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My tiny side project has had more impact than my decade in the software industry

mike.zwobble.org

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Re: My tiny side project has had more impact than my decade in the software industry

#11

Post by amelius »

Wronnay wrote: post #3

I think many devs have that feeling... But often simple things have a very big effect - in my first job I made some simple scripts which imported data from machines into an ERP System. I also made some bigger projects with feature rich GUIs at my first job. The simple scripts probably sill import data every workday and automate a task previously made by humans since multiple years, some of the GUIs weren't even used…

Ok, but then you should also ask: how much of that is my work and would someone else have written the same simple scripts? Perhaps the main value is in the existence of these ERP systems.

From that p.o.v. your feature rich GUIs may be your biggest contribution to society, because that's really work based on your decisions.

Re: My tiny side project has had more impact than my decade in the software industry

#12

Post by flakiness »

Wronnay wrote: post #3

I think many devs have that feeling... But often simple things have a very big effect - in my first job I made some simple scripts which imported data from machines into an ERP System. I also made some bigger projects with feature rich GUIs at my first job. The simple scripts probably sill import data every workday and automate a task previously made by humans since multiple years, some of the GUIs weren't even used…

Yeah, this happens even within a side project. Smaller trivial ones tend to be found useful, while bigger ambitious one tend to ending up disappointing, even if completed.

At work, giving a spot-time quick help often feels more helpful than pushing through a "proper" project task.

I suspect this is because large part of the "work" project is more like a speculative investment than something obviously useful. That is probably OK because finding large-enough-obviously-useful-things is hard. What we tend to overlook is that finding a tiny-but-obviously-useful-thing isn't as hard as it looks. It's just hard to earn enough from it.

Re: My tiny side project has had more impact than my decade in the software industry

#13

Post by codingdave »

ushakov wrote: post #4

have you tried working in public sector? i’m proud my software runs in our hospitals and saves hours for doctors, they now spend treating more patients!

I work in the public sector, and mammoth.js has been a huge help in allowing me to create tools for school districts to bring content from Word docs into our tools. So yes.... even if not directly, the OPs work has definitely had an impact in the public sector.

Re: My tiny side project has had more impact than my decade in the software industry

#14

Post by musingsole »

mwcampbell wrote: post #8

> Sometimes I wonder whether it'd be possible to earn a living off mammoth. Although there's an option to donate - I currently get a grand total of £1.15 a week from regular donations - it's not something I push very hard. There's no shame in making the source available but using a license that requires payment for commercial use, like the Prosperity [1] license. [1]: https://prosperitylicense.com/

Also nearly impossible to enforce. This approach just adds a layer of guilt/paranoia in the implied legal consequences.

Re: My tiny side project has had more impact than my decade in the software industry

#15

Post by snarfy »

Wronnay wrote: post #3

I think many devs have that feeling... But often simple things have a very big effect - in my first job I made some simple scripts which imported data from machines into an ERP System. I also made some bigger projects with feature rich GUIs at my first job. The simple scripts probably sill import data every workday and automate a task previously made by humans since multiple years, some of the GUIs weren't even used…

My most used program was a 7 byte .COM I wrote with debug.exe. It made the machine reboot. It took about 15 seconds to write. A friend who worked at the college ended up using it in their scripts. They had a way to do it before but it wasn't as reliable as my little program. That college's infrastructure was used as a model for the rest of the district and so my little program spread to the other colleges.

Re: My tiny side project has had more impact than my decade in the software industry

#16

Post by musingsole »

DrOctagon wrote: post #10

Quite a few years ago as a (very) junior FE dev I used mammoth.js to automate the generation of a biennial report. Three months had been earmarked for the task as this is what it had taken in previous years (due to bad tools and lack of expertise). I had it done in less than a week by using mammoth. Mike was also very accommodating with questions I'm pleased I cant remember as I'm sure they were embarrassingly simple…

Your story and mammoth's origin story really highlight how the Sisyphean corporate world is seemingly at odds -- or at least tangential -- to progress.

Re: My tiny side project has had more impact than my decade in the software industry

#17

Post by codingdave »

icemelt8 wrote: post #2

I think the only other team who has made such a feature is Wordpress contributors, Wordpress offers a way to copy paste word documents in their Text box, and it formats correctly. Perhaps you can launch commercial license for your library, and license it to famous CMSs, such as Umbraco or Craft. That way you can make a living on it too.

A few years ago that would have been true, at least client-side. There have been a variety of server-side options for years, especially if you run Windows as the server OS. More recently editors like CKEditor have vastly improved their Word pasting.

Even so, mammoth.js seems to remain unique in the ability to upload a file in the browser and programmatically retrieve matching HTML. That is why I use it - I can get the HTML, process it, and POST it back to my server already cleaned up and ready for my CMS. The browser does all the heavy lifting, my server remains a basic CRUD app, and I don't have to allow file uploads as it all happens client-side.

Re: My tiny side project has had more impact than my decade in the software industry

#18

Post by p4bl0 »

I'm a CS associate professor. I teach a course which consists in contributing to a free software, in third year at my uni. A few years ago a couple of students decided to make a contribution to GNU ls. The change was to have the output color independent of capitalisation (it is based on filename extension). Their code was accepted. It was a tiny tiny contribution, but it's probable that these few lines of code are and will be executed a few thousands times more than all other contributions my other students made.

Re: My tiny side project has had more impact than my decade in the software industry

#19

Post by js8 »

sdevonoes wrote: post #7

Isn't the statement a bit obvious? Most of the tech companies out there were not born to make an impact on society, they were born to make money (which is totally fine). Only a handful of companies can be proud of making money while actually having an impact (good or bad) on society (e.g., Apple). Most of us (us != HN crowd) work for companies in the first group. On the other hand, the vast majority of side projects…

> Isn't the statement a bit obvious?

No, it isn't obvious, just like the Earth is not obviously round. Even 40 years ago, the statement wasn't obvious to many public intellectuals in the West, when they were in favor of neoliberal economic policies, under the broad assumption that free markets will automatically bring meritocracy (whatever it is). I think this example is one of many that show that meritocracy doesn't really happen by itself, but requires societal consciousness to be implemented.

Re: My tiny side project has had more impact than my decade in the software industry

#20

Post by tmp65535 »

Similarly, I've been writing respectable software for decades but I'm fairly certain that my most widely used piece of software, by a wide margin, is a mildly pornographic app (http://driftwheeler.com)

This app, published in 2017, has a continuously growing population of users from all over the world. I get email every day asking whether soft1 is the only server, thanking me, suggesting improvements, etc.

It's ironic, and there is a lesson to be learned here.

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