I work from home as an indie iOS developer, and I can agree with most of these points.<p>I can relate to the feeling that you "can't escape". But after reading the Four Hour Work Week, I'm starting to think about how I can automate more parts of my own businesses. I think it's possible to run a successful business without feeling the need to constantly tend to it. That's an important goal for me now.<p>Lack of social interaction is definitely a drag sometimes. So much so that I'm thinking about checking out some co-working spaces to mingle with other self-employed individuals.<p>So there's definitely downsides to being indie, but nothing that can't be remedied. And being your own boss far outweighs any of these negatives.
Sorry guy, but you can't do that job really long enough. Every job has its disadvantages. I can already see some that you will find serious later on. Like when your weekend is Wednesday and Thursday, then you can't spend your weekends with your normal working wife and your school children. Also, when you drink beer on your desk and don't push yourself through unproductive times, you will never get anything done. And who pays the bills then?
Also children always have a hard time understanding that the father, always being home, has times where he is working - not available - and times where you can go and talk to him. I NEVER got that as a child. For the child that also doesn't feel like dad is home more often, but that he spends less time with them then he could.
I could tell you so much more annoying things, without even working as an Indie and just being 25 years old (so having not much life experience myself).<p>That is why I am quite disappointed that you write an analysis of your job without being able to weigh pros and cons. Please add an "against" part! Neither for yourself, nor for your readers it will be a valuable analysis otherwise.
So here's a related question: How do you avoid having to do all the manual customer relations work yourself?<p>Is there a service you can pay to handle that? Some kind of helpdesk you can pay according to how many traffic (emails/phonecalls) they have to handle? Of course, for anything not already in the documentation, they'd still have to contact me for info, but that would dramatically cut down on the support time.
So true. After a year, i started feeling isolated, so i started part time graduate school.<p>There seem to be common patterns here <a href="http://theoatmeal.com/comics/working_home" rel="nofollow">http://theoatmeal.com/comics/working_home</a>