Currently homeless, driving Uber and Lyft. I've fixed my mental health after a shit storm of life events, mostly using AI as therapist.

I'm going back to school soon for psychology (figure financial aid can also pay room and board).

I'm wanting to build a mobile journal app with a bunch of AI guided 'games' to help learn DBT skills or work out trauma or do Shadow work or just guided CBT for a purpose.

I've changed my MBTI from intp-t to enfp-a...(I find I revert sometimes when I don't feel safe)... in other words I've become a very outgoing people person at least I'm a lot less afraid in social situations or to act like a fool on the dance floor... etc...

I also want to write a book and do videos on hacking your brain using AI... nobody seems to be doing this... there's a lot of potential for this niche I think.

I fixed hobbies, depression, and social life, all that's left is physical and financial and those are kind of easy when emotions are in check.

where do you find the old ladies to rent from?

flyers on lampposts

someone on here bought me a used MacBook. so yeah going to try freelancing that. I'll still do Uber (it's helped my mental health l but I don't want to rely on it and I want to save wear and tear on car so maybe just Saturdays...

my email is on my profile didn't see yours on yours, would love to connect though.

safe house?

Yeah, I found it on the map here, it's for youth, but I'm certain they will have resources

https://maps.app.goo.gl/HxLZGEtNSxyfpuoYA

inheritance, I'm hoping in the next month. With that I'd find a roommate situation for like $600 (average)... then work on freelancing, etc.

My depression is I believe in remission and I've built resiliency skills. I might be getting a sales job soon, selling astroturfing and rock scaping to homeowners.

It's door to door sales but the pay is good if I can actually set appointments. Plus I'm working on overcoming rejection sensitivity and overthinking, I think sales could help with that..

I guess that's what I'm used to and... my brain isn't great at 9 to 5 work, my best code is written late at night. I'm probably 60 percent as productive when I have to work a rigid schedule.

I was making 50 per hour doing freelance programming two years ago but I've had trouble finding clients and then I didn't have a place to work from, making it even harder. That's my biggest obstacle. I've got 10+years experience with PHP, JavaScript, laravel. etc...

Is there a reason you're hooked on the desktop computer? Maybe you invested a lot in it as a gaming setup? I'd offload it, get a laptop and you're then capable of charging at a library, working there or in the car, in a park, etc. If you're on the cusp of a worsening situation, gaming might be the least of your worries.

Lots of people live in vehicles quite intentionally. It's harder and very often not ideal, but I don't think it's your biggest issue here.

it's got PHP and tooling and Arch Linux it's just what I'm comfortable with but I've got a MacBook (someone gifted me one from this thread) so yeah I'll definitely be using that for freelancing soon.

You could consider looking for a job at a software development "agency" that specialises in those technologies. There should still be plenty of such jobs for an experienced developer (especially if you're willing to accept a lower-then-"big tech"-but-still-good salary).

They'll not only provide you with a regular income (no need to find your own clients), but will likely provide you with a work computer and an office space too.

I say this as a person who has spent the last month mostly living out a minivan: You need a laptop.

A laptop will vastly expand the number of places you can work from.

I've got 10 years experience with laravel, lots of PHP, JavaScript, vue, react, MySQL, Python etc...i just don't have a computer unless I can find a place to set up my desktop... that's my biggest hurdle.

While all those skills are great to have, you're now competing with every unemployed junior, fresh grad, and old coder on the market. You need to update your skill set, and ideally focus on skills that are in higher demand and with higher barrier to entry or with a captive audience/market.

Vue/React/Python are all still huge but they're commodity skills today. Differentiating will help with the jobseeking.

None of those skills are really out of date. Laravel is also still huge. And almost everyone is still using SQL.

And just because these are areas in which there are many juniors devs have doesn't mean that senior devs are competing directly with them.

If you can sell the desktop for enough money to buy a good-enough laptop, you should do that. The desktop is just dead weight until you have a place where you can permanently set it up, and if you believe you an use your programming skills to help you get back on your feet, you need to be able to use those skills now, while you don't have a place to plug in that desktop.

But really, look for a stable job, any job. Uber/Lyft is not that, especially with the uncertainty in your car situation. Your eventual goal might be to do software freelancing, or to get a full-time job using those software skills, but you may not be able to get one of those kinds of jobs now.

