> A lot of money, but I also put a lot of time into it! I estimate that I spent about 2.5 years of full-time equivalent work researching and writing the book, spread out over the course of 4 years. Of that time, I spent one year (2014–15) working full-time on the book without income, while the rest of the time I worked on the book part-time alongside part-time employment.
Is it too creepy to wonder how the author sustain himself during the "full-time without income" part ? (Did he start saving earlier on to get a big safety cushion, did he get an advance, etc ?)
I think if you're a senior software engineer at LinkedIn in silicon valley for a couple of years and then don't have enough to sustain yourself without additional income for a year after that then your lifestyle must be quite extravagant.
Sure ! To clarify, that's also my assumption, but I was wondering if he specifically decided to save money to prepare for the "writing" period ; or he if "accidentally" ended up with enough money to spare a year of full-time employment.
In any case, good for him, of course, no jalousy implied !
(Also, as for the "your lifetime must be quite extravagant"... Again, "fair enough", but apparently the whole "FIRE"[1] movement might beg to differ ;) )
An advance probably isn't going to be much more than beer money. It's not unreasonable to imagine though that a West Coast developer could have some savings.
That said, given his comments about finances (which are spot-on), it does seem like sort of a leap to take 1+ year off. Nothing wrong with taking some extended time off, but most wouldn't use it to write a book full-time. Of course, going in he may have had unreasonable expectations which were indeed met.
Is it too creepy to wonder how the author sustain himself during the "full-time without income" part ? (Did he start saving earlier on to get a big safety cushion, did he get an advance, etc ?)