One possible remedy that I didn’t see discussed — start an Internet business and grow it until it makes you money.
Internet businesses are hard (because regular entrepreneurship is hard), but if you have a laptop and ~$12 yearly for a domain you can do it (I mean, really — use a free DDNS service and point to your laptop and keep it always on, use oracles free tier, etc). It wont be easy but its barrier-free and you can do it while you do the driving gig.
Honestly I think PHP is the problem (I just don't think its well regarded by the majority of devs anymore), but rather than learn TS or something else you can lean into this a try to break into the Wordpress plugin ecosystem. It won’t be easy, and success is far from guaranteed but nothing is stopping you. One of the blessings of our profession is how frictionless it is to build.
If you need server space or a k8s cluster to deploy to I’m willing personally to help.
ben_w•9mo ago
You'd need a well optimised-website to fit on a domestic broadband connection's monthly allowance.
I grew up with business allowances lower than current domestic allowances, but it does mean no videos and actually caring about how big the images really are.
But none of that is the main problem with doing an internet business while taking a gig-economy driving position or whatever: you need enough income to stay above water, gig economy roles don't earn much per hour, so you need to spend a lot of hours on them to survive, and then there's not much spare time to work on the business — "exhausted from my 6 hours of doordash driving to make less than 200$ that day" to quote the article.
Edit:
Worse than I thought regarding home-hosting from a laptop: "Videos which I would upload patiently from the supermarket seating area, having canceled my home internet service the week I was fired in a bid to save every dollar possible in order to not lose my house and everything I've built." — so they can't host from domestic broadband, because they don't have it.
hardwaresofton•9mo ago
> ut none of that is the main problem with doing an internet business while taking a gig-economy driving position or whatever: you need enough income to stay above water, gig economy roles don't earn much per hour, so you need to spend a lot of hours on them to survive, and then there's not much spare time to work on the business — "exhausted from my 6 hours of doordash driving to make less than 200$ that day" to quote the article.
Yep there’s not much here but to do it, or do it on days where they’re not driving. Or early in the morning before driving.
Sometimes life is hard — this person is clearly doing their best, but sometimes changing your life requires more and people are capable of growing into it/figuring it out.
Getting income is doing the business — it always starts from zero.
> Worse than I thought regarding home-hosting from a laptop: "Videos which I would upload patiently from the supermarket seating area, having canceled my home internet service the week I was fired in a bid to save every dollar possible in order to not lose my house and everything I've built." — so they can't host from domestic broadband, because they don't have it.
The second suggestion was Oracle free tier. I’m sure there might be problems with that suggestion too but there are infinite possibilities after that as well.
Resourcefulness is a skill, and it’s the most important at times like this.
Bluestein•9mo ago
> ... willing personally to help.
That's awful kind of you.-
PS. Also, perhaps the availability of AI cuts both ways to those displaced: It also gives one even lower friction (or more agility) going down the road you describe.-
hardwaresofton•9mo ago
Absolutely no problem, I mean it, too. Got a Hetzner account and spare CPU.
I really think it might be easiest to go far with the Wordpress plugin idea — platforms are great to sell into because people are unlikely to shift and you can detect when they’re in use and sell. And of course, you can put the plugin on the marketplace. Solves the distribution problem efficiently.
Another decent ecosystem is probably shopify. Just clone the 5th most popular type of extension/plugin. There is no shame in that.
Another good ecosystem is Rails — rails people love rails, and if you can solve a pain point there, it can be really valuable.
Yet another such ecosystem is Heroku! It’s still around and people on it now are much more likely to spend money (free tier got nuked).
I used to run an idea newsletter (execution is still king) — I can send you all of the ideas for free and you could use it to get the juices going.
hardwaresofton•9mo ago
Internet businesses are hard (because regular entrepreneurship is hard), but if you have a laptop and ~$12 yearly for a domain you can do it (I mean, really — use a free DDNS service and point to your laptop and keep it always on, use oracles free tier, etc). It wont be easy but its barrier-free and you can do it while you do the driving gig.
Honestly I think PHP is the problem (I just don't think its well regarded by the majority of devs anymore), but rather than learn TS or something else you can lean into this a try to break into the Wordpress plugin ecosystem. It won’t be easy, and success is far from guaranteed but nothing is stopping you. One of the blessings of our profession is how frictionless it is to build.
If you need server space or a k8s cluster to deploy to I’m willing personally to help.
ben_w•9mo ago
I grew up with business allowances lower than current domestic allowances, but it does mean no videos and actually caring about how big the images really are.
But none of that is the main problem with doing an internet business while taking a gig-economy driving position or whatever: you need enough income to stay above water, gig economy roles don't earn much per hour, so you need to spend a lot of hours on them to survive, and then there's not much spare time to work on the business — "exhausted from my 6 hours of doordash driving to make less than 200$ that day" to quote the article.
Edit:
Worse than I thought regarding home-hosting from a laptop: "Videos which I would upload patiently from the supermarket seating area, having canceled my home internet service the week I was fired in a bid to save every dollar possible in order to not lose my house and everything I've built." — so they can't host from domestic broadband, because they don't have it.
hardwaresofton•9mo ago
Yep there’s not much here but to do it, or do it on days where they’re not driving. Or early in the morning before driving.
Sometimes life is hard — this person is clearly doing their best, but sometimes changing your life requires more and people are capable of growing into it/figuring it out.
Getting income is doing the business — it always starts from zero.
> Worse than I thought regarding home-hosting from a laptop: "Videos which I would upload patiently from the supermarket seating area, having canceled my home internet service the week I was fired in a bid to save every dollar possible in order to not lose my house and everything I've built." — so they can't host from domestic broadband, because they don't have it.
The second suggestion was Oracle free tier. I’m sure there might be problems with that suggestion too but there are infinite possibilities after that as well.
Resourcefulness is a skill, and it’s the most important at times like this.
Bluestein•9mo ago
That's awful kind of you.-
PS. Also, perhaps the availability of AI cuts both ways to those displaced: It also gives one even lower friction (or more agility) going down the road you describe.-
hardwaresofton•9mo ago
I really think it might be easiest to go far with the Wordpress plugin idea — platforms are great to sell into because people are unlikely to shift and you can detect when they’re in use and sell. And of course, you can put the plugin on the marketplace. Solves the distribution problem efficiently.
Another decent ecosystem is probably shopify. Just clone the 5th most popular type of extension/plugin. There is no shame in that.
Another good ecosystem is Rails — rails people love rails, and if you can solve a pain point there, it can be really valuable.
Yet another such ecosystem is Heroku! It’s still around and people on it now are much more likely to spend money (free tier got nuked).
I used to run an idea newsletter (execution is still king) — I can send you all of the ideas for free and you could use it to get the juices going.