Perhaps not "uplifting" on the surface of it, but it had a rather profound impact on me nonetheless when I stumbled across it about three years ago. (See my reply[2] and the rest of the thread for a bit more context.) However indirectly, drumdance (among others) made me realize that I still had a chance to make my own path through my twenties.

A couple months later, I decided to pick up and move to Berlin. Today, my life is full of the things that I decided would make up my personal definition of happiness:

"I want to take advantage of my youth to discover more things that make me happy. I want to travel—a lot. I want to learn new languages. I want to meet amazing people. I also want to design and build things, but I don't think that it has to take over my life." [2]

(Forgive me for quoting myself!)

So thank you drumdance, mrooney, simonsarris, neilk, and michaelochurch. I'm fairly sure I wouldn't be where I am today if I hadn't read your critical yet encouraging words.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4341926

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4342680

It's cool if someone can do this, but who can afford to, especially in their 20s?

I spent 2 years driving from Alaska to Argentina and repeatedly had people ask "Who has the time and money for that".

It's a myth that travel is expensive.

I managed a hostel in Ecuador for 5 months, and I would say the average backpacker was spending $10,000 USD / year to travel the world. And I mean the entire world. The vast majority of backpackers are somewhere in the 19-35 year old range. Though there is a good smattering of > 55 too.

$15,000 USD / year and you travel WELL - i.e. no shared rooms, lots of alcohol, 'fancy' restaurants etc. etc.

I know hostels are not popular in North America, trust me though, once you get out of there you'll catch on quickly.

For reference, I spent $13,000 USD / year TOTAL on my drive, which includes all expenses for the Jeep. Gas, parking, shipping from Panama->Colombia, insurance, etc. etc. Driving gets much cheaper per person when there are two of you (though to be clear, I was solo).

http://theroadchoseme.com is my blog of the drive, if you're interested.

I'm about to set off on a 2 year drive around Africa in my Jeep, I'm aiming to spend less than $20k / year. (Africa is more expensive to drive due to visas, price of gas, paying for secure camping, etc.)

Speaking from experience here.

I'm Australian originally, and grew up with Troopies and Defenders. If I wanted to do it in a Toyota or Landy, I would. But I don't.

I'm not doing it in a Jeep because it's the most popular vehicle :)

Let's say you've just graduated with a bachelors in computer science, and have a job offer for $70k. By going on this road trip for a year, you've lost $85k, $70k from not working, plus the $15k it actually cost you, not to mention interest on any loans taken out for school.

$10,000 may not sound like much when you make more than 10x that per year, but remembering back to when I was 20, $10,000 was a fortune that would have taken forever to earn.

Nobody takes home their entire "income". You need to deduct taxes, rent (which you won't be paying on the road), food (which comes out of the $10k, so it should come out here), transport to/from work, entertainment, etc. etc. Essentially, you need to deduct every single cent that is spent.

I traveled for 3 straight years from age 22-25, then did that 2 year drive from 27-29. $10k is not that much money, even for a 21 y/o.

(also, as an aside, I don't make anywhere near 10x $10,000 now)

Have you found a trade off between networking with people "out there" and the fact that you are not "home" and accumulating contacts/experience? I could see how this kind of long term exploration could either help or hurt your job prospects for your entire life, or help if you met the right people.

edit: rephrased a bit better

The first solution is maybe not doable for everyone, but if you can, it makes travelling so much easier. Consider that OP now lives in Germany. He can hop on a train and get to hundreds of destinations for relatively cheap and in a short amount of time.

The second one reduces the percentage of money spent while travelling on transportation. It doesn't really matter if you stay 2 days or 2 weeks at a destination, it's probably going to cost you the same amount. By extending your stay, you're getting more enjoyment/experiences for the same up front cost.

- Move somewhere with sane and/or regulated PTO policies[1]. This is a huge plus in the EU. In Germany, I get about 34 days paid vacation days per year (including federal holidays), and that's even considered a bit low by German standards. It's enough for me to seriously consider never working full-time in the US again. And don't get me started on so-called "unlimited" vacation policies in the US. (As a corollary, if I ever do work as a normal employee in the US again, a proper vacation policy will be on my list of must-haves.)

- As much as I love trains, flying is usually quite a bit cheaper for most of the places that I want to travel to in and around Europe. Long-distance bus lines (think Greyhound) are also extremely cheap now that the market's been deregulated.

- The main disadvantage (and one that people should take into serious consideration before moving overseas) of course is that I'm so far away from family. Even with so much vacation time, it's pretty difficult both financially and logistically to make it home more than once per year.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_statutory_minimum_empl...

Check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_holiday_visa

For example, as an American, you might be eligible for a two-year working vacation visa in Korea. The requirements vary, but you typically only need two-way airfare and a modest amount of cash to prove you won't become a hobo. :-)

Interestingly, it's supposed to be available in all EU countries, but I haven't found much information about it that's not specific to Germany, so it's possible that they're still rolling it out in other countries.

And more locally at that age I did hitch-hiking trips when on uni holidays, sleeping rough often. It adds challenge but sometimes it leads to the best adventures and you get around. I wont deny there is some increased risk, personally having one rather scary encounter with a crazy person but that's also part of the adventure of travel anywhere you want to go off-track. And it's amazing how much help people will offer if they see a young person trying to see the world on the cheap.

I feel it's very doable if you have the right expectations. To me the biggest barriers seem to be believing its possible, sacrificing lifestyle for the saving period and then not partying your cash away on the trip.

Also, did you ever contact those folks back?

