I have read the 4 hour work week book, and its not really about living as cheap as you can so you only have to work 4 hours a week. Its more about concentrating the hours you do work to only the things that increase your income.

So your expenses are only @250 per month?

I do not mean for this comment to come out negative, I just trying to understand your concept.

Thanks
Mark

I think I must have missed something.

Since I am offering somewhat unique content, my hope is to be able to sell books and ebooks and make some dough that way instead monetizing by advertising. Judging by the numbers, I have one of the most dedicated readerships of the pf-world (something I’m somewhat proud of): The average time on site is around 5 minutes. Compare to TSD (because he shares his numbers) … if we both thought of our blogs as a stadium with people coming in and out, he would sell 25 times as many tickets as I do, however, the TSD stadium would only have 3 times as many people in the seats as I do. IOW, people stay more than 8 times longer here, so perhaps they’d prefer to read content instead of eyeball ads, I’m hoping

But back to education: it is actually an idea of mine to start an online school truly devoted to “education” ie for “life-long learners”. I think it is a great idea, I just wonder if there will be any takers (if you have any suggestions along these line, I’d be interested to hear them).

Physics problem? Sure I’d be happy to see what it is that you have. I warn you, my physics is rudimentary (need to read Goldstein and my Dicke-Witte QM book). Also mathematicians notoriously cannot calculate anything! Technical proficiency? All vanished!

Since all this getting rather long, you can just email me.

I fully sympathize with the lack of motivation — for me the problem is learning while not doing anything useful, like learning to program and doing textbook exercises without making a program that is actually good for something.

If you’re interested, I have a problem in electrostatics with the non-profit. It’s pretty simple though. Also consider that it’s been a long time since I was at peak technical proficiency. These days I could tell you what the Schroedinger equation means, like the physical interpretation of an operator like the Hamiltonian, but I probably wouldn’t be able to derive it right away.

Online education is the largest expanding sector of education and is filled with these for profit schools that have sprouted up like so many mushrooms after a heavy rain (when you weren’t looking). Darn maybe I ought to invest in it. Online education is the wave of the future and can seriously put a dent in “face-to-face” education. Right now anyone running a college or university is scrambling to get a slice of the pie. It’s big money. On the other hand some think education is another bubble!

Re physics: yeah I think I never learned to think the way a physicist does. I have a hard time motivating myself since I’m out of the academic loop and there’s no one to talk to about this stuff.

As far as small income streams are concerned I would like to recommend to your readers online teaching as a possibility. I do a class and it pays about $1300 for a 5 weeks. They pay you for 8 hours of work per week so that comes out to be 32.5 per hour.

Of course getting such a job requires that you have at least a masters and some teaching experience. Fortunately I have a Phd in pure math and lots of teaching experience. Hey Jacob — maybe you could help me learn some physics, I don’t live far from the bay area!

I stumbled upon your website and admire your approach. I’m recently unemployed and can’t manage on a few hours of work per week due to my significant student loan debt and mortgage. With that being said, however, I’m sure I can think of creative ways to earn money, just as you suggest. I like your comment about turning off the television and learning a few marketable skills. Well said!

Anyway, here’s my blog if you’re interested:

http://zerohourworkweek.blogspot.com

There’s a free Mac distro called MacTeX2008. I’m gonna try it out, as it doesn’t, from a high-level view, look much different than XML/SGML stuff.

Didn’t find any TeX jobs on the local craigslist, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any elsewhere.

Also, the IRS has a right to review your W-4 form and penalize you if they determine it to be abusive. See the appropriate sections here: (IRS Publication 505).

http://www.irs.gov/publications/p505/ch01.html#en_US_publink10007264

Is it really worth a $500 penalty to save $150 a year?

@Jeff – Isn’t that underwithholding? (subject to a penalty?)

Hmmm – very interesting.

*Assuming my mortgage was paid off – as that is our largest expense by far each month. Other factors include costs of raising our son and health insurance coverage (currently provided by my firm). I also assume my wife would still want to work part time which would bring in enough to cover living expenses, give or take.