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

I believe start up advice is not necessarily 'one size fits all', especially for someone relatively inexperienced and which is something I expected from the article. I've read way too many "just do it" articles.

This is advice I've been giving myself and living before I attempt to jump in:

1. Get really good at your craft, in this case, programming. You don't want to spend time learning how you need to configure your server when you'd rather prepare for your meeting with that client.And importantly, you have something to fall back on if it doesn't work out.

2. Get enough people to take you seriously. I mean really, work on open source, maintain a blog, attend hackathons etc. Build a decent enough profile that another developer would recommend to someone.

3. If possible, get paid while you pick up these and many other vital skills. You'll learn a lot on the job and clear your bills. Of course, make sure you're sincere enough to focus on 1 and 2.

Young and relatively inexperienced programmer here. Been working for someone else since about a year now (soon after graduating) and plan to continue to do so for at least another year. I've been living this advice for a while now and I feel I'm coming along ok. Would love to hear thoughts from much more experienced programmers/entrepreneurs.

Guy doesn't mention Internet Marketing at all. If you are not on Google, you don't exist. That's why most coders / projects fail - because nobody / not enough people know about them. This is because event the coders that grasp internet marketing find it deplorable to use spamming techniques to compete with search engine spammers.

The most striking bit: he found a Borders to sit at.

OK, just kidding. This post is a year old. Naive? Sure. Doesn't mean the sentiments aren't correct. I wonder how he's doing one year on.

The "just do it" theme is good to hear once in a while for those of us who have shelved their startup dream temporarily.

I bet for a lot of people, you don't have to look much further than the current #1 story on HN for the answer: Programmers Salaries at Google $250k (and up)

Working on a side project for yourself is easy and as he says, it's possible to find the time.

However, having my own founded and co-founded companies for the last 20 years, I must say unless you have enough money to really work on what you want, you're always working for someone else. As a consultant, you're always working for clients and if business isn't too bad, you can at some point be picky and chose your clients. But, your still working for someone else.

Then, as a pure startup that gets funded, you are working for your investors. Usually, you try to have the best fit and keep enough ownership to make your own decisions, but you're still accountable, which is ok with me. It's sometimes good to have someone to check a bit over your decisions.

But, unless your are extremely fortunate, you are still usually working for someone else. Still, you gain more autonomy and flexibility as opposed to purely being employed.

This said, working for myself works for me and I would never go back to being employed by someone else.

Just know that you'll still be accountable to someone else. The difference is if you screw up, you cannot blame the company. You can only blame yourself. If this happens, it will be a good learning experience.