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You're a developer, so why do you work for someone else?

intermittentintelligence.com

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Re: You're a developer, so why do you work for someone else?

#2
I'm a developer because I want to develop software, and by working for someone else, I'm paying them (with my time) to deal with all the nonsense I don't want to do. Things like marketing, infrastructure, support, etc... I'm employing my employer to let me focus on exactly what I want to.

I'm pretty early in my career and I'm certainly open to the idea of working for myself. However, there are advantages to having a job and working a little part-time contracting on the side.

Re: You're a developer, so why do you work for someone else?

#3
I tried to hack out my ideas for the last three years with zero development experience.

Eventually I hit a wall of ability, because I was working alone, completley self taught. I felt like my options were 1) work with other developers, or 2) back to school.

So last month I got a development job. I'm learning a ton everyday, but it's leaving me with almost no energy to pursue my own ideas. I hope to save some money this next year to kickstart my own projects.

Re: You're a developer, so why do you work for someone else?

#4
post #3

I tried to hack out my ideas for the last three years with zero development experience. Eventually I hit a wall of ability, because I was working alone, completley self taught. I felt like my options were 1) work with other developers, or 2) back to school. So last month I got a development job. I'm learning a ton everyday, but it's leaving me with almost no energy to pursue my own ideas. I hope to save some money th…

I was in nearly the same position as you around this time last year. It was tough and exhausting for a while until I wasn't learning as much throughout the day. You'll get back to a point where you have the energy to come home at the end of the day and spend a few hours working on your own projects.

Re: You're a developer, so why do you work for someone else?

#6
Been there, done that. Being a developer is a small fraction of what you need in order to create a successful product. If you are the kind of person who can do it, you don't need to read posts like these.

I don't know about this guy, but it looks like he hasn't done it, and he has little idea of what lies ahead. Best of luck to him.

Re: You're a developer, so why do you work for someone else?

#7
What I can achieve by myself is so much smaller than what I can help achieve as part of a team. I worked independently for 4 years in electrical engineering and now that I'm with a team of 10 other engineers the quality, variety, and magnitude of the projects I am working on has increased 20x. Working independently all that time had a huge opportunity cost but did afford a great lifestyle.

Re: You're a developer, so why do you work for someone else?

#8

I'm a developer because I want to develop software, and by working for someone else, I'm paying them (with my time) to deal with all the nonsense I don't want to do. Things like marketing, infrastructure, support, etc... I'm employing my employer to let me focus on exactly what I want to. I'm pretty early in my career and I'm certainly open to the idea of working for myself. However, there are advantages to having a…

I find though that companies often place as much nonsense in my way as they remove so there can be a trade off.

Re: You're a developer, so why do you work for someone else?

#9

Some people have signed contracts that assign the copyright of anything they create to their employer, so starting a business on the side isn't possible. http://answers.onstartups.com/questions/19422/if-im-working-...

I appreciate that this is often a geographical and jurisdictional question, but that falls firmly in my "Don't do that, then" category.

Re: You're a developer, so why do you work for someone else?

#10
post #3

I tried to hack out my ideas for the last three years with zero development experience. Eventually I hit a wall of ability, because I was working alone, completley self taught. I felt like my options were 1) work with other developers, or 2) back to school. So last month I got a development job. I'm learning a ton everyday, but it's leaving me with almost no energy to pursue my own ideas. I hope to save some money th…

Hacking out your idea is more resistance than genius. I would say, 99% persistence.

I got my first job a few month ago doing programming, and I learn a lot. However, how I learn is mostly banging my head day after day. When I am at work, I have no choice but to bang my head against the code, trying to figure out why it is not working.

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