Rain falls outside.
The weather contrasts with my mood.
I take another sip of the hot tea and write another sentence. And then another.
The more I write, the clearer it becomes what I want to say and where I need to go next. The clackity noise of the keyboard and the sound of raindrops falling on the roofs become one. If there are other sounds, I can’t hear them. I’m in the zone. In the flow.
The hands are mere translators of what my brain is thinking. I can feel the thoughts and connections on the screen.
What a marvelous feeling.
I love what I do.
And so can you…
外面下着雨。
天气与我的心情形成对比。
我再喝一口热茶，又写了一句话。然后又一句。
我写得越多，就越清楚我想说什么以及下一步需要去哪里。键盘的咔哒声和雨滴落在屋顶上的声音合二为一。如果还有其他声音，我听不见。我完全沉浸其中。处在流动状态。
手只是大脑所想的翻译者。我可以在屏幕上感受到思维和连接。
多么神奇的感觉。
我爱我的工作。
你也可以…
For the last 6 months, I’ve been working on my projects.
A year into my first job out of university, I quit. I then worked as a freelancer for a while before moving to Sydney to take a job in a tech company. Nine months later, I realized I liked it better before.
And so I went back to square one.
But this time with a plan.
A plan to start making.
I started a community of productivity hackers. Finally got serious about blogging. Armed with a simple business plan and using OKRs as feedback loops, I went to work.
And in these six months I’ve achieved more than all the other years combined. While those experiences taught me a thing or two, shifting my perspective was the most important thing.
I now accept that things are going to suck.
In fact, I expect most things will.
But if you put in the work and get in the habit of shipping stuff every week, eventually it not only becomes easier but also better.
This is not a bragging post. It’s a super condensed version of everything that I learned about work and happiness in the last 5 years.
Learn to plan your escape to do what you love by building a Minimum Viable Life.
在过去的6个月里，我一直在做我的项目。
大学毕业后的第一份工作一年后，我辞职了。然后我做了一段时间的自由职业者，之后搬到悉尼在一家科技公司工作。九个月后，我意识到我更喜欢之前的生活。
于是我又回到了起点。
但这次有了计划。
一个开始制作的计划。
我开启了一个生产力黑客社区。最终认真对待博客。拿着一个简单的商业计划和使用 OKRs 作为反馈循环，我开始工作。
在这六个月里，我取得的成就超过了其他所有年份的总和。虽然那些经历教会了我一两件事，但改变我的观点是最重要的。
我现在接受事情会变糟。
事实上，我预计大多数事情都会这样。
但如果你投入工作，并养成每周都完成事情的习惯，最终不仅会变得更容易，而且也会变得更好。
这不是一个吹嘘的帖子。这是我过去5年在工作和幸福方面所学到的一切的超简版。
学会规划你的逃离，通过建立一个最小可行生活来做你爱做的事。
Table of Contents
• Minimum Viable Life (MVL)最小可行生活（MVL）
• What’s Holding You Back?阻碍你的是什么？
• Designing a Minimum Viable Life设计一个最小可行生活
• Extending Your Runway延长你的跑道
• Lowering Expenses to Increase the Runway降低开支以增加跑道
• The “Minimum” Minimum Viable Life**“**最低限度”的最小可行生活
Minimum Viable Life (MVL)
In tech, most companies start by developing a minimum viable product (MVP). You build a product with only the core features in order to gather feedback from early users. It’s the leanest way to test assumptions and know what you need to build in future product development. Less is more.
The Minimum Viable Life (MVL) follows the same logic:
- Find the “core features” of your life: everything that doesn’t add value to your life is not core and you can live without it
- Design the leanest possible version: once you focus only on the core features of your life, you might discover that you could already be working for yourself
- Gather feedback early on and adjust as necessary: rather than a one-off, the MVL is a continuous process of iteration
The true beauty of MVPs lies in little commitment.
Using Minimum Viable Life as a model gives you the same edge: if it doesn’t work, iterate and try again. And if that leads to nowhere, you are free to move on and try something else.
最小可行生活（MVL）
在科技领域，大多数公司开始时都会开发一个最小可行产品（MVP）。你会构建一个仅包含核心功能的产品，以便从早期用户那里收集反馈。这是测试假设并了解未来产品开发中需要构建什么的最简洁方法。少即是多。
最小可行生活（MVL）遵循相同的逻辑：
- 找到你生活的“核心功能”： 任何不为你的生活增加价值的东西都不是核心，你可以没有它
- 设计最精简的可能版本： 一旦你只专注于生活的核心功能，你可能会发现你已经可以为自己工作
- 尽早收集反馈并根据需要进行调整： 与其说是一次性的，MVL更是一个持续的迭代过程
MVP的真正美在于少许的承诺。
使用最小可行生活作为模型给你同样的优势：如果它不起作用，迭代并再试一次。如果那也通往无处，你可以自由地放弃并尝试其他东西。
What’s Holding You Back?
