I found it a happy little jab at the end of a serious, introspective article. Thank you for the neat read! I, personally am looking to get a dog and cat(s) soon, and I, too, realize the massive time commitment these animals require to make it worth it. I'm shooting for a stronger at-home presence before I make the leap.
My roommates told me that when I went home to visit family for vacation, my cat apparently sat at the door every day as if she was waiting for me to come back. What am I supposed to say when I hear that? She demonstrates her affection in other ways too. Dang, you get attached so easily. Definitely be prepared to be committed before you get a pet.
This is really unfortunate. Of course, I can see council members looking to protect an established industry. In their eyes, they could either let the open market work where riders choose between Uber & taxis and potentially put taxi drivers out of work or work to keep this startup out of the business and protect an entrenched economy. It's a no-brainer in their eyes, but it's surely unfortunate in terms of progress.
Even the VA Beach and Norfolk area is significantly different than the average southern stereotype. It has a medley of cultures, mostly due to the massive military presence there.
That said, I'm surprised the comments are so cordial. I agree with the analysis that the fact that it's mostly UVa alums/students and interested parties commenting contributes to the higher level of discourse.
"Choice to choose a worklife style is upto to the individual. Stopping Individual from achieving their goals is in direct contradiction to freedom to pursuit of happiness."
Some might have goals similar to you. Others might aspire to work a 40-a-week job, be there for their spouse and children and not feel burnt out every day. Yes, there are people like you who might enjoy working crazy hours and being super productive. However, the person who is truly most productive in a 40-a-week job should also be able to achieve their goals without this cultural stigma around working a normal amount of time.
Please note the person who works 8 hours a day sincerely is getting what he is supposed to get.
Also the person who works for 8 hrs + x hrs is getting what he is supposed to get.
If you are saying despite working for ( 8 + x ) hrs he must not get anything extra or he and the guy who works for 8 hrs must both get the same, defeats the very laws of karma.
Besides, The 8 hrs guy has a problem only if gets into comparisons with the ( 8 + x ) hours guy.
The expectation that one must get paid the same but do little work compared to somebody else generally makes a classic case when the individual blames others for merely being lucky for the comparative success.
The 8hour worker is getting what they're supposed to get.
The 8 + x hours worker is getting less than they're supposed to. Often they're doing x hours for free.
There can be several problems with that. Sometimes the company gets a lot of value from the x hours, and sells lots of product for lots of money, but doesn't give any money to the worker.
Or sometimes the worker is doing poor quality work, but getting personal value from the x hours (perhaps seen by managers as being more productive) and the other workers have to fix the errors, but are not seen as productive.
> The expectation that one must get paid the same but do little work compared to somebody else
Quite often overtime is unpaid, or is paid at low rates.
Thanks for the write-up! I am a junior in college who is very interested in that sort of lifestyle when I graduate and finish off my student loans. I'd be happy as a clam if I could find a job or a number of freelance projects that'd allow me to have a decent standard of living abroad while seeing different parts of the world. I have a few questions if you would be so kind to consider.
Are you considering trips anywhere else? How is your Spanish after spending a year in Mexico? What was your relative standard of living like when making money from these projects? Did you go into it with a reasonable "war chest" of savings to live off of while acclimating to the environment? Was it ever a deterrent to potential hirers that you were abroad? What was the coolest part of your experience?
I might have a couple more depending on your answers.
Hi, I'm glad you found the write-up helpful. Feel free to email me if you have any questions. (my email address is in my blog header).
At the moment I'm not planning any more trips. I took a job with a startup in Seattle, and so I'll be here for a few more years. After that, who knows :)
You don't need much of a war chest if you go to the right places & have a decent amount of work. In guadalajara (a big city), $1k / month will get you full-time spanish lessons plus room and board. Hostels are about $12/night if you want to go that route.
My standard of living was very good. I had a 2 bedroom house in the trendy part of the city. Ate out whenever I wanted. etc. I imagine I was spending 20k a year (not including state-side expenses such as student loans).
My spanish is pretty good. You learn survival spanish pretty quickly. After a year I'm able to hold conversations, understand song lyrics, etc...more or less :)
I don't think I lost any clients from being in mexico. It was win-win. They got a good developer at a slight discount. I got my mobility. Actually, about 1/2 of my existing clients never knew I was in mexico. I didn't hide it from them, but it never came up.
Coolest part: making a lot of friends from around the world.
