I have worked from home since early this year, and it has definitely been up and down for me. I can relate to the author with the wife and kids situation, but I have learned to cope with that pretty well. My wife generally respects my space and the kids are getting better. One downside to being home all the time is that my kids think I work all the time now, even tho I am always around. Out of sight, out of mind.
For me the social piece was the hardest part. Luckily for me there are a couple of co-working places that I hit up once or twice a week. I try to schedule coffee or lunch as much as possible with people I know, and don't know. I also do the occasional coffee shop session, but I can't stay there too long b/c their chairs usually suck.
So I would recommend that people try to network more. Get out of the house. Go do some co-working. You will find that you are not alone on an island, and that really helps.
I agree with this. This is especially true if you have small children. Working at home is great since you can help your wife now and then, but you can't do it 5 days a week. You need to get out of the house, even for just a little bit.
Last week I was approached by 2 business type guys looking for a technical partner to start a business. One of these guys I already knew from years back. Immediately I got the impression that these guys were very passionate and very serious about their idea. It helps that their idea was a good one.
What really impressed me is they had already done a lot of the leg work. They picked out a name and had a logo designed. They had used mocking software to mock up most of what will become v1. They had written content for the entire website. They had already started using their competitors products which only further validated their idea. They had also reached out to their contacts to see if the idea had legs and if people would use it. They had a big vision for what they wanted to do.
When guys come at me like this, it gets me fired up and makes it hard to say no. They aren't looking for a free ride and they don't expect/want you to do all the work. They needed a guy to build it and they wanted an equal equity partner.
Does anyone actually read these and say "oh man, I'd apply but I can't since I love shitty code and I want to build stuff that only a couple people use". I agree with the OP, I am not sure who they are trying to attract with these types of posts. But maybe I'm getting too old.
I'm 32 with 3 kids and a wife, and I literally walked out of a fortune 500 company that is looked at as one of the best places to work. I have no problem telling someone to "fuck off, see ya" if I feel like I am getting mistreated.
http://tweetclaims.com pulls in around $100-$200 per month. If we get big press (like a blog post), we will get a spike and triple that. I literally haven't updated the code in a year. Runs like a champ and does what it's suppose to.
I would love to expand on it or market it more, but time does not permit right now. I've started playing with Google Adwords, so we will see how that goes. We are also working on getting the site redesigned.
My experience has usually been that lunch with coworkers is awkward. Most people just sit on their iphones and no one really talks. The conversations seem forced. Maybe I have worked at the wrong places but this is my experience at the places I have been.
My problem seems to be the opposite. I spend any free (non-family) time working or tinkering on side projects so I don't get to learn new things like Objective-C or Ruby. Things that I have been interested in for awhile.
If I could get a paying gig on a new technology then I would be golden :)
For me the social piece was the hardest part. Luckily for me there are a couple of co-working places that I hit up once or twice a week. I try to schedule coffee or lunch as much as possible with people I know, and don't know. I also do the occasional coffee shop session, but I can't stay there too long b/c their chairs usually suck.
So I would recommend that people try to network more. Get out of the house. Go do some co-working. You will find that you are not alone on an island, and that really helps.