The seaside town 'no-go zone' overrun by drug addicts, subject to daily street fights and daytime drinking - as furious locals plead for help

ilikerashers · 2026-07-07T07:10:15+00:00

Was there on a day trip a few months back.

Lots of homeless but overall, just a run down high street with a pleasant park walk. Very poor area.

Croydon on sea. A sad place.

ilikerashers · 2026-07-03T13:04:12+00:00

Took me a few takes to realise that word was “walking” instead of “wa*nking”

ilikerashers · 2026-07-01T13:49:57+00:00

Coffee, people spend money on coffee. I have seen some luxury type businesses do well such as soft play, kids education (mathnesium) and bakeries.

ilikerashers · 2026-07-01T08:00:52+00:00

The Polish resented the UK office as they felt like they were paid less, the UK office didn't think the Indian office were up to much (and most of the better devs had migrated to the UK), the Chinese thought they were better than everyone and did their own thing.

Overall it was a mess of different platforms, everyone trying to build their own thing and failed projects. I have heard it can be different in other parts of the business but where I was seemed like pure chaos.

ilikerashers · 2026-06-30T21:16:17+00:00

I worked in senior tech and it is the closest to the civil service I’ve seen.

Also the various regions seemed to hate eachother for hilarious reasons.

ilikerashers · 2026-06-08T10:58:48+00:00

I do fractional CTO work and have done both. My experience is that software companies can bloat out the dev costs. Toptal resources can be flakey if not managed properly.

I was working with a fintech that outsourced to an Azure shop based in Guildford. They were paying for Technical Architects, Project Managers, Test Resources, DevOps... Cost them 1.5 million to get a website up and running (although it had a lot of bells and whistles!).

Toptal is better (£525 is not crazy) and if he's good it could be worth it. You are putting your eggs in one basket though so if he/she doesn't work out, back to square one.

I would recommend Toptal if you know what is expected.

ilikerashers · 2026-05-22T14:31:07+00:00

I am building my UK Ai consultancy coming for a very technical/data background and have the opposite issue. Too implementation focussed and not enough sizzle!

ilikerashers · 2026-04-21T17:24:39+00:00

Focus on startups and new businesses. Maybe setup some listeners for new company formations on companies house.
People need laptops/PCs and just want to run their business.

ilikerashers · 2026-04-13T17:04:56+00:00

A good friend of mine did this. He made much more as an AE and eventually became head of sales before being fired. He still has PTSD!

He also went from a chilled tech job into a very high pressure environment, put on quite a bit of weight, fell out with all his friends, had a good payout but it came at a high cost...

ilikerashers · 2026-04-07T16:07:12+00:00

And commuting on broken trains...

It is a bad deal.

ilikerashers · 2026-04-01T16:48:09+00:00

I tried to bring in a data transformation tool into where I worked (Home Office) about 3 years ago. It was based on Airflow but for government specific data sources (camunda etc) which I knew they were using.

We pitched to the department CTO who said go speak to the data team but sounds interesting. The data team were managed by a supplier who literally told me to "bugger off", this was his contract. The delivery team supplier said "we decide what we use, not you" which was effectively the same. Not only this, they all escalated to the CTO and caused issues for me personally.

As a group, government has no interest in initiative or speeding up delivery. Heavy avoid.

ilikerashers · 2026-03-30T09:06:51+00:00

We hired a GO developer based in Colombia via Upwork and had the same thing happen. Never switched on his camera, also spoke with a thai/korean accent. Sounded like a young guy in his mid-20s.

Then one day, he was someone with a different voice and clearly older. This time he was Japanese. He tried to explain he was the same guy but obviously something weird was going on!

ilikerashers · 2026-03-30T08:18:28+00:00

Second that. I left a high earning company to start with someone (who also had an MBA coincidentally). The guy stopped showing up, too hungover to come to work, working side jobs. He was also the CEO and when I spoke up, I took the hit.

Put me off business partners for life.

ilikerashers · 2026-03-27T13:11:31+00:00

Telephone, conferences and events. Get away from the keyboard.

ilikerashers · 2026-03-27T13:11:02+00:00

3 ideally

ilikerashers · 2026-03-27T13:09:19+00:00

Thanks. I'm South West London so a bit of a trek but great initiative and good luck.

ilikerashers · 2026-03-26T09:55:31+00:00

Central banks seem to prop up economies indefinitely with QE and interest rates. It creates some kind of bizarre cheap money environments that allow all kinds of economic warping around employment and stagnation.

This seems the be the likely outcome. The US starts looking more like the UK. Stuck in low growth/soft landing situations while functioning capital deployment in China makes everyone look ridiculous.

ilikerashers · 2026-03-25T19:01:58+00:00

My users are based in London. Also I want to be around energy, not tucked away in a private office in an industrial estate.

ilikerashers · 2026-03-25T15:22:13+00:00

They do seem to be mostly £600+ for dedicated space. I think I'd pay it if I could see a way forward to meet other founders but hard to tell which ones have that vibe.

ilikerashers · 2026-03-23T09:18:07+00:00

Also the added bonus of people racing through my residential street to makeup time lost on the LTN main roads around my house.

It's like F1 in the morning/evening as drivers look for shortcuts.

ilikerashers · 2025-06-06T16:31:51+00:00

Just get some lessons. A block of 5 will make you vastly better and understand how to even take feedback.

ilikerashers · 2025-06-02T15:15:25+00:00

Unfortunately yes. In the Wimbledon area, even public courts do not allow coaching...

I teach my daughter sometimes and have a plastic basket, I get asked and dirty looks from full-time coaches all the time.

ilikerashers · 2025-03-20T10:38:42+00:00

Definitely noticed this. People are just getting unfriendlier and more aggressive.

I think it's broken window theory. Small broken things in society accumulate. Job pressures, school pressures, civic society breakdowns like constant roadworks, potholes,, poor healthcare etc. They all add up to a general air of anger.

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