[edw519]

My experience:

                |  % of time   |  % of time   | % of time
      mode      |  working on  | cleaning up  | wasted on
                | my own stuff | others' crap | other B.S.
  --------------+--------------+--------------+------------              
  a. 9 to 5     |      10      |      40      |     50     
  b. consulting |      30      |      40      |     30
  c. start-up   |     100      |       0      |      0    
  

The winner: c.

[jackowayed]

From what I hear there's a lot of BS to deal with when you run a startup. You have to run the business, so there's accounting stuff to deal with and such. There's support. Eventually there's raising money and hiring people, both of which often take way longer than they should and are frustrating, but they're both very important.

Sure, it may not feel as unproductive as sitting in meetings all day and not accomplishing anything, but it's still time that you're doing annoying tasks instead of hacking.

[edw519]

Of course. That's why I entitled Column 1 "working on my own stuff" instead of "writing my own software".

  Good:    writing someone else's software
  Better:  working on my own business (not writing software)
  Best:    writing my own software

A start-up includes "Better" and "Best". Both fall into Column 1.

[dangravell]

Not sure what you mean by support, but supporting users of your stuff, getting feedback and even just having a conversation about what you've made is one of the most rewarding parts of running your own business.

[mkramlich]

You don't necessarily need to raise money or hire people. Accounting can be as simple as you'll let it be -- there are some dials you can twiddle in terms of complexity, especially very early.

[omarish]

it's not really BS because it's your BS. I think the issue is motivation.

[bmelton]

Depends on what the BS _is_ I suppose. For me, I'd categorize almost all of the time I spend on HN that I should otherwise be working as BS.

[trustfundbaby]

Thats why you get a good business side cofounder ;)

[umjames]

Having done mostly 9 to 5 and only consulting once, I'm convinced that working on your own start-up provides the best chance for happiness. I think this is mostly true because in a 9 to 5 and consulting, the primary metric is time instead of productivity.

Most 9 to 5s are about face time (or butt-in-chair time) and consulting is about billable hours. If you can do your job more efficiently (better job done in less time), a 9 to 5 says you still have to be at work looking busy until a certain time and in consulting, getting the job done faster can result in less money earned (if you're charging by the hour).

In your own start-up, finding more efficient ways to get things done benefits you directly. You now have more time to complete the next task. The sooner you finish, the better.

[erikstarck]

Next week I will go from freelance to employed 4 days/week. That's a fourth option: 9 to 5 but not a full week.

If you want to know how I'm doing follow my blog Opportunity Cloud.