My wife is the breadwinner right now, so no missed opportunity from a steady paycheck. It did take me longer to get to this point, though (about three years once I got serious).
I will have spent in the very low 5 digits for lawyers, to comb through my new FOSS licenses ([1], and we're still working on that, so they are not ready yet!) and to set up standard contracts.
Beyond that, less than 5 digits for two beefy computers over that time and longer.
> My wife is the breadwinner right now, so no missed opportunity from a steady paycheck.
The missed opportunity is your second income, the one you could have working for someone else, they didn't mean 'your household does not have a steady paycheck'.
There's a certain point where more income has diminishing returns, especially if it means someone in the household is putting off their dreams of entrepreneurship.
Most people who become entrepreneurs have this itch/calling, where they simply CAN'T do anything else (for long). Ignoring the call means living an unfulfilled life.
So missed opportunity of 3 years after tax for a programmer is probably somewhere above $100,000 and below $1,000,000. Possibly a little above $1,000,000 if your missed opportunity is at a FAANG in Some Higher Level title.
You could probably get a more concrete number by multiplying your previous comp by 1.5~2x or something.
I peeked at your website and your profile. I’m not surprised you struggle to get jobs… Do you realize these profiles will turn up when recruiters and hiring managers google your name? You’re basically telling them two things when they skim it.
First, on this forum, your headline says, my work isn’t a priority in my life, it’s behind church. Church is about as popular as Congress in this industry. There’s a very funny HBO Silicon Valley bit about coming out to your gay dad as a Christian, that’s a little too close to reality for comfort (like that whole series).
Second, and more importantly, your LLC’s front page tells visitors, “I probably have ODD and am a gender discrimination lawsuit waiting to happen.” Is that the message you’re trying to send? Mate, never mind getting jobs, you’re not even making it past the HR screen with such sloppy social media hygiene.
Have you ever heard the phrase “hide your power level?” That doesn’t even really apply here, actually. You don’t have to hide your faith or your politics. Just don’t make it your introduction. First impressions matter, a lot.
So no, it’s not that you couldn’t have had a job. You’re just choosing to have an extremely unprofessional online presence, and that has consequences.
Am I being unfair, biased, uncharitable, judgmental? Sure, probably. I don’t know you, and I didn’t look very hard. But do you really think the average employer or customer is any better than me?
> Am I being unfair, biased, uncharitable, judgmental?
Yes, you are.
> But do you really think the average employer or customer is any better than me?
In my area, yes. My area has more people that would not see my profile as a problem. I'm not in Silicon Valley.
And if I'm not hired because I won't put work first, good.
> Second, and more importantly, your LLC’s front page tells visitors, “I probably have ODD and am a gender discrimination lawsuit waiting to happen.”
You read that wrong. I am saying that I use those words in writing my blog posts, something that would have been normal 10-20 years ago. If that's a gender discrimination lawsuit, well, I just don't belong in this world anyway.
Yes, but these licenses have far more protection for me than regular licenses.
I'm working with a lawyer to ensure that these licenses are void if the user expects me to have any duty, like the Bitcoin lawsuits ([1], see comments at [2]) or the EU's upcoming Cybersecurity Resilience Act that might require me to be audited or worse [3], which I can't afford. (I do want an audit when I can afford it, though.)
1. (at least some of) the links from the FAQ entries to license texts appear to be broken due (presumably) to a change/transformation from `<filename>.md` to directory path.
2. It might be helpful to more clearly identify the text differences between the multiple licenses and/or at least the FAQs to enable skipping duplicated commentary when reading.
1. Yes, sorry. In the process of fixing those as the licenses are finalized.
2. That's a good idea, but I can't do that in the actual license documents since I need to keep the actual licenses clean from non-license materials. Do you have any good ideas how to do that?
I will have spent in the very low 5 digits for lawyers, to comb through my new FOSS licenses ([1], and we're still working on that, so they are not ready yet!) and to set up standard contracts.
Beyond that, less than 5 digits for two beefy computers over that time and longer.
[1]: https://yzena.com/licenses/