I have been a freelancer for more than 10 years. I started doing writing and admin gigs at Elance (ah, those were the days!) around 16. Pay was great and allowed me to backpack around the world.
Albeit part-time, I rather enjoyed doing it. And yet, I stopped doing it after college and went into banking instead.
Why?
In one word? Fear.
I was afraid I “wouldn’t make it on my own”, didn’t have the experience and expertise and had to “fake it ‘till I made it”. I conformed to social norms and did what was expected.
But the truth is right there in the opening sentence of this section. After college, I had already been freelancing for more than five years.
Was I the most successful freelancer in the world? No. Did I know everything about freelancing? Absolutely not. Did I know more than most people? Definite yes.
Fear held me back.
And a couple of years later, I took another job because of it. What’s even crazier was that I was making a decent income already and was expecting it to ramp up in the upcoming months.
Working for yourself is terrifying. It’s like driving on a road you don’t know on a foggy night. You barely see what’s ahead of you. Terrifying.
And yet, that’s happens to be the best part.
I don’t regret those experiences. They shaped who I am today and I learned a lot. It’s because of them that I am in the driver’s seat in my life today.
Want to do the same? Learn to conquer your fears. Believe in your projects and value. If you don’t, no one else will. People will see right through you. The one thing you have that nobody else has is you.
Use it.
阻碍你的是什么？
我已经做自由职业者超过10年了。大约16岁时，我开始在Elance（啊，那些日子！）做写作和行政工作。报酬很好，让我得以环游世界。
尽管是兼职，我还是很享受这样做。然而，大学毕业后，我却停止了这样的工作，转而进入银行业。
为什么？
用一个词来说？恐惧。
我害怕“自己无法独立成功”，没有经验和专业知识，必须“假装直到成功”。我遵从社会规范，做了人们期望的事。
但事实就在本节的开头句子里。大学毕业后，我已经做了五年多的自由职业。
我是世界上最成功的自由职业者吗？不是。我知道关于自由职业的一切吗？当然不是。但我比大多数人都懂得更多吗？绝对是的。
恐惧阻碍了我。
几年后，我因为它而再次接受了一份工作。更疯狂的是，我已经有了相当不错的收入，并且预计在未来几个月会有所增长。
为自己工作是可怕的。这就像在雾蒙蒙的夜晚，开车在一条你不熟悉的路上。你几乎看不到前方的路。非常可怕。
然而，这恰恰是最好的部分。
我不后悔那些经历。它们塑造了今天的我，我从中学到了很多。正因为它们，我今天才能在生活中掌舵。
想做同样的事吗？学会征服你的恐惧。相信你的项目和价值。如果你不相信，别人也不会。人们会看穿你。你所拥有的，别人没有的，就是你自己。
利用它。
Designing a Minimum Viable Life
The first step of your Minimum Viable Life plan is to assess your current situation. You need to know your income — regular, passive, and savings — as well as your expenses — variable and fixed.
Open the Minimum Viable Life spreadsheet and select “File -> Make a Copy” in the upper left. Add your numbers to the yellow boxes. Everything else is automatic.
Here’s a quick explanation of each category:
- Regular Income: what you currently make at your job (after taxes)
- Passive Income: any sources that provide income without doing any work
- Savings: wealth you saved up over time
- Variable Expenses: anything that you can get rid of or minimize if you want to (e.g. food, rent, entertainment)
- Fixed Expenses: anything that you truly cannot get rid of (e.g. college loans installments)
On the table you can see your runway: how long you can work for yourself until you run out of money given your initial financials.
设计一个最小可行生活
您的最小可行生活计划的第一步是评估您当前的情况。您需要了解您的收入——常规收入、被动收入和储蓄——以及您的支出——可变支出和固定支出。
打开最小可行生活电子表格，并选择左上方的“文件 -> 制作副本”。将您的数字添加到黄色方框中。其他的都是自动的。
以下是每个类别的简要解释：
- 常规收入： 您目前在工作中的收入（税后）
- 被动收入： 任何不需工作即可提供收入的来源
- 储蓄： 您随着时间积累的财富
- 可变支出： 任何您想要减少或最小化的东西（例如食物、租金、娱乐）
- 固定支出： 任何您真正无法摆脱的东西（例如大学贷款分期）
在表格中，您可以看到您的跑道：根据您最初的财务状况，您可以为自己工作多久，直到资金耗尽。
Extending Your Runway
Ideally, you want a runway of at least one year. It takes some adjusting to work for yourself and it will take some time until you rake in your first dollars.
