Start a website on for free on wordpress.com or tumblr. Try it out for a few months.

Start a shop on eBay or Amazon. For free. Only pay for the place when you sell something.

Write a book with pen and paper. Publish on Medium. Or WordPress.com. Be surprised about the feedback you get.

Join a writer’s forum. For example Authority.pub.

Draw on used paper. With an old pencil.

Sell on Etsy. Or on your own free site. Advertise amongst your friends.

Build an email list. Use Mailchimp.

Use public transportation for your business trips. For every ticket you buy there is an invoice associated. No need for a lease car that cost you hundreds of euros even when there is no business.

The benefits of constraints: focus, creativity, discipline

A million things distract; you can only focus on one.

Start on a shoestring. It’s more fun.And constraints fuel your creativity (David Byrne).

You focus on what you want to achieve. Not on other shit.There are a million things that can distract you. There is only one thing to focus on.

Starting on a low budget, gives you focus, makes you disciplined about priorities.

What you need to get started as a developer

If you want to develop stuff, you can do that almost for free.

An old laptop with Linux will suffice. A new reasonably performing laptop will cost you 350$. Get a used one that is even better, for less on ebay.

Linux will cost you nothing.

Development tools will cost you nothing.You don’t need an 8 core machine and a 17″ screen.You will learn. Build skills. For nothing.

Here are 100 free resource I love

Don’t get lost. Use the stuff you need.

Productivity.

Evernote,Scannable,Skitch,Pocket.Linux.Open Office. LibreOffice.Mozilla Thunderbird.Filezilla.Gmail , hotmail (yes we think that is normal now, free email).

Storage.

Dropbox, Google Drive, Stack (!!), iCloud, OneDrive.

Programming.

XAMPP, WAMP, LAMP.php, python, Java, erlang, Javascript, node-red.Git.Jenkins.LiClipse, Eclipse.Notepad++Atom

Education/learning general.

Edx.Khan Academy.

MOOCs.

Internet marketing: AuthorityHacking, Henneke Duistermaat.

Duolingo.

Coach.me.

itunesU.

Podcasts.

James Altucher, Tim Ferriss, Seriousy…, Startalk, TED, a16z, The Nerdist, The Art of Manliness, Freakonomics Radio, Akimbo, a16z, Jordan Harbinger, Rolf Potts Deviate.

Fun.

Pokemon Go.

Volgbrothers.

Casey Neistadt.

Candycrush.

Swiss-miss.

(Totally not fun anymore: Facebook. I only use it for groups I am in.)

Photography.

Eric Kim, The Candid Frame, Ted Forbes, streetrepeat.

Instagram (mwa less and less fun), Snapseed, Phototoaster, Camera+, Flickr.

But best get your own wordpress site and build it the coming 35 years.

Cheap cameras on eBay.

Weird shit.

Wired.

Calm.

Brainpickings.org.

worldcat.org.

Authentic Sound.

The School of Life (and The Book of Life).

Interweb.

WordPress (.com), Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, Medium.

DuckDuckGo.

Talk (chat).

Skype, messenger, Line WeChat, Viber, Whatsapp.

Activity/Sport.

Strava.

Crea.

Adobe draw/Sketch.

Free wifi.

In the train, MacDonalds, some airports.Free wifi finding apps. Instabridge.

Business.

Mailchimp.

Gnucash.

Togaf. Archi, Archimate.

Mozilla Thunderbird.

Slack.

OBS Studio.

wikipedia. 

martinfowler.com.

Travel.

Google maps.Free wifi finding apps. Instabridge.

Low budget / high value for money

wordpress.com.

Evernote premium.

transIP hosting. hostgator.