• 2 Posts
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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 9th, 2023

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  • I don’t think this is as important as your making it out to be because it’s not far off from the truth for many. The reality is that a condemned or empty lot in my area starts at 6 times my annual salary. To get something that can be lived in starts around 9 times. That means I need at about a year’s salary to afford the land alone. To be able to live on that lot is closer to 2 years salary. Realistically this won’t happen because the rent in the area is 60% of my income and after required expenses like fuel, insurance, food, etc I can usually save about 5% of my income. Any unforeseen expenses like car repairs eat that away, so I’m left with an annual savings rate of about 3%. At this rate homes will inflate faster than my income will accrue. The math doesn’t work and I suspect it doesn’t for many others.




  • I have some sensors on a hognose enclosure and I can say for sure stay away from INKBIRD stuff. It integrates poorly and fails on loss of internet connection.

    I don’t have a good solution for the heatmats yet but I’m looking into integrating an aquarium controller I have laying around to manage that.

    For hygrometers there are a ton, but you’re going to want to look for low power and probably zigbee. the majority of the sensors I’ve tried have been an annoyance to manage batteries but the zigbee ones seem better.






  • My experience actively freelancing is dated now but I might still have some insight you would want to hear.

    1. don’t expect to make good money right off, in fact expect too pickup a part time job to get by. it takes years to build a client base that is capable is supporting you unless you’re skills are highly sought after.

    2. when I had a similar skill set I found local job boards (Craigslist, Reddit/Lemmy, etc) much easier to get work. The clients tend to be easier to work with as well because they probably won’t have the same expectations on a large freelancing site.

    3. managing client expectations is the key to success, know you ability and spec jobs for longer than you think. It’s better to get passed on a job than stuck with something you can’t do.

    4. this might just be me but the business side of things is a drag and takes a lot of time. Marketing, specing, client relations, it was too much for me as a one man shop, don’t discount how much time it takes.

    Good luck out there, freelancing was the hardest but also most rewarding work I’ve ever done. You’ll be forced to learn a lot in and out of tech at a breakneck pace. Some of the best lessons I learned have nothing to do with 1’s and 0’s.