Let's see how fast I can make $2117.91 USD. The goal is by end of day, Sunday March 18th.
I made it! 🎉
Income to earn: $0.00!
In the bank: $47.00.
Contracted but not yet invoiced: $2100.91.
I am live-blogging my entire process and thought patterns over the three day challenge here. Follow along!
Twitter: @richlitt
Email: richard@burntfen.com
Posts:
- Mon at 00:47 - How did it go?
- Sun at 19:14 - The crash
- Sun at 17:12 - Art
- Sun at 13:02 - Jekyll Scheduler builds on command
- Sun at 10:35 - Goal achieved
- Sun at 02:10 - Express, Heroku, and OAuth conquered
- Sat at 19:23 - At the bleeding edge
- Sat at 16:56 - Getting Probot working
- Sat at 15:54 - Providence at the cafe
- Sat at 15:14 - Business models for Jekyll Scheduling
- Sat at 14:48 - Negative feedback
- Sat at 14:35 - Scheduled Jekyll Posts
- Sat at 09:56 - Morning reflections
- Sat at 00:59 - First day post mortem
- Sat at 00:21 - Better navigation
- Sat at 00:03 - Working blog
- Fri at 22:56 - Setting up a blog
- Fri at 18:06 - Adventure branding
- Fri at 16:03 - Patreon Post
- Fri at 15:36 - Afternoon goals
- Fri at 13:28 - Hunger
- Fri at 13:06 - Marketing this project
- Fri at 12:40 - Machine Learning?
- Fri at 11:54 - Probot
- Fri at 11:42 - First Client!
- Fri at 11:13 - Small notes and Buffer
- Fri at 10:33 - Reputation
- Fri at 10:32 - First Contact
- Fri at 10:19 - The First Tweet
- Fri at 10:12 - Introduction
This project is maintained by RichardLitt
Well, I’m rested, showered, meditated, and in a coffee shop. This morning I have to go to brunch in an hour, and I have a friend coming to this cafe in the next twenty minutes, so my time is limited. That gives me roughly 12 hours today of decent work, this afternoon (assuming I don’t do what I did last night, and bail during the late afternoon and over dinner), and then tomorrow. Not a lot of time.
However, as of last night, I do have a decent website for this project. That’s not bad. And I’ve also got a response in my inbox. I may have a largish contract in the works through someone who has been following this project and who I met in the altMBA. We’ll see if it pans out, but it looks to be around $1200 for a couple days worth of work over the next two weeks. I’ll mention more when I have that locked. But that’s awesome news, and means I’m well over half way.
I never actually stipulated that I needed to get the work done by Sunday, although I would have preferred that. Largely, again, this started as a bet with my friend Felipe - could I earn $2117.91 by Sunday night. Without legalese, I can interpret that anyway I want, really. My girlfriend offered to give me the remainder if I gave it back to her on Monday - I’ve decided this wouldn’t be fair to the spirit of the game. But a contract for work that wouldn’t be permanent or underpaid? I’m OK with that. It’s not the same as getting the job at a dépanneur, something that I’ve considered but quickly ruled out.
Someone pointed me to a video yesterday of a man saying you can make money easily, for free, by going on Craigslist, picking up stuff in the “Free” section, and then selling it on Facebook Marketplace. I found the video to be middling to insulting - time isn’t free. You can’t take a bus across town to pick up the table and then call the experience free. It’s a huge opportunity cost, and it also inevitably leads to a loss in terms of food and transport.
At the same time, what I’m doing isn’t exactly starting fresh, either. I’m intentionally capitalising on my extended professional network. This wouldn’t work if no one was watching this blog. It works explicitly because I already have a wide network, and the kind of money I’ve gotten as reflected that - individual working contracts based on my technical expertise from people who know my skills. That’s not fair, and it’s almost cheating.
I feel bad about the fact that this wouldn’t work if I weren’t a well educated, experienced white dude.
But I am that person. And I’m also in a bind. My student loans aren’t a joke, and they mean that my total net worth right now hovers at around the negative six figure mark. As much as I recognise that I am capitalising on my privilege (and here I mean the word literally, capitalising - making capital) - I’m also doing so because it’s a necessity for me to do so. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. While living in a propertarian society, be a propertarian. Could I make this money by getting a job easily and working hard 9-5? Sure. But that’s not really my style, and I continue to contend that it doesn’t have to be. (To all of the voices in my head saying “Get a job like the rest of us”, I continue to say a resounding “You’re not wanted here; go away.”)
Anyway, these are just some thoughts I have this morning. My friend hasn’t showed up and I’ve got to head off soon, so I won’t have a ton of time to plan out my afternoon after my brunch with friends. I’ll have to come back later.