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Will program Ruby for food

66 points| lobo_tuerto | 14 years ago | reply

Nothing to lose, nowhere to go. Starting from zero.

If someone will take me, I`m a good person willing to program for food and shelter. Take this as a social experiment. Able to travel anywhere in the world. Currently in Mexico city. No visa, just passport.

I`m proficient in Ruby, Rails, a little of design, picking my way in buddhism. Smart, hard working, fit, likes to cook, good care taker. Willing to learn anything.

Any offers? Come on. Email contact in profile.

41 comments

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[+] abbasmehdi|14 years ago|reply
What are you seeking? Are you stable? The reason I ask is people tend to do these kinds of things after a break-up or other major, life-altering events. Have you thought this through? There are other necessities in life aside from 'food and shelter'. With your skills you can make a decent living anywhere in the world.

What's the whole story here?

[+] lobo_tuerto|14 years ago|reply
Yup I`m stable, been looking to this for since 2005, now is the right time. Of course there are other things besides food & shelter, but those are the things I need to get started anywhere. A little money after proving myself won`t hurt either. As I said, this is a little social experiment. Want to blog about it, how it goes etc. Trying to make it as a digital nomad.

Anyone willing, won`t regret it.

[+] octopus|14 years ago|reply
You could try to use a website like vworker for finding programming jobs. I use vworker (formerly rentacoder) since 2006, I work only on my spare time on the site (less than 2 hours a day, sometimes even less) and I have a steady revenue from this of about 2k per month.

All you need is knowledge,determination and a good internet connection. It won't be easy to start, my first "job" was a two weeks project for ... 5$. Once you will have a good history on a site like that (I've heard odesk is also a decent choice) you could theoretically charge as you want per hour.

[+] pavel_lishin|14 years ago|reply
How long did it take you to work your way from "two week project for $5" to "$2k a month! work from home! be your own boss! call now!" levels of income?
[+] stevenbrianhall|14 years ago|reply
Would you consider staying in México for the same offer? I'm an American in Guadalajara, and getting ready to launch my Rails-based start-up, and would be interested in a trial run.
[+] jeffrey_w|14 years ago|reply
I don't think there's much I could do in providing food & shelter, but I do have a rather ok-ish MacBook collecting Dust (Model 2007). Would that help?
[+] gtklocker|14 years ago|reply
I'm in desperate need of a laptop to do my development on. I do algorithms in C and C++ for the next International Olympiad in Informatics and my laptop (an el-cheapo ~220EUR I bought 4 years before) is completely broken down, The keys merely work, the screen is touchpad doesn't really work as well. Linux won't work on this thing so I have to use Windows XP and putty to do my job and this sucks.

I need to speed up the development process and get up an running with a machine that will always work. I'm not asking directly for your machine, it's just that I'd like to have it, and by that I mean that it would certainly help me but I'm pretty sure people out there need it more deeply.

What I do is here: https://github.com/karantias/training

--gtklocker

[+] xelnyq|14 years ago|reply
fellow poor rails programmer from poland here. i can take it if its a burden :]
[+] begriffs|14 years ago|reply
Depending on someone to give you shelter, food, money, and possibly your work visa would make you rather vulnerable. This might create an unhealthy relationship with your one-man boss/landlord/roommate.
[+] lobo_tuerto|14 years ago|reply
That's a possibility. I think it's all about relationship management, and talking through it thoroughly.
[+] briandear|14 years ago|reply
Sounds a lot like working in China or Korea.
[+] beachgeek|14 years ago|reply
Its called an H1 visa in the United States.
[+] botj|14 years ago|reply
I'm getting a weird vibe from this. Maybe it's just the indentured servitude feel of it.
[+] herval|14 years ago|reply
With all the good-paying ruby jobs out there, all over the world, why would you REALLY prefer to work for free? Why NOT applying for a proper position (or better yet, a telecommute one that would allow u to travel and work from anywhere)?

Just curious...

[+] nazar|14 years ago|reply
I totally feel you. I coded a portfolio website for about 35$ recently. At least I had a shelter, all i needed was food :) Bad things happen.. Good luck!
[+] gurkendoktor|14 years ago|reply
Hah, I remember your name from some Ruby game dev! I am doing Ruby freelancing from somewhere in Taiwan now. Best of luck :)
[+] lobo_tuerto|14 years ago|reply
Wow guys, thank you all! Had some very interesting replies in the mail also, I`ll be answering them today and sorting one out. I`ll report back later.

I intend to create a reputation from this, so I can hop around the world lending my expertise while mutual help is given for each other.

[+] vinifies|14 years ago|reply
Hi, I'm based in Singapore. We're building a small team or competent rails developers to take on client projects and are also starting to explore our own startup idea. We're willing to work sth out with you! Email me at [email protected] if you're interested!
[+] memeree|14 years ago|reply
Hi, In the UK, interested in working with you on a few ideas; around 6 months work. Happy for you to work remotelym, If you're interested, email me. [email protected]
[+] xinuc|14 years ago|reply
Do you consider Indonesia as an option? There's a high demand of ruby programmers in Indonesia right now.
[+] lobo_tuerto|14 years ago|reply
I consider anywhere I can travel to in the world as an option. I only have a passport though.
[+] zaczed|14 years ago|reply
Drop me ya MSN or Skype or Twitter ? Wanna get to know you more! My Skype is zhen.zhi
[+] systems|14 years ago|reply
why don't you just elance(.com)? or something like it ?
[+] khalidshaikh|14 years ago|reply
Congratulations on your new job !
[+] latch|14 years ago|reply
Don't take the down votes on your new account too hard. Generally the HN-crowd prefers that people comment on posts which they've actually read, is all.

(can you finish a sentence with ", is all" like that?)