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Ask HN: How to be independent as a developer?

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Re: Ask HN: How to be independent as a developer?

#21

Post by gonzo41 »

bluehatbrit wrote: post #7

People have problems, go and meet people. Pick an industry you think you might be interested in exploring and then start attending their meetups and events. Speak to people, ask them what their problems are. A great place to start is finding industries where most people you meet describe themselves as "not technical" or "bad with technology", they're often massively underserved. You'll know you've hit gold when you s…

Whilst this is great advice, If you got access to one of those mega spreasheets and worked out the business logic you'd be confronted with a few things. 1. Most business run pretty much the same. 2. Most home grown processes captured in spreadsheets are terrible. 3. Most people don't want to change anything about how they are doing things.

Point 1 makes things easy, 2 and 3 are harder because you have to create and incentive to onboard people onto your product that doesn't exist yet. So actually there's a point 4. You have to do a market scan, and either become an integration expert at some extendable technology or build something new. And then you're developing goes from developing to selling. And then to support.

It's hard to beat excel.

Re: Ask HN: How to be independent as a developer?

#22

Post by pmcl »

philbo wrote: post #20
rwalling wrote: post #8

I have been talking + writing about this topic for about 15 years. It's a bigger topic than one could cover in a HN comment, so here are a few resources I'd recommend: - If you're looking for free info about this, subscribe to Startups for the Rest of Us (podcast) and/or https://www.youtube.com/microconf . Both have hundreds of hours of audio/video content on starting startups, with an emphasis on being a developer.…

How to be independent as a developer: 1. Write a book 2. Promote it to chumps on the internet

Hahaha....burn!

Re: Ask HN: How to be independent as a developer?

#23

Post by archon »

philbo wrote: post #20
rwalling wrote: post #8

I have been talking + writing about this topic for about 15 years. It's a bigger topic than one could cover in a HN comment, so here are a few resources I'd recommend: - If you're looking for free info about this, subscribe to Startups for the Rest of Us (podcast) and/or https://www.youtube.com/microconf . Both have hundreds of hours of audio/video content on starting startups, with an emphasis on being a developer.…

How to be independent as a developer: 1. Write a book 2. Promote it to chumps on the internet

Not sure if you're just joking, but: Rob founded/ran several SaaS products, many of them solo.

https://www.startupsfortherestofus.com/about

Re: Ask HN: How to be independent as a developer?

#24

Post by mirror_neuron »

philbo wrote: post #20
rwalling wrote: post #8

I have been talking + writing about this topic for about 15 years. It's a bigger topic than one could cover in a HN comment, so here are a few resources I'd recommend: - If you're looking for free info about this, subscribe to Startups for the Rest of Us (podcast) and/or https://www.youtube.com/microconf . Both have hundreds of hours of audio/video content on starting startups, with an emphasis on being a developer.…

How to be independent as a developer: 1. Write a book 2. Promote it to chumps on the internet

The book seems to be well-received (judging by the comments on Amazon, at least).

Do you think it’s impossible to write a useful book on this subject? If you don’t think that, is there something about this particular book that makes you think the author is a swindler?

Re: Ask HN: How to be independent as a developer?

#25

Post by EddySchauHai »

dboreham wrote: post #10

Work as a contractor/consultant for a while. You'll run into problems that are not already well solved.

This. I worked 3 or 4 contracts back to back in the blockchain space as a test engineer which all involved setting up local chains as a test environment to spin up/down in CI and local testing. There is 100% a product there of allowing people to run cloud-hosted private chains including multiple chains and bridges which isn't really solved yet. I looked at building this as a product but moved away from the field :)

Re: Ask HN: How to be independent as a developer?

#26

Post by avgDev »

I guess I can chime in here.

I met my current boss in school. We did a project together. I later learned he was a VP of a midsize company. I asked if he needed an intern to build some stuff, he agreed.

