71–80 of 129 posts
Can you acquire new tech skills to get a higher paying job?
I am also interested in answers, so let's assume the answer to this question is "no". In my case, in order to boost my pay, I need to move >=2 hours away, pretty much.
Are you at the top of the total comp band for your level ?
See levels.fyi
How could an 11 year old be an experienced developer?
If you're already a software engineer earning a normal salary in the US (several assumptions there), it's really hard to find side hustles that pay at or above the hourly wage that your employer has already committed to. I personally think that it's a good idea to focus on building a small lifestyle software business over the course of several years. I wrote a long series of blog posts about this over here: https://o…
I didn't realize the creator of Skritter was on HN! Just want to say that I've really enjoyed your app, and it's helped immensely with trying to learn Chinese
If you're already a software engineer earning a normal salary in the US (several assumptions there), it's really hard to find side hustles that pay at or above the hourly wage that your employer has already committed to. I personally think that it's a good idea to focus on building a small lifestyle software business over the course of several years. I wrote a long series of blog posts about this over here: https://o…
I would love to come up with a business idea, and slowly grow it to be profitable. My problem is I am very bad at coming up with a business idea in the first place. (or app idea, or website idea...) I am not sure why, probably my brain is wired differently.
Shameless plug, but I write semi-regular "Steal This Business Idea" posts on my blog. This is an example: https://overthinkingmoney.com/2023/04/25/steal-this-startup-... They're all examples of businesses that I think have promise, but I don't have the skills, experience, insight or all three to execute.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is the problem 99.9% of software people have though? Most could write the software for a wordle, flappy bird or Twitter clone. But coming up with that idea, executing it correctly and having a whole lot of luck is out of reach for the majority.
Yeah, facts. So how to overcome this?
For me, I got a lot of exposure to these problems in the time I spent working at startups using technology to solve big problems in large industries that aren't conventionally "tech" but this is a long term play; it took me a decade of doing this to start to develop a perspective on where my previous companies, as great of a job as they did, still left certain problems unsolved, problems I would go on to solve at my own company. This isn't a quick solution to your problem but it does work.
Kinda meta advice, but I'd be careful about converting your hobbies into paid gigs. It's a great way to make yourself hate your hobby, especially when it turns out it's not very lucrative and the customers are assholes. I learned this the hard way with photography. People who advocate "hustle culture" tend to not have very lucrative main jobs, or no upward mobility in their current role. So they look for weird "hacks…
> That said, boringcashcow.com has inspired me to try to come up with a simple programming project that could turn over 4 figures a month. It made me realize in software you can just go for base hits, not home runs, and still make plenty of money. Would you mind sharing more details? Story? What is the app? I am really curious :) If no, that's fine, thanks for the tip anyways. I will definitely check out the website.…
[1] https://www.indiehackers.com/products?commitment=side-projec...
Kinda meta advice, but I'd be careful about converting your hobbies into paid gigs. It's a great way to make yourself hate your hobby, especially when it turns out it's not very lucrative and the customers are assholes. I learned this the hard way with photography. People who advocate "hustle culture" tend to not have very lucrative main jobs, or no upward mobility in their current role. So they look for weird "hacks…
> That said, boringcashcow.com has inspired me to try to come up with a simple programming project that could turn over 4 figures a month. It made me realize in software you can just go for base hits, not home runs, and still make plenty of money. Would you mind sharing more details? Story? What is the app? I am really curious :) If no, that's fine, thanks for the tip anyways. I will definitely check out the website.…
I'm in the same boat. For me at least, I assume that any app that's making money must have been created by someone with much better skills than me. Someone shared that website on HN a few weeks ago and they just blog about various solo developer projects that earn 4-6 figures a month. Seeing those projects gives me ideas and confidence to try something myself.
Kinda meta advice, but I'd be careful about converting your hobbies into paid gigs. It's a great way to make yourself hate your hobby, especially when it turns out it's not very lucrative and the customers are assholes. I learned this the hard way with photography. People who advocate "hustle culture" tend to not have very lucrative main jobs, or no upward mobility in their current role. So they look for weird "hacks…
>People who advocate "hustle culture" tend to not have very lucrative main jobs, or no upward mobility in their current role. So they look for weird "hacks" to make a few bucks on the side Yes. I have no promotion prospects and no new-job prospects, so I do what I have to do to survive: make my own way, with my own "side hustles".