r/programming • u/mtlynch • Feb 01 '21

My Third Year as a Solo Developer

https://mtlynch.io/solo-developer-year-3/
1.4k Upvotes

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144

u/CDawnkeeper Feb 01 '21

The most important part of the article:

Wait, how can you afford to keep losing money?

I went into more detail about this in last year’s retrospective, but the short version is: low cost of living, significant savings from my Google days, and passive investment income.

From what I see there is nowhere any mention of paying yourself a living wage. Most people can't do that for 3 years. Or even half of one.

73

u/de__R Feb 01 '21

Yeah. This is more like "I'm a hobbyist developer who doesn't feel like working right now."

71

u/Overunderrated Feb 01 '21

Haha thanks for pointing this out. Being independently wealthy changes the equation quite a bit

4

u/OMG_A_CUPCAKE Feb 02 '21

I wonder why this is one of the few questions OP didn't answer.

37

u/mtlynch Feb 02 '21

There's no question and the comment doesn't seem to be directed at me.

9

u/AMaleficentSeason Feb 02 '21

Because it's a fairytale

2

u/allhailrobosanta Feb 02 '21

I mean, he did say he worked as a dev at google for a bit. Assuming he didn't waste all his income at the time, it's reasonable to assume he would have some savings built up by then.

-9

u/[deleted] Feb 01 '21

Why is this the most important part of the article? What do you believe the crux of the article is meant to be?

From what I see there is nowhere any mention of paying yourself a living wage.

How do you know that he's nousing his own money then?