tjic

8 ms·

1.
by tjic 5y ago
LOL, yes. I'm a coder, ran my own "startups" (small businesses, no VC, no hypergrowth) from 2000 to 2014, my .emacs is thousands of lines long, etc. TY for the positive reviews of my books!
2.
by tjic 5y ago
Thank you! So kind of you to take the time to say so!
3.
by tjic 5y ago
This is similar to how I've been living on my homestead for the last 8 years, and I'm enjoying myself.
4.
by tjic 5y ago
I made the jump 8 years and 3 days ago. (In fact, I wrote books about it https://www.amazon.com/Escape-City-1-Travis-Corcoran/dp/B093... and https://www.amazon.com/Escape-City-2-Travis-Corcoran&#x
5.
by tjic 6y ago
This is an excellent point @bluntfang. I'll be very upfront: homesteading is a money losing proposition. It's a consumption good - it costs more than any (monetary) profit it brings. And my writing about it is ALSO money losing.
6.
by tjic 6y ago
Author of "Escape the City" here. I didn't "need" $90k to write the book. I chose to sell copies of a book, at typical book prices. Thousands of people chose to buy the book. That's where the $90k number come
7.
by tjic 8y ago
Website won't let me read the article without signing in. Thesis proven!
8.
by tjic 8y ago
The only winning move is not to play.
9.
by tjic 8y ago
Agreed. "1 year sabbatical, backpacked around Asia." If I saw that on a resume I'd think it was awesome. (...and I've hired dozens of people).
10.
by tjic 9y ago
There is a an issue in all statistics: "the seen and the unseen". It basically means "measuring benefits but not measuring costs". Even if the statistics is accurate. Even if denying people the right to self-determinati
11.
by tjic 9y ago
I fear that trying Scrivener might launch me into a five year quest to duplicate some of its features in elisp! :)
12.
by tjic 9y ago
I've been using emacs for about 27 years, and even wrote two novels ( e.g. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005JPPMS6 ) in it. Author friends tell me that I've really really REALLY got to try Scrivener, but I know
13.
by tjic 9y ago
Garbage article with garbage headline. One person expresses his political opinion. Unworthy of HN.
14.
by tjic 9y ago
So much this. If you aren't generating profits, and want someone to work for you, either: * borrow the money in your own name * borrow against your house * don't bring them on You're the one creating the risk. You've go
15.
by tjic 9y ago
I did this for six months. I live in NH, I got a well paying contract in MA, and they needed me to work 60 hrs/week to rescue a project. The 60 hrs/week is key, because it made the ratio of billable hours to wasted hours plausible
16.
by tjic 9y ago
> SiteStacks can find the technology used at any domain I punched in a URL of a website I built, it didn't have data, went out to get some, then reported back that it couldn't. Meanwhile https://builtwith.com/re
17.
by tjic 9y ago
> The geodesic dome is brilliant in how it minimizes the amount of materials needed to enclose a given space. Except sheet material is sold in rectangles, so you end up with a huge pile of offcuts. As a child I was entranced by geodesic
18.
by tjic 10y ago
yep!
19.
by tjic 10y ago
> Manufacturing of any kind is as competitive as hell. Absolutely true. And this is why I was very specific about picking a high end niche, and using tons of jigs, etc. If you try to make rocking chairs, or cabinets, or whatever, you&#x2
20.
by tjic 10y ago
Woodworker. From running two small ecommerce companies I think I've learned enough about MVP, shipping, inventory management, etc. From 25 years as a software engineer I've learned about building tools to automate steps. I'd
21.
by tjic 10y ago
There seem to be more and more "high tech farm" threads on news.yc over the last few months, and I've got several friends who are doing the same thing I'm doing: making a living as a coder, but running a farm as a hobby.
22.
by tjic 10y ago
> Potatoes - Incredibly easy to grow. I lost my entire crop to the Colorado Potato Beetle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_potato_beetle in 2016. Note: "However, many chemicals are often unsuccessful when
23.
by tjic 10y ago
As I've said in other threads re high-tech farming ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13063841 ), most of these websites and startups and schemes are completely inane. I'd bet that this one is in that category
24.
by tjic 10y ago
I probably spent $50k in my first two years on my farm. * 30 HP tractor - $14k * brushhog, back blade, cone spreader, log splitter - $3k * 1,000 ft^2 greenhouse - $5k * water to greenhouse - $5k * haying equipment (baler, tedder, disk mower
25.
by tjic 10y ago
> When a person walks into a restaurant in the USA they can waive a $20 bill at a waitperson and say if you do what I want, and if I like you, and if I'm feeling generous, I might give you some of this. So you also dislike bonuses f
26.
by tjic 10y ago
Note that the AMA, run by doctors, is required by US law to give their approval before a new medical school may open, or an existing medical school can expand its program. The doctors who would see their salaries fall if supply increased ha
27.
by tjic 10y ago
JFC :(
28.
by tjic 10y ago
Congrats from working up from the bottom, busting your ass, and achieving your dreams. That's an inspiring story.
29.
by tjic 10y ago
There is something called survivorship bias. IT means that the selection that you happen to see is the selection that is visible, because it accidentally survived. Steve Jobs is great an inspiring, because he did X and Y and Z and never co
30.
by tjic 10y ago
I think this is incorrect. Supply and demand curves _ALWAYS_ meet. It's just that the point where they meet tells you what the market-clearing price is. Sometimes this information makes one sad. Managers who "can't hire good

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