Ask HN: Wanting to grow – what questions should you ask yourself?

I quit after 18 months and went into contracting for startups instead, which seemed like a way to still make reasonably good money (though nowhere near as good as FAANG if you factor in the stock) and actually get to do some fun stuff - startups can be much more fun if you’re from a “hacker” mindset I think as there’s always too much to do and not enough people, and plenty of chances to learn new stuff.

I found not being a permanent employee allowed you to have less of the downsides associated with startups, e.g. you probably feel more comfortable working 9-5 if you’re on a fixed term contract versus being a permanent employee with equity etc. Also leaving a contract after the initial term if it isn’t working out is not a big deal at all, so it’s a great way to experience lots of different environments without the commitment. I’m not sure if contracting is such a big thing where you’re based (I’m in the UK where it’s very common), but I’d definitely recommend looking into it if that sounds appealing.

I was lucky enough to land a contract at a company in a field I’m passionate about which allowed me to extend my skill set from pure web dev to also do some C++ development for an app, which I’ve found is a really interesting niche for me personally, and again I think the lower level of C++ programming appeals to the hacker mindset. I’m now back as a permanent employee in the “medium tech” (lol) world, but my contracting experience was great fun and allowed me to find a niche which I really enjoy and which led to work more aligned with the reasons I got into this as a youngster (companies using C++ and JS together generally aren’t building yet another CRUD app!)

One data point for you: In 2011, age 27, I left the laptop in San Francisco and took off with a backpack, thinking that I might never code again. About 2 months in I was in Thailand and randomly stumbled across an interesting book on assembly language, got myself a netbook, and was hooked. That was the last time I questioned it. I love programming and will do it as long as I'm living.

> What questions would you say one can ask themselves to really get to the bottom of it?

Is there a big question or contrarian idea that motivates you?

My biggest mistake in life has been not believing in myself when in the minority, and thinking my math or understanding of the world must be wrong and I must be the crazy one. After 2020 (when most of the world went full idiot regarding a bad flu), I realized I was completely wrong about the distribution of courage, honor, and intelligence in society, and that society is often crazy, and the ones called "crazy" by the talking heads are actually often the sane ones (Elon is a great case in point right now).

You look at the core problems of software engineering from a human-centric point of view - which is a great perspective, IMO.

Have you thought about trying to transition to a role that is more human-focused? I'm guessing with your level of experience, it wouldn't be too hard to find a path to team lead or EM. I'd also potentially consider consulting, either freelance or as part of a firm.

Personally, working on a larger "system" that includes people - a team, a department, a solution - is much more rewarding, because I get to work on a larger class of problems with a more diverse toolset, and I get to observe my impact on others.

I remember working in a team of 30-40 developers and we had those incredibly boring monday morning meetings. Nobody wanted to say anything, most if us were just waiting for the meeting to be over. But as soon as some trivial question came up there were always a few to seize the chance to waste everyones time with some nerdy discussion while there were some acutal and serious software design fuckups in place that nobody wanted to tackle. This is the core issue with most software engineers: they are not invested enough to make something great.

Did you find these opportunities mostly through your personal network? What would you recommend to others looking to find similar opportunities?