62 karma · joined August 14, 2020
It's a good idea but I'm not sure how well that would work.
Edit: see discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25690036
You get a lot of devs with 20+ years of experience with very respectable wages (in European terms) who are not able to implement fizz buzz by themselves within any reasonable timeframe.
The younger devs, although considerably more skilled due to more recent education, aren't encouraged and mostly lack ambition, all they have to do (and can do) to make a good income is to hang around until they have 20+ years of experience.
Don't worry about not being good enough for freelancing, there's a market for juniors as well, it's all reflected in the rate.
Start looking for contracts: e.g. just search for "reactjs contract london". You'll find some stuff, but keep in mind most contracts never even get published as the recruiters also have people on call. See how the rates align with what you have in mind, note which skills you know are in high demand, make a list of companies that are involved, contact their recruiters through linkedin by sending your CV and rate, say you're a starting contractor so you need a bit of time to set things up. They will understand, everybody has to start. Things move pretty quickly in that world, once you have a contract, contact an accountant and set up your business and off you go.
You might want to be a bit more flexible (e.g. in terms of location) in the beginning just so you can get started. Once you're up and running, things move by themselves. Keep in mind you'll probably be poor during the first year because you have to upfront taxes and things like that.
Don't let them push your rate down too much, rates are negotiable but keep in mind the customer will probably be paying an already agreed upon rate and you're just giving the recruiters more rent for doing nothing.
If you become a tax hacker you can _really_ optimize your income, don't expect accountants to do an exceptional job for you. Tax systems aren't that different from a quirky legacy code base you can hack around in. Talking to people who are also interested in that might help as well, some people are real tax nerds.
Also if you somehow manage to increase your income, over half of it disappears in taxes and social security contributions.
Personally I've greatly benefited from becoming a freelancer in Europe and have never been one day unemployed since I started over 7 years ago (4 different customers in total). The significantly higher income (almost 3 times my old, already decently above average, _net_ income) royally compensates the lack of unemployment benefits or reduced pensions.
I feel that if more devs would become freelancers it would create real upward pressure towards compensation because compensation isn't entrenched in company policies and regulations.
One downside is the proliferation of those in-between rent-seeking businesses, they're probably needed to get started initially but they take huge cuts and have a lot of absurd contract requirements so it's wise to develop an active strategy to find jobs without them.
If moderation laws essentially make it impossible to build new mass platforms, then that creates a very strong case for having rights to have unrestricted open access to existing platforms, does it not? For example, the networks then wouldn't be able to issue lifetime bans at their discretion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quis_custodiet_ipsos_custodes%...
I'm sure many people on Parler are very concerned about free speech. It is discussed often and very passionately.
Some peoples lives might suck, some seem very happy, in my experience the atmosphere on Parler is generally far less depressed and hostile than on Twitter and it's quite relaxing seeing a lot more civil discourse. There does appear to be a bit more spam compared to Twitter but Twitter does have a 10 year head start.
Who gets to decide what constitutes disinformation, racism or hatred?
If you have someone who decides who can speak and what they are allowed to say, that person holds all the power and is hence a dictator. Having a dictator isn't very democratic.
The person who decides has all the power because that person decides who can speak and what they can say.
Consequently, when there exists such a person (or group of persons), the society is no longer a democracy but a dictatorship.