Help I don't want to be a programmer anymore

I have been thinking along these lines as well but I am unsure on what can be done.

The real problem here is that our profession contains many shy, socially-awkward types, and guys and girls that were bullied when they were school and haven't fully recovered. Many don't understand how status is conveyed or are in complete denial that it exists. If you are the only developer in the room that wishes to be treated with respect, to be autonomous and to (learn to) operate on many levels then it seems like you are really on your own in trying to get these things. Many will continue to eat from the hand that beats them, and won't take the necessary risk to get themselves a better position and to help each other even when one of their team mates decides to make a stand. (I read a lot of your articles and I have to say I have gone DFA before and I will do it again.)

What is really needed is some kind of professional association that fights for our rights. A forward-thinking organisation that has good principles and can't easily be co-opted. Perhaps also a way of accrediting organisations that have great working conditions and a culture of respect. Maybe the only two which hit the list are Valve and Github. But once every cool startup is run like this then larger corporations will have to compete on a cultural level for talent.

I would like for all of us to be able to apply ourselves on a strategic and creative level no matter what our role in a company is.

I wonder who decided that because we implement we should not be allowed to create, design, and think for ourselves? They don't have the right to take this from me, nor do they have the right to take it from you.

The other night I was speaking to a friend who has found herself in a sales position where she is allowed to pitch ideas to clients and see where she can take things. She was happy and felt like she had finally found real freedom. How many of us have been able to grow the network of contacts and future clients required to solve business problems?

We're being held back but we're also holding each other back.

And I now realise you can't solve tribe problems on an individual level.

There has to be a way that we can all work together on this.

Are others interested?

And anyways, it would still be a huge scandal if the FAA allowed someone, (or a team of someones) without a degree in CS, to check an airplaine's software. Does this need to be regulated as a law, and thus, recognition of the Software Development discipline as a profession ?

I've never had to endure any of those things because when they arose, I quit the job. And when they arose again in the next job, I quit employment, and contracted. And when (different) problems appeared with clients, I quit consulting forever and built a hugely revenue-positive product business where I am the reigning monarch and believe me, life is now very, very good.

Nobody can tell me what to do now except the govt and, outside taxes, they really don't give a crap.

If you want power, you have to make it for yourself -- build a business that generates money independent of clients or bosses. One to five big customers (bosses, clients) hold huge power over you -- a thousand small customers hold little power over you. You need to keep em happy, sure, but that's not so hard, because you get to pick your own customers, and you get to choose to keep them happy exactly how you want to. But if one of them's a jerk? Or five of them? Or 100? Tell them to fuck off.

The bottom line is that a person who wants to remain ignorant of the money-making side of business will never hold power. Employment is the opposite of freedom.

(PS — taking investment is just another kind of employment. A kind of debt, really, repaid with control instead of interest.)

And here is the fun part: learning about marketing, business models, commercial relations is not that hard for programmers. It just requires a different mindset. For problem solvers like the average geek, that's just another system to hack.

I have only begun recently on this path, but I find it exhilarating! Making my own decisions, talking directly with the clients and -oh, surprise- getting paid for my work, not for sitting at a desk... This is what developers should do!