I have been building stuff for them for 5 years now as a full stack individual contributor. I am well compensated. I work whenever I want, some times more some times less. I definitely have to focus on keeping my skills sharp, and go out of my way to learn new things.

I have plenty of other offers but none compelling enough for me to leave this setup.

How can you get in a position like this? Network. You need to meet people who hold high positions, show them what you can do and build trust.

You could also look at things that may affect YOU. A lot of non-tech things could use a dev. You could develop something and offer it cheaply to first few individual/companies and test it out.

Re: Ask HN: How to be independent as a developer?

#27

Post by bluehatbrit »

gonzo41 wrote: post #21
bluehatbrit wrote: post #7

People have problems, go and meet people. Pick an industry you think you might be interested in exploring and then start attending their meetups and events. Speak to people, ask them what their problems are. A great place to start is finding industries where most people you meet describe themselves as "not technical" or "bad with technology", they're often massively underserved. You'll know you've hit gold when you s…

Whilst this is great advice, If you got access to one of those mega spreasheets and worked out the business logic you'd be confronted with a few things. 1. Most business run pretty much the same. 2. Most home grown processes captured in spreadsheets are terrible. 3. Most people don't want to change anything about how they are doing things. Point 1 makes things easy, 2 and 3 are harder because you have to create and i…

I agree, the process of building a new product and a successful business is really hard. Especially if you're dislodging existing processes in some way. Extensions and other little bits of process automation can be a nice way to help offer clear advantages over those spreadsheets. None of that is foolproof though, and it's still not easy. That said, it can still be a good signal that there's something in the business which could be turned into a useful product or service.

Re: Ask HN: How to be independent as a developer?

#28

Post by andygcook »

philbo wrote: post #20
rwalling wrote: post #8

I have been talking + writing about this topic for about 15 years. It's a bigger topic than one could cover in a HN comment, so here are a few resources I'd recommend: - If you're looking for free info about this, subscribe to Startups for the Rest of Us (podcast) and/or https://www.youtube.com/microconf . Both have hundreds of hours of audio/video content on starting startups, with an emphasis on being a developer.…

How to be independent as a developer: 1. Write a book 2. Promote it to chumps on the internet

I’m assuming this comment is sarcastic. However, Rob does a lot more than just write and sell books. He started several SaaS companies, and runs an accelerator for indie SaaS companies called TinySeed. My hunch is that book sales are a tiny fraction of his income/wealth, and he earnestly wrote it to help aspiring entrepreneurs. I’ve read the book and it’s worth reading if you’re interested in starting an indie company.

Re: Ask HN: How to be independent as a developer?

#29

Post by sillycube »

gwbas1c wrote: post #14

> I'd like to 'do my own thing' yet don't know how. I'd like the 'thing' to be entrepreneurial along the lines of: this was hard to do before and now it's easy vs this is brand new/revolutionary. If you're going to be a solo developer-entrepreneur, assume that you're going to spend 1/3rd of your time coding, 1/3rd of your time finding customers, and 1/3rd of your time interacting with your customers. Also assume that…

I think you miss the time to think about the direction. But it is the most important task compare with others. Your time allocation only focuses on execution. If one is heading to a wrong direction, it just accelerates the failure.

Re: Ask HN: How to be independent as a developer?

#30

Post by rwalling »

andygcook wrote: post #28
philbo wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How to be independent as a developer: 1. Write a book 2. Promote it to chumps on the internet

I’m assuming this comment is sarcastic. However, Rob does a lot more than just write and sell books. He started several SaaS companies, and runs an accelerator for indie SaaS companies called TinySeed. My hunch is that book sales are a tiny fraction of his income/wealth, and he earnestly wrote it to help aspiring entrepreneurs. I’ve read the book and it’s worth reading if you’re interested in starting an indie compan…

Ha! Yeah, Internet commenters are the best :-) I also took his comment as sarcasm, or just uninformed.

But you are correct, Andy, I've earned (literally) 100x more money from building/growing software companies than I have from any books I've written. The books, podcast, etc. are a hobby, not the job.

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