One year is a long enough to start making at least the amount of income needed to cover your expenses. Once that happens, you turn your crashing runway into an infinite one.
If you already have passive income streams, you can adjust the leeway needed.
In any case, extending your runway is a matter of understanding your finances. There formula is: Savings + Income — Expenses.
The easiest way to buy more time is to focus on the “Expenses” part of the equation.
延长你的跑道
理想情况下，您希望有至少一年的跑道。适应为自己工作需要一些时间调整，而且从开始赚取第一笔收入也需要一些时间。
一年的时间足够长，可以开始至少赚取足够覆盖您支出的收入。一旦发生这种情况，您就可以将即将崩溃的跑道变成无限的跑道。
如果您已经有被动收入流，您可以调整所需的余地。
无论如何，延长跑道都是理解您的财务状况的问题。公式是：储蓄 + 收入 – 支出。
购买更多时间的最简单方式是关注等式中的“支出”部分。
Lowering Expenses to Increase the Runway
Let’s say this is how your runway looks like:
At the current burn rate, you are dead in the water on month 3. Let’s consider a few adjustments you can make:
- Moving to a cheaper city (influences all expenses)
- Finding a cheaper apartment to live in the current city
- Buying cheaper food and in bulk, eating the same meals most days
- Cutting back on dining out, going out, and entertainment
- Canceling subscriptions
You decide to pursue a few of those options. Since you’re working from home and thus avoiding commute, there are no gas or public transportation costs. You will eat at home every day as well. Your new runway:
降低开支以增加跑道
假设你的跑道看起来是这样的：
在当前的燃烧率下，到第3个月你就会陷入困境。让我们考虑一些你可以做的调整：
- 搬到一个更便宜的城市（影响所有开支）
- 在当前城市找一个更便宜的公寓住
- 购买更便宜的食物，大量购买，大多数日子吃相同的餐食
- 减少外出就餐、外出和娱乐
- 取消订阅
你决定执行其中几个选项。由于你在家工作，因此避免了通勤，没有油费或公共交通费用。你也将每天在家吃饭。你的新跑道：
You now have a 9-month runway. While not ideal, it’s 4.5x the previous scenario. That’s the power of cutting your expenses. You need to force yourself to think about what you can remove.
A Minimum Viable Life is about making your runway as long as possible. Expenses are mere trade-offs: you are trading money for runway time. Once you look at it that way, few things are essential. The question becomes:
“Do I want to spend money on this or instead extend my runway time?”
If you really want to work for yourself, you’ll choose the latter almost every time. You start to look at money in terms of “time”, instead of currency.
Once you make that shift, you’re invincible.
你现在有了9个月的跑道。虽然不是理想的，但它是之前情景的4.5倍。这就是削减开支的力量。你需要强迫自己思考可以去除什么。
最小可行生活是关于使你的跑道尽可能长。开支只是权衡：你用金钱换取跑道时间。当你这样看待它时，很少有事情是必不可少的。问题变成了：
“我想在这上面花钱，还是想延长我的跑道时间？”
如果你真的想为自己工作，你几乎每次都会选择后者。你开始用“时间”而不是货币来看待金钱。
一旦你做出这种转变，你就无敌了。
The “Minimum” Minimum Viable Life
The safest way to start working for yourself it to take the non-commitment clause of MVPs one step further: work for yourself while working for others.
By doing so, you continue to bring additional money to your runway fund on a monthly basis. Work on your side-project before or after work. Aim for at least one hour per day.
And if you already know you want to work for yourself, lower your expenses from the get-go. No sense to keep burning money and your runway.
This is exactly the plan I followed. I saved as much as I could by dramatically decreasing expenses. Soon enough I had a runway of more than a year.
Your escape is less than 6 months away.
It’s up to you to take it.
“最低限度”的最小可行生活
开始为自己工作的最安全方式是将最小可行产品（MVP）的非承诺条款进一步发展：在为他人工作的同时为自己工作。
通过这样做，你可以继续每月为你的跑道基金带来额外的收入。在工作前后致力于你的副项目。每天至少投入一小时。
如果你已经知道你想为自己工作，那么就从一开始就降低你的开支。继续烧钱和耗尽你的跑道是没有意义的。
这正是我所遵循的计划。我通过大幅减少开支节省了尽可能多的钱。很快我就拥有了超过一年的跑道。
你的逃生路线不到6个月就会出现。
取决于你是否抓住它。
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