I'm doing mostly frontend stuff (React recently) at a startup here called ResearchGate. I really enjoy it, but I do still have to make a conscious effort to not let the job take over my life—moving to Germany wasn't a cure-all in that sense. I've certainly learned more here than at any other job though. Same goes for my life outside of work, for that matter. =)

If you'd like, I'd be happy to give you some pointers via email (and/or in person of course if you're ever in town for a visit). My contact info's in my profile. Just note that I might be a bit slow to respond!

  "If I could talk to my 14 year old self, I wouldn't 
  recommend any particular books.

  

  I would say, "Don't stress and worry so much about school 
  or your grades, because absolutely none of that is going 
  to matter in 10 years. Learn how to make things. Start 
  now, and never stop. Learn how to use technology to the    
  fullest, both software and hardware. Learn how to write, 
  speak and communicate ideas as effectively as possible. 
  Learn how to hack people and understand how social 
  structures work. Take that seriously. Most importantly, 
  don't let anyone change who you are. Choose a path and 
  follow it doggedly."

  

  Ironically, some of the best advice I've seen came from a 
  book: "Who you will be in five years is determined by who 
  you meet today and what you read today" [0]. But a 14 
  year old doesn't need to read a whole book to gain that 
  particular pearl of wisdom, or many of the others. I read 
  a lot now, several of the books mentioned on this thread 
  and many others. But that's because I'm old, and it's too 
  late 
  for me. If I could talk to my 14 year old self, or any 
  14  
  year old, I would tell them that there is significantly 
  more to life than what can be learned in a book.


  [0] The Creative Habit, by Twyla Tharp " 

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1447467

Best comment I've ever read here.

The real useful advice here can be summarized:

* Look in obscure places

* Productize a service

* Stick with it

anamax 2424 days ago | parent | flag

If they don't have the money to pay you, you're not an employee, you're a founder and you get the same deal that they get.

If they balk, suggest that they find another code monkey while you find another biz monkey and let the market decide who ends up with the bananas.

This whole discussion on depression was insightful and inspiring. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7891017

Dude can be an asshat no doubt. But that's allowed in my book.

Reminds me of a good friend and also of a regretted uncle. People I learned a lot from and who certainly played a part in making me who I am.

I don't know him, but he strikes me as an actual badass. I mean, I'm badass as hell by tech-employee standards, but that's only because most tech-employees are happy corporate serfs and I stand out in relative terms by actually having opinions. Relative to full-grown men I am fairly average on the badass spectrum: respectable, but not quite Mike Ehrmantraut.

Zed comes off as (and probably is) an actual badass. And in a world where there are self-flagellating or clueless young engineers actually advocating for Scrum to be imposed on them, that's an inspiration that we desperately need.

I think you may be using some different definition of "badass" than the rest of us.

"I quit my job last March and it was a bad idea" (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3102143).

Note: said comments may not be considered "uplifting."

A taste: "You have to do the work. There is no one else that can do it for you. It is entirely up to you; actually, it has only ever been you, because it is you that rolls out of bed early to bring it. No one is going to do that for you. If you want to do it, then you will figure out a way to make it happen."

1. What constitutes a good problem?

A: Every problem/question includes its own answer. This is very helpful to realize. There's a principle by which the world operates. The principle of the world means that results are determined by problems of what happened. In fact, if you open your eyes to this principle, it will also be possible for to see the answer in any question without having actually learned that subject before. The quality of the answer we can get from a question depends on the quality of the question itself. Good questions are substantial, concrete, and precise. They contain matters, which can be confirmed. So, once this is understood, we can see that a good problem is simply one which has a good result/outcome/answer. You should know what result you want in order to check if your existing problems have results which match what you want.

2. How to distinguish good from bad?

A: What are the criteria of good and bad? According to what I have learned, the more genuine something is, the better it is. For people, a person can only be a good person if they are truthful. Going to school, we might have different scores in different subjects, e.g. an A in English, a B in math, and a C in physics. But human beings are different. Every characteristic of an individual keeps up with every other characteristic within them. Would you suppose that it's possible for a person to be wise and yet not true? True and yet not conscionable? How about true but not courageous? To have a large amount of (bad) karma and yet be true? All the features of something which is good or bad are determined by degree of truthfulness. Incidentally, it's only possible to become more truthful after you undergo a particular essential process of learning by which you first realize that you don't actually perceive anything as it is, and later, after things that exist become visible to your eyes, you finally come to be able to speak about things that you really know. Generally, it's only possible to undergo this process when you meet and make yourself learn continuously from a truthful teacher. But undergoing this process is necessary in order to become someone who can be contributive to oneself and others. That is to say, we don't have the ability to guide our own lives contributively until we perceive what exists. What exists itself must be the standard for any judgement which is to be appropriate and contributive to existing circumstances. It's impossible to see what exists without truthfulness.

3. How are questions/problems themselves formulated?

A: Quite simply, any problem is made by putting at least two things into contact. For (contrived) example, let's say I have some things that I have kept inside my consciousness from the past (causes), represented by the numeral 2. Let's suppose I meet a teacher, who could be represented as the numeral 3. The result/effect I'll naturally come to gain through the process which is determined by the factors in the problem will be 5. You can make problems that you need in order to get results you want by fixing (i) the causes you have in you at the moment, and (ii) the result you want, and algebraically solving for the cause you need to contact. In order to contact a cause you need you either need to find out how to form it through existent things, or you need to find it among what exists and go there. As mentioned, one of the real problems that general people face is that they can't see the causes they have in themselves.

Does that help?

For example, dimillian comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/reply?id=9341181&goto=item%3Fid...

Edit: Spelling

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9086475

It was the discussion asking founders what their lifestyle is like. I found it to be a really good glance inside their lives and it helps motivate me to continue working.

I have about 10 threads bookmarked, but this one gets the most views over time.

I found this uplifting because being constantly barraged with the success of people 2/3rds your age can be depressing.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8640126

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9285481