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> That’s self-aggrandizing white male behavior! I think you might be victimizing yourself a bit much there
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A fortuitous decade as an indie software developer
21–30 of 51 posts
Re: A fortuitous decade as an indie software developer
#22If you have the balls to create and release something, you’re a legend. Don’t be a corporate NPC trying to look like the smartest person in the meeting and optimizing some stupid KPI for your next promotion packet. Life’s far too short. Save me the cliche rebuttals too, I’ve already heard them.
But the corporations are where all the money is, and the system murders you if you don't have money.
Re: A fortuitous decade as an indie software developer
#23If you’re fortunate to have the chance, do it and don’t look back.
I had the fortune and grit to build and release something on my own. It took years and a lot of pain. Then came the pain of supporting it in production. I generally regret putting myself through this and I do look back. I do think it is worth trying something, but you need to be careful what exactly you are building. Too many times I got lost in details or spent way too much time on things that were not worth it. Als…
We need more of these stories. A week or two ago game engines came up where I see so many wanna-be indie devs effectively throw away their chance at shipping before running out of money by spending time making an engine instead of getting to the game by using an existing one. The comments were generally "so what if they had fun". My reply should have been "it would be nicer to have shipped and kept the fun going longer than not ship because of wasted time and therefore have to give up the dream"
Re: A fortuitous decade as an indie software developer
#24If you have the balls to create and release something, you’re a legend. Don’t be a corporate NPC trying to look like the smartest person in the meeting and optimizing some stupid KPI for your next promotion packet. Life’s far too short. Save me the cliche rebuttals too, I’ve already heard them.
You do realize that there is a large spectrum of occupations between a self-employed software developer, and a "corporate NPC", don't you? And, do you really reject all counterarguments outright, like you heard all of them already and there is nothing new you can learn, nor any place of individual circumstances in life?
Re: A fortuitous decade as an indie software developer
#25[flagged]
If you haven't made games and can't show them on the spot you won't get hired in the gaming industry depending on role
Re: A fortuitous decade as an indie software developer
#26[flagged]
If you haven't made games and can't show them on the spot you won't get hired in the gaming industry depending on role
Games industry is a special case, more adjacent to the design industry.
I worked at a few Fortune 500 companies and interviewed a lot of candidates for both simple CRUD and harder systems programming work. Side projects, GitHub stuff, or even an independent bootstrapped business almost NEVER helped the candidate and more often seemed to hurt.
The only thing that would definitely help was getting your patches into major, major projects like the Linux kernel, PostgreSQL, OpenJDK, etc.
Re: A fortuitous decade as an indie software developer
#27As someone who has made a living as an Indie developer for 20 years (creating Windows and Mac apps) I feel it is getting harder:
https://successfulsoftware.net/2025/12/22/is-the-golden-age-...
Re: A fortuitous decade as an indie software developer
#28If you’re fortunate to have the chance, do it and don’t look back.
I had the fortune and grit to build and release something on my own. It took years and a lot of pain. Then came the pain of supporting it in production. I generally regret putting myself through this and I do look back. I do think it is worth trying something, but you need to be careful what exactly you are building. Too many times I got lost in details or spent way too much time on things that were not worth it. Als…
+1 I did a few android apps in the goldrush years and building the app was the easy part, and this was before Claude code.
The hard part was the customer and technical support. Huge time and energy sink fielding those requests - some totally lucid and well written, some incomprehensible, some just kinda sketchy obviously looking to manipulate/exploit/whatever you, some from people using phones and software versions you've never heard of, some from people using a totally different app than yours, some who think you are Google/apple/Microsoft and please reset their password to hunter2 etc etc etc. Then you have the endless API churn and mandates from the app stores etc about what you can and can't do, what SDK needs updating for whatever, new requirements, new deprecations etc etc etc.
It was maybe 10% coding and building something, with the other 90% just dealing with "customer service" bullshit that gained you basically nothing (and certainly not making you any revenue).
I made some small time hobby money, but obviously I pulled all the apps eventually and never looked back really. I would not recommend doing this to anyone if you have a stable job that pays reasonably well already. Keep the day job, it's less hassle.
Re: A fortuitous decade as an indie software developer
#29"surfing is not a sport, it's a way of life" Agreed friend Also, "it takes five years to become an overnight success" is a fantastic line. Great read
"It takes five years to become an overnight success" I heard a variation of this from a VC who invested in my startup in the 8Os. I had to use it on him when we went back to the well a few times for more funding.
Re: A fortuitous decade as an indie software developer
#30the software engineering profession seems to be one of the few professions that doesn't reward 20+ year professionals. with doctors, lawyers etc - your value goes up past 40.
but in software engineering with ageism - your value "goes down". when it should be the reverse if you're an IC.
so yeah going your own way as quick as possible - is not insurance for your sanity but income too.
is it easy no, but worth it.