I should befriend more of you...

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Boilerplate social minefield issues aside, people here are really cool. I'll add just about anybody who sends a friend invite.

I'm broke as a joke this week and in the middle of a colossal job interview process. It's with that company represented by an old lady baking cookies in The Matrix... I love the challenge and I know I can deal with it soon. Immediately would be a tall order. There is the issue of getting enough work done just to afford the commute. I've been falling back on my mechanical ability working on bikes but I think I have to just switch to a few days of carpentry/drudgery - trying to communicate with all the humans buying the bikes just makes me more comfortable around machines than people.

So you're all the first people I've told any of this. I know I can do the work but I'd gamble a lot getting started before my energy's back.

Good luck on your interview, Sir.

Could you ask somebody for a few bucks until everything resolves itself?

Tell the person you'll pay him/her back with interest--the person will probably refuse the interest part.

All the money I ever touch I work for - also I don't really know anybody with any spare cash. I think what's getting to me is the volume of studying I need to do (so as not to lose my mind) in between all the work.

Some exec on the daily show said it's physically harmful to live in this economy on less than $70k. I don't necessarily buy that since I've gotten pretty damn good at this, but there's definitely some truth in it. Frankly manifesting all that cash is an afterthought for me, my primary concern is merging my double life of technology & everything else.

Maybe in Manhattan, one cannot live on less than 70K. Or San Francisco. Or the major Eastern cities.

In reality, in most of the country outside the major Eastern cities and San Francisco, people can live quite decently making 35-40K or so a year. People can even save a few bucks at that income.

Pffft I could make do on 20K, it's just that I've had to mete out equitable amounts of 'stonewalling' to those people who would have me work for peanuts. My dad emailed me a posting about some university IT support gig at $11.00/hour and all I said was to eat those words. That wage wouldn't even pay rent here, let alone buy one laptop.

My unwillingness to do the lackey thing or borrow money stems from the fact that people seem to believe 20-somethings don't need to f*****g eat...

No, Sir.....I would never advocate doing the lackey thing.

Heh no no no - anyways I should clarify I don't wan't to hold economics of scale against anybody, I just try to point out where it's being ignored.

It seems I should reiterate the preface to my thread - working the way I do with my head in the cloud most of the year seems to make me less approachable. Edenthiel said it best; being a techie conveys a stately, unassailable demeanor that couldn't be farther from the truth for me.

Sure, I could be that dude in the glasses welcoming you to some $500 million datacenter, but you're just as likely to run into me on a trail in a forest. There are no dumb questions where I'm concerned, only dumb answers on my part. It's tiresome to keep knowledge all to myself when I'm aware of how much it can do for others. I don't want my work preventing me from sharing what I learn from it.

I like that sort of altruism.

I wish I could say I saw it as such. In my view it amounts to self-preservation.

I'm in the same boat - hell, I could easily live on 20k and have somehow been getting by keeping a roof over my head, paying my own bills, meds, and not starving on a little over half of that a year - I'm actually working two jobs and my main one is for a company we just started so hopefully within a year or two my yearly income will greatly increase. It is rough, it does make it easier knowing there are others in the same boat I'm in, best of luck to you with your endeavors!

I do at least have a backup plan of a startup-marketed consulting partner business. Fast station wagons full of thinkpads are the plan...