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Re:The Advantage of Being a Little Underemployed by borplk on Monday May 22, 2017 @11:00AM (#14394107)
The only way around this is working for yourself. Then you don't have to explain to anyone.

I experienced the power of this when I was working for myself.

On some days I worked for 16 hours, other days only 3. Some of the best ideas I had was while lying down on the bed and staring point blank at the ceiling.

I'm no stranger to "getting in the zone" but this was some next level stuff.

I wish I could sustain myself that way. One day.

Re:The Advantage of Being a Little Underemployed by swalsh on Monday May 22, 2017 @12:32PM (#14394923)
Of course working for yourself also means instead of selling yourself for 6 hours once every few years, you've now taken on a full time gig selling yourself. Owning a business is 80% about sales, the other 20% is the thing you sell. If you're consulting you can take some time off selling for a few months depending on how long the contract is, but I've found that I need to constantly be on the look out to plant a seed.
Re:The Advantage of Being a Little Underemployed by borplk on Monday May 22, 2017 @12:43PM (#14395016)
Consulting can sometimes be arguably worse than the job in that aspect. At least with a salaried job some ups and downs is expected, with consulting if you are charging by the hour people demand value by the hour. I was thinking more in terms of running a SaaS or similar.

What I love about that is that you have long-term goals but it doesn't matter how you get there in the short term. So you can work like a horse for 4 days and rest for the remainder of the week. Or maybe another week you work a little bit 7 days a week.

Re:The Advantage of Being a Little Underemployed by pmoriarty on Monday May 22, 2017 @01:00PM (#14395163)
"with consulting if you are charging by the hour people demand value by the hour"

You don't have to charge by the hour. You could charge by the day, week, month, or project.

Re:The Advantage of Being a Little Underemployed by borplk on Monday May 22, 2017 @01:32PM (#14395438)
True but the general point stands correct.

With a consulting engagement there's usually a higher expectation of consistent proportional value delivered. It's more transactional (we pay $X we get Y).

As a salaried employee at least in many companies there's some element of the employee being a long-term asset to the company so the pressure is not as high or as consistent.

Re:The Advantage of Being a Little Underemployed by iamacynic on Monday May 22, 2017 @01:57PM (#14395628)
> 80% about sales, the other 20% is the thing you sell

uhm, well i would put it at more like 33% sales and marketing, 33% R&D&O, and 33% other stuff like HR/finance/administration/etc.

and 1% glamour and glory like going out to drinks to celebrate after a release/sale/hire/investment/acquisition.

sales should not be 80% of the effort, unless you are literally a reseller.

Re:The Advantage of Being a Little Underemployed by sbko on Monday May 22, 2017 @12:09PM (#14394718)
Re:The Advantage of Being a Little Underemployed by maxxxxx on Monday May 22, 2017 @03:17PM (#14396172)
That would be my rhythm too. Let something sink in for few days, try a few things, and once it clicks, crank it out in a few 12 hours shifts.