It gets better when you look at his "about" page. All his startups failed, yet he still thinks he has something interesting enough to say that he needs a blog to put all this amazing content he's going to write in the future.
Most people start with freelancing then move on to start ups when they get sick of playing client roulette. He went the other way around. There's probably an interesting story there, something way more compelling than rehashing Tim Ferriss and Ramit Sethi in the most schlocky way possible. But it doesn't look like he'd know how to tell it.
I'm actually not quitting the startup world. But I'll probably won't return to the same classic routine of working full-time until raising VC money and then hoping to get acquired. More in the realms of bootstrapping an online business with a concrete business model that grows slowly.
By the way, what didn't you like about the way I wrote my post(s)? I'm honestly interested in hearing your feedback, since this is my first blog.
Your blog posts need to actually say something. I've read 4HWW, nothing you've written has anything new to say about the subject of lifestyle design, even though his book came out 5 years ago.
But it could have. The main problem I've found in doing this global arbitrage thing is that freelancing is actually hard to do remotely. I mean, you could go on eLance and Mechanical Turk and do boring-ass work for annoying clients for pennies, those types of gigs are easy to get and do remotely. But to do actual serious work that way?
There's plenty to discuss on this topic, but you managed to avoid everything that's interesting about lifestyle design and then promise only the most uninteresting content later. "How to start freelancing and get paying customers" is not a worthy HN post. Most of us, if we freelance, have already been doing it for awhile.
You need to decide who you're writing your blog for. I wouldn't necessarily choose the HN audience, you might be better off serving the legions of kids just out of college who want something better than the choices they have in front of them. If you're going to target that audience, then target them, don't write generally and definitely don't self-submit to HN just to get eyeballs.
If you want to target us, then you'll need to bring a bit more substance to the table.
HN has progressively become more and more negative, so I wouldn't worry about the negative responses here. That's not to say your blog can't improve, but obviously what you wrote must have hit a nerve judging it's on the front page, so make no apologies for that and keep writing! You don't need to address every complaint.
Sure. But he's not talking about his failures or sharing the insights he learned. Just promising the same pot of gold Tim did and glossing over the obstacles that most of us found insurmountable.
What I'm actually trying to say in this post is that you need to change your way of thinking about working hard, retiring and only then doing what you'd like (i.e. lifestyle design). If you're already familiar with this concept - this post won't provide you any new insights.
I have thought about writing the practical tips right there, but these could actually be spread across several posts.
I suppose so, but you have to consider your audience here. Most/all of HN is familiar with the 4 Hour Work week, and your post was basically just its back cover description.
I'm interested in what you have to say, but you're gonna have to be more detailed and less hand-wavy to keep people interested.
Most people start with freelancing then move on to start ups when they get sick of playing client roulette. He went the other way around. There's probably an interesting story there, something way more compelling than rehashing Tim Ferriss and Ramit Sethi in the most schlocky way possible. But it doesn't look like he'd know how to tell it.