Apply to jobs. Go to library and review some of these languages before interviews, you can use the library computer.

Have you been trying to get a stable job as dev or data guy? As this is where you should start. You really just need a stable income, so you can get an apartment and space to live.

Once, you have stable situation you can figure out the rest.

Archive.org has a PHP Software Engineer position they posted recently, may come in handy once you have a more stable setup with your computer

https://workforcenow.adp.com/mascsr/default/mdf/recruitment/...

Best wishes and good luck with everything

I worked with this particular "team", in this exact position, for over a year and I cannot recommend strongly enough against it, especially for someone that has just regained their mental health.

Those two people should not be in a supervisory role over any other engineer, ever.

Why would you stick to your desktop so much? It looks like any laptop is a better device for you right now.

I’d suggest agreeing to the proposition of the kind person who offered you to ship his ThinkPad. (In this very thread.) If there’s more than one person willing to help, I’d suggest agreeing on getting a couple of laptops, as it will allow you to have a backup computer. Someone offered his MacBook Pro 2012 here too. I have a similar one, and it does the web dev job just fine. It’s like tires to your car, I’d have at least two, the 2nd one can be any that would boot and work, regardless of its state and how powerful it is.

If you feel very uncomfortable about that, I’d suggest you to treat it as a credit. You can buy that laptop from that person later, offering them the market price for that.

Any basic web dev work should not take tremendous resources from your machine, so even if your computer is super powerful, you don’t _require_ it to do the job. Selling or not is your decision, but to me, it’s just secondary. You can get any old laptop for very cheap. Just throw any Linux on it. Fedora or Ubuntu is modest even if you never interacted with it, and they will allow almost any 10–15 years old laptop to work relatively well.

I’d strongly suggest having two, just so you could have any backup option to do the job, even if the primary laptop is down for some reason. It’s real to work from anywhere, your car, a café, a street. You might need a battery for that laptop, but it shouldn’t be too expensive, and should serve you at least for a year or two, which might be plenty for you to get to a better state than yours now.

I have a super powerful desktop for more than a decade now, and due to various life obstacles, I’m unable to work from it most times. It was shelved for a couple of years, and now I’m able to reach it only once or twice a week. If I had no laptop, I wouldn’t be able to deliver anything. I used a 2011 entry-level MacBook Pro till it was broken, now I use a 2014 model, and it’s my primary machine for everything. So don’t underestimate laptops.

Since you’d benefit from a battery life, I’d suggest you to find any cheap second-hand iPad. The newer, the better, obviously, but those that are no longer supported can be very cheap. I have a 1st Gen. iPad Pro, and it works almost full day from its (quite drained) battery. This device can work as a 2nd screen for any relatively modern macOS device (e.g. a 10 years MacBook). Plus, such a device might allow you to have more screen time from a battery, and might be better than just a smartphone when you’re on the go. By juggling these devices, you might have a full-day battery life.

Just my ¢2 about your desktop. Go for laptop and try to find any computer-related job, I’d say.

I only have a desktop. I thought about getting office space from the chamber of commerce for 250 per month... and I can use their fridge to save money on food (Greek yogurt, Jimmy Dean sandwiches, and string cheese is all I need)...

Don’t rent an office space. You dont have the runway to make that work given the current tech market. Focus on getting a solid enough job to get you actual housing. Temp agency, county jobs program, take anything that will pay you a living wage and provide stability.

> I only have a desktop.

Sell it. It's a paperweight for you right now. You can find a really nice open-box/used laptop for $300-400 that will allow you to work from anywhere. You can charge the laptop at a cafe or a library. $5 for coffee and you have a working space to take calls and work.

DC-AC Inverter will let you run the laptop from the car as a last resort..

Usually there exist also dedicated car chargers for the lighter socket.

will cost you energy though, making battery less reliable or wasting fuel. Best to charge where you get energy for free.

Chamber of Commerce is swimming with other hungry sharks. You'd be better off finding a coworking space (NOT a chain one like WeWork). Talk to the owner and explain your situation, ask for a month or two discount while you get your bearings and attend every meetup they have. Meet everyone, tell your story, share your skills. A small community will help take care of you in ways a CoC will not.

Kiln just opened in St George, I have a dedicated desk, but they have non dedicated desks for I think $150 or so, and has more amenities (and free snacks/coffee to save a little on food costs)