engineer salary and you will be in really good shape!

The cat kittles speaks the truth. Minimum living and investing 50% of your income into a 401k for 5-7 years in your twenties. Invest the other 35% or so into diverse CDs with ranging lock periods (or flipping things on craigslist, both have a decent ROI). Five or so years of pain for a solid path afterwards.

That doesn't include the cost of wrecking your back from sleeping in the back of a honda civic.

With a decent air mattress you should be OK.

More back harm from failing to left. Squats and deads, my man.

I also highly recommend Wealthfront.com for super easy diversified investing. (Once you've maxed your HSA and IRA)

I'd recommend vanguard.com . From what I can tell, wealthfront is largely repurchasing vanguard funds and selling them downstream.

And then when you are older and your body less resilient and your obligations much higher, you cash in and do all the fun, adventurous stuff you missed out on in your 20s, right?

Concentrating on savings is betting against your own future earning potential. Generally this advice comes from people who always hate their jobs. Better advice: get a job you enjoy. You'll never work a day in your life

There's a Dojo nomad community, we hooked Kurt up with them when he arrived, you may want to find them. They're good folks and offer each other great tips.

But, for the love of christ, please don't sleep in the Dojo ever, it endangers our zoning. We've had enough trouble with that can of worms already, and I don't ever want to see the zoning board again except maybe at a nice party.

Awesome; I'd love to get hooked up with them. Also, I promise I will never sleep in the Dojo :)

  | please don't sleep in the Dojo ever, it
  | endangers our zoning

That seems odd. I've heard of people sleeping in the office before, does that endanger the zoning of that particular company, or does the Hacker Dojo have specific circumstances?

Cool. So instead of a hacker house, we need a hacker parking lot. Or even better, a hacker parkade. Like in RPO, but maybe constructed a little better so you can drive in and out.

You mean a trailer park? Like the ones that have been torn down to make room for luxury buildings?

Actually, a trailer park would probably be a huge deal. The biggest problem would always be knowing who just wants a cheap place to live vs a cheap place to hack.

Why do you want to make that distinction?

Because if he doesn't then the idea doesn't sound too interesting anymore.

Communal or otherwise affordable non-traditional housing for people of like interests isn't a new concept and there is a lot to be said for it. Trailer parks for the general public are not a new concept either, and there is arguably much less to be said for them.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com