Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What's the best way to become an independent software developer?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 56 posts

Re: Ask HN: What's the best way to become an independent software developer?

#41

Post by 000ooo000 »

sshine wrote: post #33
happytoexplain wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first half of this advice seems like possibly-unnecessary semantic pedantism.

> I think I'm going to end up working for myself, one way or another. It marks the difference between working for a single employer, multiple customers, or yourself. If someone pays you, you're working for them. So working for yourself means you don't have to listen to anyone but yourself when delivering. This is possibly more utopian than what the author wants, and pointing out the difference is not pedantic.

It is 100% garden-variety pedantry. Everyone knows the meaning of "work for myself" and no-one is confused about to whom one has obligations. This entire thread is just "well ackshually whoever pays you is really your boss when you think about it!!"

Re: Ask HN: What's the best way to become an independent software developer?

#42

Post by [deleted] »

gregjor wrote: post #34
malux85 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dont do a consultancy, thats selling your time for money, and it scales poorly. Invent a product, tutorial, or SOMETHING that takes advantage of softwares mega-advantage over other industries: It's basically free to copy, and it's basically free to distribute globally. Neither of those magical properties get used if you're a consultant selling time for money (although will be used by your client, you are capuring nea…

I hope you perceive the problem with the advice “invent something.” That’s the hard part. This advice reminds me of an old Monty Python sketch, a TV show about how to be rich. “First you need to make a lot of money!” Then the “being rich” part falls into place. Selling skills is not a “mug’s game.” Not every path to earning a good income with some freedom has to scale. I do solo freelancing, make a good living, live…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What's the best way to become an independent software developer?

#44

Post by ryandvm »

I can tell you what worked well for me - find a few other like minded devs/designers and one VERY GOOD biz dev person and you can have a lot of success as a co-op studio. We did this and we were immediately quite profitable from day one. Our model was pretty simple:

* Every full-time person (over 30 hours) is an owner in the company that is awarded an equal amount of company shares EVERY QUARTER.

* 10% of your earnings go to the company (of which you are now part owner)

* 10% of your earnings to the biz dev rainmaker that set up your contract

* Everything is decided democratically

This worked extremely well for us, but if you're at a small size (<6 owners) then you will have a heightened risk of single-point-of-failure because you can probably only afford to pay a single full-time biz dev person.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best way to become an independent software developer?

#45

Post by ryandvm »

antoniuschan99 wrote: post #43

Another option aside from consulting or creating a product is to write software to trade stocks or crypto. Such as algorithmic trading.

Does anyone actually have reliable success with this as a single coder model? Seems like the HFT firms would have already taken all the profit opportunity for this.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best way to become an independent software developer?

#46

Post by ericjmorey »

malux85 wrote: post #29
gregjor wrote: post #7

If you need to get paid you aren’t “working for yourself” or controlling the project. Whomever pays for your work decides most of the parameters. That’s called freelancing or consulting. You don’t “become” a freelancer or independent developer. That’s not an identity. You find customers who will pay you to deliver solutions to business problems. If you have a good reputation and track record and relationships with yo…

Dont do a consultancy, thats selling your time for money, and it scales poorly. Invent a product, tutorial, or SOMETHING that takes advantage of softwares mega-advantage over other industries: It's basically free to copy, and it's basically free to distribute globally. Neither of those magical properties get used if you're a consultant selling time for money (although will be used by your client, you are capuring nea…

If you sell it as time for money, that's the deal you'll get . If you sell it as value for money, the deal will be different.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best way to become an independent software developer?

#47

Post by ativzzz »

jameshush wrote: post #15

I was in the same boat. Tried starting my own agency. Had a bit of success, but I was spending a huge chunk of my time just chasing money down. Then I stumbled upon a way to have my cake and eat it too: Becoming a Solutions/Sales Engineer. It's all the upsides of running your own consultancy, without the downsides of chasing money and customers. I have generally flexible hours, tonnes of autonomy, and have a nice bal…

How did you get into that role? Was it an internal transfer or did you just apply for a position?

Re: Ask HN: What's the best way to become an independent software developer?

#48

Post by Capricorn2481 »

000ooo000 wrote: post #41
sshine wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think I'm going to end up working for myself, one way or another. It marks the difference between working for a single employer, multiple customers, or yourself. If someone pays you, you're working for them. So working for yourself means you don't have to listen to anyone but yourself when delivering. This is possibly more utopian than what the author wants, and pointing out the difference is not pedantic.

It is 100% garden-variety pedantry. Everyone knows the meaning of "work for myself" and no-one is confused about to whom one has obligations. This entire thread is just "well ackshually whoever pays you is really your boss when you think about it!!"

> Everyone knows the meaning of "work for myself"

Do they? I would disagree that everyone knows what that means. "Work for myself" often just means "nobody can boss me and I can work whenever I want" which is not the reality if someone pays you. Some of the most stressful and least flexible jobs are one-person businesses working for client.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best way to become an independent software developer?

#49

Post by wahnfrieden »

ryandvm wrote: post #44

I can tell you what worked well for me - find a few other like minded devs/designers and one VERY GOOD biz dev person and you can have a lot of success as a co-op studio. We did this and we were immediately quite profitable from day one. Our model was pretty simple: * Every full-time person (over 30 hours) is an owner in the company that is awarded an equal amount of company shares EVERY QUARTER. * 10% of your earnin…

I recommend looking into Sociocracy consent-based decision making, for a helpful framework for democratic decision-making with less risk of paralysis or committee design

Re: Ask HN: What's the best way to become an independent software developer?

#50

Post by ChuckMcM »

meheleventyone wrote: post #36
ChuckMcM wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What comes to mind when I hear dev shops is outsourcing company that provides software coding. Is that what you meant? I see the engineers as simply employees at that point.

That’s what design and art studios do as well. Take contracts to provide something. Dealing with external parties like this is quite different to having employees performing the same job. This is also quite a common way to bootstrap a small gamedev studio.

That's a fair point. I wonder if the OP was thinking they would be managing their studio and potentially other developers who were working there.
Post reply on HN