This is a REALLY good point. The benefits of being frugal are increased when the majority is not. It's sort of the same thing with the birth rate. Our economy will grow as long as we keep replacing the workers.
If you can get a raise, that's fantastic, and congrats! My experience however is that without asking "why do I buy the things I do", people tend to raise their spending to their new salary level. Why not two or three latte's per day? That's what $15 per day, or about $4000 per year.
I'd recommend this too. It's a financial blog by a married 38yo former software engineer. If you're into hacking your finances and living a less consumer driven lifestyle, I'd check it out.
I'm relatively new to HN, and also learning to program. I don't comment much. I rarely submit. But I read pretty much everything, including the comments.
And when I see posts about improving HN, I must admit that I just don't see it. Yes some comments are not constructive, but you'll always have that. I'm surprised we don't have more of this to be honest.
So is there a correlation between time spend on HN and your personal view of it's quality? Good question. How do you measure quality then? How do you separate yourself out?
I really like this. Clean and simple. Would be nice if I wasn't forced to use twitter to track my blogs though. What about an equally clean and simple user dashboard?
Now...make a list of these priorities and order them by importance to you. Next, meet with everyone except the guy at the top of your list. You don't have to meet with him/her because you're going to be getting that shit done asap. Unless, this is the guy calling you every day. In that case, you're going to have to explain to him that while he thinks that being a squeaky wheel will make it go faster, you don't work that way, and he's only hurting the project.
Alright, when you meet with everyone, you're going to have to explain that you have a lot of competing pressures. With some people you're be able to lay everything bare, and others, well not so much. Some will understand, some won't. But it's your job to explain to them ALL that if something doesn't give, everything will, including their project. If you're like me, your not a big fan of meeting with people and asking for help. You'd rather grit your teeth, bare down, and get it done. Which is awesome...except when you've got so much on the go that it bogs you down and you don't even want to get up in the morning (not good).
You have students? Dump them, or reduce them to the bare minimal.
Great job overseas? Awesome! If this is at the top of your list, then get THAT done ASAP. My parent's were in the same position when we lost my Grandfather a few years ago. I headed straight over to the British Consulate, and I had a plan setup before noon. Cost an arm and a leg, but I got it done, and my parents were able to fly out 2 days later.
I have a few days off, so if I can help with anything, fire me an email at lee(at)peanutdynamite(com).
Oh, I need to add two things. First, why no color? The outcome may have been different. Second, I wonder if the order they are displayed would affect the outcome. I say this because I think in hindsight that I was more likely to dislike a logo the further down the list it was. Food for thought.
So that said, what specifically is your idea? Imagine it's up and running right now. How does it work? How do you raise money? How are you getting it to the starving people? How are you ensuring it is being used effectively? Congrats for wanting to take this on. I tip my cap in your general direction!