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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

#31

Post by goodpoint »

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/

This license is not written by a legal expert, I suspect.

For example this clause, phrased like an order, does not make sense:

"Don’t make any legal claim against anyone accusing this software, with or without changes, alone or with other technology, of infringing any patent."

You can't give orders to people in a license or other contracts. You can only describe conditions.

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

#32

Post by busymom0 »

I think there’s tons of developers who feel this way. Some of the brightest minds and smartest people go to work for tech companies simply working on figuring out how to keep an ad in front of your eyes for a few extra milliseconds.

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

#33

Post by intricatedetail »

Similar experience. I created a little project and it has become very popular. It's also completed so there is no need to develop anything apart from updating any security issues. When I feel down I always think of that little project. Hoping to make another one by accident one day.

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

#34

Post by staticautomatic »

goodpoint wrote: post #31
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/

This license is not written by a legal expert, I suspect. For example this clause, phrased like an order, does not make sense: "Don’t make any legal claim against anyone accusing this software, with or without changes, alone or with other technology, of infringing any patent." You can't give orders to people in a license or other contracts. You can only describe conditions.

Sure you can. Contracts are simply bargaining for promises to do or not do something. Here, the “order” is the licensee promising not to do something.

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

#35

Post by mwcampbell »

goodpoint wrote: post #31
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/

This license is not written by a legal expert, I suspect. For example this clause, phrased like an order, does not make sense: "Don’t make any legal claim against anyone accusing this software, with or without changes, alone or with other technology, of infringing any patent." You can't give orders to people in a license or other contracts. You can only describe conditions.

> This license is not written by a legal expert, I suspect.

FWIW, it's written by Kyle Mitchell [1], an attorney. It's just that he places particular emphasis on writing his licenses in plain language, not legalese.

[1]: https://kemitchell.com/

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

#36

Post by jacquesm »

Same here, I spent many years on complex and large pieces of software with relatively little impact, and an 'all nighter' pretty much changed the world for real time video on the web. Pretty weird when you consider that it was mostly gluing together pieces that already existed and adding a small HTTP server.

I haven't been able to replicate anything close to that success in all the years since then.

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

#37

Post by wintermutestwin »

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…

All enterprises have multiple impacts on society. Many people want their work to tied to an overall net positive organization. That's why so many companies put energy into saying they are beneficial to society. Too bad those statements don't have to be vetted by an independent and impartial rating agency of some sort.

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

#38

Post by tonyedgecombe »

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/

Some people don't want to run a business and that's OK.

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

#39

Post by DrOctagon »

musingsole wrote: post #16
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.

In the interest of full disclosure it was a government org. Your point still stands though.

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

#40

Post by lukevp »

I think my career overall has been pretty high impact - I ran a team that built new systems from the ground up that were used by a team of 2k store employees to run daily operational tasks, optimizing their performance and ux tremendously, as well as building e-commerce into a website used by half a million people a month.

I still feel the most proud of a little library I made one weekend a few years ago [0], that’s now used all over the place. I get issues and contributions from Latin America, China, Japan, across the US and Europe, and Australia. I’ve done consulting work based on this library. It’s a great feeling to know I built something that others find useful directly and isn’t a tangential thing that was built as part of different business.

[0] https://github.com/lukevp/ESC-POS-.NET — check it out if you have a need to print to receipt printers from C#, and give it a star!

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