I'm afraid there aren't really any "tricks". Do you have a relevant degree or nothing at all? Other than that: try to get as many recommendation letters from past employers/clients as possible. You can be a little creative with those.

Don't want to be that guy that talks about money, but... let's talk about money!

No seriously. How sustainable is it to live off of being an indie designer/developer? Do you think it can sustain the lifestyle that you're planning for future Will? Is it a matter of compromising the financial aspect to gain quality of living?

I agree. But it's the reality though.

They won't. Funding is never endless, and you don't just throw away money—not even in Silicon Valley. Every non-Dropbox app at Dropbox has one goal: get more paid Dropbox subscribers. If an app fails to do that, they dump it. (source: ex-Dropbox employee)

I see it as a lack of vision in the past, and suspect that Dropbox will be focussing on applications that are more closely tied in with their main service. Dropbox is all about collaborating. Paper ties in nicely with that.

I'm sure Tobias doesn't need to massage any egos to get into a company like Google. I'm 110% sure that that's not what it's about. I'm happy that someone with a broad audience (dare I say influencer) finally lays out to less-experienced designers what goes into designing at Google vs. a local business and why the "Here Google, I fixed it in 5 min" suggestions are laughable.

Pomodoro! It's the only way I can get any work done.

I think you've nailed it. This is pretty much what Apple is doing on iOS, but then for OS X.

In general, it's pretty easy. The more expensive the camera, the better the camera. I would define a budget and then go for a camera that fits it. And look beyond Canon and Nikon. If you're only casually taking photos for clients (high-end clients might opt for a professional photographer), one of the mirrorless cameras (Panasonic, Olympus, Fujifilm, Sony etc.) might be your best bet.

Just to second the above:

1. Contract
2. 50% upfront payment
3. The reason why a freelancer charges more, is because of the lack of job security. It's a risk, and our clients pay for that risk. When I was freelancing, I tried to make sure that my personal finances would never be affected if I was ever jobless for a month or so. Luckily, that never happened, but at least I was prepared.

You can find some older submission here https://news.layervault.com/stories/21633-show-your-bagbackpack