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Ask HN: Ways to make minimal amounts of money, working on what you love

17 points by ilovecpp20 ↗ HN
I have a funny situation.

- I'm a fulltime software engineer stuck in a boring role

- I have RSI in both forearms, so programming time is limited to work hours to minimize pain (which sucks because programming was my hobby and now I can't work on my projects after work, otherwise I get worse RSI)

My goal: make at least a very minimal amounts of money (say 10k $USD/year) to sustain myself, while being able to work a solid 4-5 hours daily on programming projects that I am passionate about.

I spent some time trying to figure out ways to make this work, without much success. Which is why I came here, maybe some people are in the same situation and were able to figure out a way to be able to continue working on their passions despite RSI?

12 comments

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thw09j9m
Become a contractor. Work 1-2 months/year and spend the rest of the year doing what you want.
throwaway_43793
Would you mind expanding on that topic?

I keep seeing this suggestion many times, but I can’t understand what does it mean being a contractor, or how does one become a contractor. So would appreciate some explanation on the topic.

abeyer
I'm assuming people who espouse that go through some sort of larger agency or something that can connect you with the work. Otherwise I'd also imagine that ramping up your lead gen again each time could take as much time as the contract itself. In my experience staying active in your network seems like a big part of being a solo/small contractor and isn't really amenable to "going dark" ten months at a time and then trying to jump back in.
muzani
I did this. It's not quite true. I did stuff with the spare time, but as long as contracting pays the bills, it is still your primary focus. So free time ends up being spent in forms of marketing - writing books, blogging, certitications, networking.

Paradoxically, FT jobs are more liberating. You have less time, but you own that time. You can work on random things at 10 PM or 4 AM.

mattfields
Might suggest learning up some on stocks and trading.

Depending on your interest, aptitude, and spare income for trading/investment, you could potentially make a reasonable side income that you can maintain in parallel with your job.

kwere
retail trading is quite a difficult skillset to learn and one needs hundreds of thousands $ to do it as a main source of income (less if your target is like 10k$/yr ), its like a business/trade with 95%+ failing rate.
tough
Hey havd you thought about voice based interfaces?

I know of Talon talonvoice.com

Also gh labs is working on hey Github https://githubnext.com/projects/hey-github/

I got invited to the waitlist to test it recently, maybe it could help you to be able to code without typing?

jbirer
Basically, develop a MVP and monetize it. I had many small projects get bought out by bigger companies which led me into a comfortable dev / product manager role for them. Crypto makes this a breeze and also it's trending so it'll lead to easier monetization.
prirun
Have you figured out what you were/are doing that is causing RSI in both forearms? For example, are you bending your wrists while typing (just one example)? This is not a direct answer to your question, but maybe figuring out what is contributing to your RSI can be part of the solution.

I'm not an expert in RSI. I have typed on computers for 10 hours/day for decades and never had a problem, but I also touch-type with correct hand position and play piano regularly, so maybe those things have protected me somewhat. Perhaps something like breaks every 20 minutes or icing your wrists/forearms periodically while working could help reduce your RSI problems.

nullish_signal
I will also suggest Yoga or Rock Climbing to increase Hand strength
akeck
Assuming you're in the US - At the current dividend yield rate, save up about $350,000 in Vanguard VYM for $10k/year paid quarterly. If I recall correctly, if that's your only income and it's all dividends, you will pay minimal federal taxes (check with a tax pro though).
nier
More than ten years ago someone here on Hacker News recommended The Divided Mind by John Sarno and my debilitating wrist pain went away shortly after reading it.