Earlier quoted context omitted.
"When life hands you lemons, make lemonade."
"Never rub another man's rhubarb."
Wherever you go, there you are.
Life's too short to write shitty software
91–100 of 107 posts
Re: Life's too short to write shitty software
#92I joined my first startup in 1988. My previous company was acquired by Xerox, and I met "lifers", (in their 60s, worked there since graduation, looking forward to pension). I didn't want to be a lifer. My parents thought I was nuts for not going to IBM. My wife was working at Digital, and hating it. She encouraged me to go to the startup. Which I did, and I'm still doing startups 25 years later. (I predicted that my…
I've met a lot of "lifers" too. I worked at UMass Boston for a few years and it's depressing. It's like working with indentured servants.
Re: Life's too short to write shitty software
#93The basic idea of this article is awesome - right now is certainly the right time to get a non-shitty job. However, I disagree strongly with the idea that startups are some sort of panacea for bad jobs. There are plenty of bad startup jobs, and they're generally easier to get than a corporate job. It's easy to talk yourself out of the bad corporate job somewhere in the 5 levels of HR review and background check. It's…
I agree that not all startups are good. But I think your odds are better at a startup. At IBM, you're 0.00025% of the company. At a startup, it's more like 10 or 20 percent. You have a lot more ability to shape your job and the company so that it's non-shitty.
Further: if you're at a large company and do something that saves/makes that company say $5M, you will get somewhere between 0% and 0.00025% percent of that money as a bonus. Whereas if you're at a startup, and have 10-20% ownership, then when you save/make the company $5M, there's a good chance you will get 10-20% of that. (Speaking in rough terms, of course. But you get the point.)
Re: Life's too short to write shitty software
#94For those of you now browsing Hacker News at his cubicle during his break under soul-sucking fluorescent lights : You can have it both ways (work for BigCo and build cool stuff), but it's not easy. You have to make it happen within the corporate systems and structure. I have many times. A few examples: - Boss to me: "Purchasing is complaining that the legacy system isn't doing what it should. Go find out what they ne…
One thing that I've found is that sometimes you just have to do things regardless of whether you have permission. But keep in mind that it's your ass if you fuck up.
Case in point, my boss has been out on leave for a few months already, in the meantime I've had a free hand to do whatever the fuck I want with some things. In that time I've completely overhauled several systems. With my boss around it would have been a teeth-pullingly laborious process that probably would have dragged on for weeks, been interrupted by other tasks in the meantime, or compromised in so many aspects to "reduce risk" that it might have ultimately been useless. As it was I did everything and migrated critical running systems over to the new stuff in only a few days of work spread out over about 2 weeks.
That generally applies to everything in the workplace as well. The best way to change your job is to slowly but surely start changing what you do while official recognition catches up.
Re: Life's too short to write shitty software
#95For those of you now browsing Hacker News at his cubicle during his break under soul-sucking fluorescent lights : You can have it both ways (work for BigCo and build cool stuff), but it's not easy. You have to make it happen within the corporate systems and structure. I have many times. A few examples: - Boss to me: "Purchasing is complaining that the legacy system isn't doing what it should. Go find out what they ne…
Agreed, I got paid to hack a VMS mainframe, buffer overflows, etc at 22, trust me it wasn't in the official job description but I found the company $3 million in lost rev. Honestly, unless you enjoy reading about the company you work for in Techcrunch I don't get the whole startup hype for employees. Founders are somewhat likely to get a decent cheque but employees are not. For employees the EV doesn't seem to make a…
One data point, I've never found a large corporate job where I didn't feel straightjacketed and annoyed with my bosses/politics/organizational inertia. A small company fits me much better, it's mainly a personality thing.
Re: Life's too short to write shitty software
#96I've taken this sentiment to heart over the last couple of years and went from hating my profession and seriously considering finding a new one to rekindling that passion. The key was getting a position where I can help make critical decisions and have a real say in what happens. At jobs where the decision making process was deferred to people who were either out of touch with reality or thought that their voice should be louder than the other team members' the feeling was soul draining.
I think that there is a sweet spot in already established, small to mid-size businesses looking to step their game up. They have the resources to Do It Right, the patience to carry out the process and the wisdom to trust what your experience and knowledge tells them.
Re: Life's too short to write shitty software
#97What's it with HN blog posts and dividing the world in:
1. BigCo. 2000+ employees, mandatory suit and tie, great income, soul-crushing work.
2. Startup. 14 employees, sneakers, Macs and fancy goatees, work 16 hours with fellow brogrammers, life is amazing and awesome.
Really guys, the world isn't this simple! It's a very nice way for the recent Graham converts to beat their chests, but there's a lot of cool stuff to be done between working at Accenture and working at Quora.
Re: Life's too short to write shitty software
#98For those of you now browsing Hacker News at his cubicle during his break under soul-sucking fluorescent lights : You can have it both ways (work for BigCo and build cool stuff), but it's not easy. You have to make it happen within the corporate systems and structure. I have many times. A few examples: - Boss to me: "Purchasing is complaining that the legacy system isn't doing what it should. Go find out what they ne…
One warning with this kind of behavior is that it doesn't actually insulate you from the insanity of the environment. Some of your cool stuff is going to be buried because people don't understand it and won't buy in, or because it obsoletes something they did, etc... People will complain about you "not being a team player" when you do things they don't expect. Some managers simply can't handle employees like this and…
This is why I have to wonder how old the parent is. When you're young and have lots to learn, sure, take on a lot and learn.
But as I've become older I've decided I'm not interested in putting in the extra time just to make my boss wealthier. Time is my greatest asset and I need to manage it with predictability. Time I spend making somebody else wealthier when I could be spending that time making my own business profitable is time wasted. I'm the one spending my time learning and building the application - that is to say, I'm taking the risk - so I should get the reward.
Performance reviews and bonuses are far too politically fragile and opaque for me, and the fact is unless you're a shareholder, you're guaranteed to never receive more than a small fraction of the true value of your work when you're working for someone else.
That's why I quit permanent work and have moved into contracting: I earn good money that I'm saving towards my own startup, I get paid for every hour I work, and as a matter of personal discipline if I'm not doing paid work I spend the free hours working on my own projects that - in the long run - should pay off far better than the contracting or permanent work ever will.
That being said, this strategy only makes sense if you believe you can generate substantially more money working for yourself than somebody else could pay you. If you don't believe in yourself you're stuffed.
Re: Life's too short to write shitty software
#99For those of you now browsing Hacker News at his cubicle during his break under soul-sucking fluorescent lights : You can have it both ways (work for BigCo and build cool stuff), but it's not easy. You have to make it happen within the corporate systems and structure. I have many times. A few examples: - Boss to me: "Purchasing is complaining that the legacy system isn't doing what it should. Go find out what they ne…
Agreed, I got paid to hack a VMS mainframe, buffer overflows, etc at 22, trust me it wasn't in the official job description but I found the company $3 million in lost rev. Honestly, unless you enjoy reading about the company you work for in Techcrunch I don't get the whole startup hype for employees. Founders are somewhat likely to get a decent cheque but employees are not. For employees the EV doesn't seem to make a…
How much of that did you see?
At my last employer, I was on a very small team that wrote code that made GBP 2M/year pure profit (minus the salaries of 3-4 people for a couple of weeks, in the first year). That 2M covered the bonuses of two execs, and I got a raise of slightly below inflation (and left shortly after - and they had no idea why).
Re: Life's too short to write shitty software
#100That's why I want to make a great, revolutionary hardware.