Ask HN: Quit my job and learn to code in Thailand for a year?

[dcpdx]

I currently work as an account manager at a large company and I'm building a web app on the side with a freelance Rails dev. It's always been a goal of mine to work in technology but my career is taking me in the opposite direction. After teaching myself HTML and CSS, I've started learning Rails so I can begin contributing code. The problem is that with my job, progress is slower than I'd like it to be and it will probably be a few months before I achieve basic competency and can do anything useful.

I'm 25 and have a fair amount of cash saved up, no debt, mortgage, or family I'm beholden to. My idea is to take a load of cash, move to Thailand, and live very cheaply as I teach myself to code. Hopefully, after a year, I can come out the other side armed with the knowledge to build whatever I want whenever I want. It'd also be one hell of an adventure; I just got back from a trip to Beijing a few weeks ago and loved it so I'm at least a little familiar with how things work in Asia.

Has anybody in the HN community done anything like this? I'd like to know if I'm completely delusional here or if there are solid points to this idea. Also, would a year be long enough? With no income to speak of I'd have to make my cash last for as long as I'd plan on staying there. Any advice/insights would be appreciated!

[gexla]

I have been doing something of the same. I started out learning web development while going to college. The first big plus was that I was able to quite my part time job and do web development working from home. I then quit college to do freelancing full time (I hated college and my grades were crap, so this wasn't as bad of a decision as it sounds.) I then decided that I could take this a step further and not just work from home, but work from anywhere in the world. I then moved to the Philippines and two years later I'm still there.

Peter Cooper mentioned that your year out could turn into a "procrastination-ridden year of hedonism" and I would agree with that. It's really easy to get caught into a "vacation" mindset. My first year here ended up being more of a case of "let's see how little work I can do and still get by" rather than building my business. The beer here is really cheap and there are a lot of expats who don't work. Every day is Friday, and if I'm not careful I can slip into their same routine.

That said, I'm not sure I would take the path you are looking at. I think you need to define your goals more clearly. What is the reason for learning to code? I learned how to code during my free time after work and on the weekends. Most important for me wasn't to have a lot of full days to learn how to code, but rather practicing every day if even for an hour a day. So, you don't have to go on a year sabbatical from your job just to learn how to code. Also, if you are practicing every day, you can get pretty good relatively quick.

After you learn how to code, what are your plans? This is where you are very vague. Though I'm a freelance web developer, I wouldn't suggest this for most people. This is a real business and takes real commitment. It takes a lot of time and effort to really figure out the business side. It's stressful and I don't have much time or energy left over to work on my own projects. I would love to be working on some sort of start-up idea which would allow me to switch, but I can't afford to break my business cycle (quit accepting work, build my own application with no money coming in, perhaps have to start taking in new work if my idea doesn't work out and having to rebuild the cash-flow cycle.)

If you want to build something, you can take the time to learn the code just as you are doing now. As you said, progress is slow but you are still making progress. If you were to be competent in 3 months, then that's not really very long. Maybe another few months and you would be surprised with what you could accomplish. Even if you aren't a guru yet, you might just be good enough that you can tackle just about any problem that you run into. At this point, you are "good enough" though you will continue to hone your craft.

So, the moral of the story is that the year away isn't something you need to do. You can learn what you need to learn doing what you are doing. Keep building up that savings (something you will lose when you leave,) keep building on the side and be patient. Eventually you may even be able to build something that makes a bit of money. If you could build an application which could bring in $1000 / month in profit then you would have enough to live on without having to dip into your savings. That's the point where I would be considering moving abroad.

I'm not saying don't do this. I'm saying that you should be honest with yourself and define your plans more clearly. What is it that you really want to do? If it's simply to get away for a year in Thailand then go for it. If it's to learn to be a better coder, then stay on your present path, it's working! If it's to quit your job because you are simple "done" with it, then go ahead and take a sabbatical to find yourself again (though I'm not sure I would want to burn through my savings to do this, it would be better if you could support yourself while there so that you don't have to touch your savings.)

On a side note, the Philippines is also a great place. It's about the same cost of living. English is an official language. The visa allows for tourists to stay up to 16 months without having to do a visa run outside the country. I live in Dumaguete and I work out of an office (working from home just isn't effective for me anymore.) The biggest downside is the infrastructure in general is probably worse than in Thailand.

[petercooper]

Only you can analyze yourself and determine whether a "year out" could turn into a procrastination-ridden year of hedonism. At 25, though, you're not too old to have a "gap year." If you can realistically make it work with your resources, what's the worst that could happen? You come back with your tail between your legs in a few months?

The key thing you mention is not having any family to support.. once you go down that road, you're highly unlikely to be pulling off stunts like these unless you have an extremely liberal significant other and the derring-do to stay strong with a family in tow. I'm married and have a daughter now and even getting out to California for my once-regular vacation is now a project with logistics on the scale of invading a small country.. :-)

Hopefully someone else can come along and give you the specifics on how easy this is to do in Thailand, but in terms of actually doing it, if you see no significant downsides, go for it.

[codenerdz]

I wonder why Thailand? Are you planning to spend your time in Bangkok or the islands? My memory of first was a fairly dirty and hot city with exception of malls and palaces, while my memory of the latter was a very chill place with exception of monsoon month where it would be a challenge to concentrate on work. All in all, you will a need a place with high speed broadband and air conditioning at the very least.

[mattm]

If it's on your mind, go for it. Otherwise it may just end up as a regret down the road.

Thailand is cheap. You can easily live on a few hundred dollars a month so a "fair amount" of savings should be no problem.

I don't know why you asked though. Are you looking for someone to talk you out of it?

[gexla]

Easily a few hundred dollars a month? I doubt that. Maybe a Thai with support could do that. I have never been to Thailand but living on that much in the Philippines, which is comparable, would be difficult. You would be barely squeaking by.

[jeggers5]

1. Don't go on your own 2. make sure you can go back to your current job if things don't work out

[SebMortelmans]

I laugh when people put a "make sure" in their entrepreneurial advice. Yours in particular.

[boolean]

It's perfectly okay to go on your own. In fact, that alone would be great for your own self development, and don't worry about #2 at your age.