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

I no longer build software

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 891 posts

Re: I no longer build software

#11

Post by vbezhenar »

k33n wrote: post #3
jamil7 wrote: post #2

The golden handcuffs are real, good on him for getting out.

The dude lives in Indonesia. Not sure he ever saw much of a reward for writing software, sadly.

From my experience, writing software in 3-rd world country is a reliable way to get out of the poverty. Some example numbers for Kazakhstan: average salary for many low-skilled labour workers is around $100-$200 per month. Average salary for junior software developer is at least $500 and you would quickly reach $1000 and very skilled developers might get $2000+ per month.

The same is true for Russia or Belarus or Ukraine, AFAIK. Wages are even higher there.

And I'm talking about building software for internal clients. Outsourcing or remote work allows for even higher salaries.

I'm not entirely sure why the market works this way. It's not like any random software developer can go remote and compete with the rest of the world. But it works.

I'd really be interested to learn whether Indonesian situation is similar or not.

Re: I no longer build software

#13

Post by dvfjsdhgfv »

pliftkl wrote: post #8

This made me laugh, because I actually am planning on making a transition to woodworking. My house is paid off, and I can live on a fairly small income that I can probably generate mostly from passive income. If I can actually supplement that with building furniture, bonus. If not, then I still get to build furniture.

> passive income

Just curious: is this income 100% passive?

Re: I no longer build software

#14

Post by bhaak »

For all the possible reasons to hate this job, adding a RSS feed to anything is very low on my personal list.

I'd even say I enjoy adding a RSS feed to anything. There are not enough RSS feeds out there.

Re: I no longer build software

#15

Post by sbarre »

vbezhenar wrote: post #11
k33n wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The dude lives in Indonesia. Not sure he ever saw much of a reward for writing software, sadly.

From my experience, writing software in 3-rd world country is a reliable way to get out of the poverty. Some example numbers for Kazakhstan: average salary for many low-skilled labour workers is around $100-$200 per month. Average salary for junior software developer is at least $500 and you would quickly reach $1000 and very skilled developers might get $2000+ per month. The same is true for Russia or Belarus or Ukr…

> It's not like any random software developer can go remote and compete with the rest of the world

This is actually becoming more and more of an option. At my last (small) company, we hired several individual remote developers from various parts of the world that most would consider "third world".

We were introduced to them via referrals from contract work done elsewhere, and we did a paid trial period at first.

Not all of them worked out, but the ones that did were quite good, and we were paying them an excellent wage for their cost of living.

Re: I no longer build software

#16

Post by raverbashing »

k33n wrote: post #3
jamil7 wrote: post #2

The golden handcuffs are real, good on him for getting out.

The dude lives in Indonesia. Not sure he ever saw much of a reward for writing software, sadly.

Even at CoL "corrected" salaries, a remote position usually pays very well in 3rd world countries.

Re: I no longer build software

#17

Post by brtkdotse »

dvfjsdhgfv wrote: post #13
pliftkl wrote: post #8

This made me laugh, because I actually am planning on making a transition to woodworking. My house is paid off, and I can live on a fairly small income that I can probably generate mostly from passive income. If I can actually supplement that with building furniture, bonus. If not, then I still get to build furniture.

> passive income Just curious: is this income 100% passive?

There’s no such thing, there’s just varying degrees of risk vs leverage.

Re: I no longer build software

#18

Post by AmericanChopper »

vbezhenar wrote: post #11
k33n wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The dude lives in Indonesia. Not sure he ever saw much of a reward for writing software, sadly.

From my experience, writing software in 3-rd world country is a reliable way to get out of the poverty. Some example numbers for Kazakhstan: average salary for many low-skilled labour workers is around $100-$200 per month. Average salary for junior software developer is at least $500 and you would quickly reach $1000 and very skilled developers might get $2000+ per month. The same is true for Russia or Belarus or Ukr…

It would be a bit higher in Indonesia, but not too far off. FWIW somebody earning $1500 USD/month, living in Jakarta, would be very comfortably middle class.

Re: I no longer build software

#19

Post by CyberRabbi »

Sounds like a humble brag to stroke his own ego. Wood working grunt work is virtually infinitely less intellectually stimulating than software grunt work. If he’s working for himself now, good for him but the comment just comes off as superfluous and pretentious

Re: I no longer build software

#20

Post by jb1991 »

Amen. Modern software development is frankly kinda sucky. The old days pre-2000 were arguably a lot more enjoyable. Today it's just digital plumbing and dealing with all sorts of issues that are not creative. The sheer complexity is frankly absurd as well. I've thought about moving on from software many times, and I know many who have. Just because you can do something doesn't mean it's best way to spend your short life. Not to mention that sitting in front of a computer all day is not the best use of one's body.
Post reply on HN