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My Second Year as a Solo Developer

mtlynch.io

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Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#171

Post by cycloptic »

aguyfromnb wrote: post #113
xwdv wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if the poverty was really, REALLY bad? As in soul crushing, no way out, maybe-kill-yourself, type of poverty? I doubt you’d make that switch so easily.

What sort of question is this? Do you think anyone would pick "soul-crushing maybe-kill-yourself poverty" over working at Google? We are talking about programmers here. Unless there are unique circumstances that sort of poverty is off the table.

>Do you think anyone would pick "soul-crushing maybe-kill-yourself poverty" over working at Google?

I've done this before and I would do it again. I wish I had something profound to add but I don't. Working in a corporate environment is just incredibly grating.

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#173

Post by criley2 »

cambalache wrote: post #162
criley2 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the flip side, working for yourself means the job never ends. As an employee you can do 8 hours at work, 16 hours for yourself. You can drop a project and pick it up the next day. The client is pissed? You're still making your salary. It's up to management to staff correctly, not up to you to kill yourself overworking for a salary and no overtime. When it's just you, and your entire livelihood depends on sucking u…

Lots and lots of self employed people are not "working" 24h/day.Where does this myth come from? Is it corporate propaganda?

It's coming from inside the house!

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1067175527180513280

"No one ever changed the world at 40 hours a week"

"80 hours minimum, with peaks at 100 hours"

A 100 hour week would be 16.6 hours for 6 days and 1 day off, or 14.25 hour days with no days off

The idea that entrepreneurs need to work more than 40 hours a week to be successful is as old as our industry, and I'd go so far as to say that those casually working a schedule that looks more like a salaried position are probably "consultants" and aren't really entrepreneurs trying to build something or change something

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#174

Post by TAForObvReasons »

patio11 wrote: post #79

Two cents offered because this post really strikes a chord with me, and I also spent some time chasing down rabbit holes early in my software business: These products do not appear obviously commercializable and multiple years invested into them without materially improving the businesses does not decrease my confidence in that snap judgment. You could probably talk to business owners with problems, launch an (approp…

> I would suggest devoting approximately zero cycles to cost control. You don't have a cost problem and no amount of cost control will bend the curve of your current businesses to sustainability.

I strongly disagree with the perspective here. Cost control isn't the core problem for the author, but every dollar matters at this stage. The difference between "we're losing money every month" and "we're break even" and "we're slightly profitable" is huge when talking to parents and other people in the social circle.

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#175

Post by cambalache »

criley2 wrote: post #173
cambalache wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots and lots of self employed people are not "working" 24h/day.Where does this myth come from? Is it corporate propaganda?

It's coming from inside the house! https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1067175527180513280 "No one ever changed the world at 40 hours a week" "80 hours minimum, with peaks at 100 hours" A 100 hour week would be 16.6 hours for 6 days and 1 day off, or 14.25 hour days with no days off The idea that entrepreneurs need to work more than 40 hours a week to be successful is as old as our industry, and I'd go so far as to s…

self employed != SV-style entrepreneur

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#176

Post by JoeAltmaier »

criley2 wrote: post #173
cambalache wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots and lots of self employed people are not "working" 24h/day.Where does this myth come from? Is it corporate propaganda?

It's coming from inside the house! https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1067175527180513280 "No one ever changed the world at 40 hours a week" "80 hours minimum, with peaks at 100 hours" A 100 hour week would be 16.6 hours for 6 days and 1 day off, or 14.25 hour days with no days off The idea that entrepreneurs need to work more than 40 hours a week to be successful is as old as our industry, and I'd go so far as to s…

That's probably true of a certain sort of startup - writing a bushel of code for a web thingy for instance.

But I've worked at many startups and ok 50 hours would be common. As they say, one pregnancy takes one person 9 months. You can't do it in 4.5 with two people (or by working harder).

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#177

Post by hinkley »

mtlynch wrote: post #84
swalsh wrote: post #19

Just some honest feedback. I have a use for Zestful, and the price is good. But playing around, it seems good at the easy stuff (but I can do the easy stuff myself) it's not so good at the hard stuff. For example the string "3/4 cup risotto rice, Arborio or Carnaroli" It identifies the unit and quantity fair enough, and it's right when it says "Risotto rice" is the product. But then it says "Arborio or Carnaroli" is…

Thanks for reading and for testing out Zestful! > For example the string "3/4 cup risotto rice, Arborio or Carnaroli" > It identifies the unit and quantity fair enough, and it's right when it says "Risotto rice" is the product. But then it says "Arborio or Carnaroli" is a preparation method. I can totally see WHY it says that. But I'm not sure that's correct. Yeah, I'm constantly improving the model, but there will a…

Arborio is a kind, just like Granny Smith, bing, or Key. I wonder if it'd be easier just to have a dictionary of kinds of ingredient and anything else is a preparation.

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#178

Post by senderista »

If you're netting at best a few grand a year and need to survive on savings anyway, why not just drop the business pretense and work for free on stuff you actually find interesting? A popular open-source project could yield more long-term value for one's career than an unprofitable or barely profitable "lifestyle business".

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#179

Post by wolco »

agwa wrote: post #138
cs02rm0 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could probably talk to business owners with problems, launch an (appropriately priced; hundreds to thousands of dollars per year) product against those problems, build contingent on getting 10 commits to buy I don't doubt that you're absolutely right, but this bit strikes me as hard . I've struggled to find one business owner with a problem they perceive, let alone 10 with commitments to buying a solution for the…

Michael published an interesting post about his attempt to talk with owners of sheet metal shops: https://mtlynch.io/retrospectives/2020/01/#sheet-metal-resea...

Interesting read. Not sure why the author was surprised that no business owner wanted to trade in their product for a saas.

No one really wants to deal with a saas when a one time purchase is available. Things like free tiers, lockins prevent us from moving until something happens (something always happens from big price increases to service changes or shutdowns changes to terms, etc).

Biggest problems are cost and uncertainity and losing a sense of control.

A saas to a customer is run like a fly by store selling stolen goods out of the back of a truck. Even though this person has been selling at this same spot every friday you know this can't go on forever so when he doesn't show up you are not surprised. When a saas closes down / changes terms / increases prices suddenly you are not surprised.

It works with some industries that have a high rate of change but if you plan on having a stable business you want to avoid saases

Re: My Second Year as a Solo Developer

#180

Post by tropianhs »

chowes wrote: post #153
patio11 wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is the problem that you can’t identify owners, that you can’t successfully get in touch with business owners, that you can’t convince them to talk to you, that you can’t get signal from those conversations, or that you are accurately getting the signal “Actually literally nothing could be better about my life.” Draw the funnel diagram, with numbers if necessary. Having talked to many devs who believe similar, I think…

Not the OP, but what I have struggled with here is the feeling of being a "solution looking for a problem". It's a step before where you're at. It's not that I can't identify owners, it's that I can't identify _problems_. I am lacking the domain experience to even have the first conversation, and it feels like paying people to ask "so tell me everything that is wrong with your business" is the wrong way to do it. I k…

> it's that I can't identify _problems_.

Why don't you start from your own problems? I bet you have some of them and you are not alone definitely.

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