This guy's in for a shock when he's built it and they do not come...
I like how utterly brazen his job titles are, he was the 'Director of Engineering' of a team of him, and is now the 'Co-founder and Editor' of his own blog.
When I ran a one man contract outfit is sign myself off as weird titles such as Grand Hegemon and Eternal Leader occasionally on emails to see if anyone noticed. Nope!
No one gives a crap about your title apart from HR and your ego.
In general it comes down to marketing budget, networking, and luck. Both start up, self found, or otherwise.
That or having a good idea that isn't just marketing. No matter what organization your in there is internal marketing and external in terms of what we produce. I say that as sometimes despite what we advertise as ground breaking is just a web form plugged into a dockerfile.
Helping Medium creators make a living while keeping the simple / ad-free experience of Medium is an interesting arbitrage opportunity until you prove it out and Medium integrates it into their core product offering.
My life so far. Early 20s: I can do anything and should start a company. Late 20s: imposter syndrome. 30s: wow, there is still so much I don't know. 40s: life is over and haven't accomplished anything, 50s: post menopause and confident as hell (now is time to start a company). Haven't gotten past 32 yet(lol) but many women are most confident in their mid 50s+ according to the science around hormones and how they impact our mood and self perception. I think there's a lot I can learn personally from a fast and loose 28 year old male perception against my own perception. Probably the combo of the two is the perfect human.
Power is uninteresting for some folks. Working for Big Co. and having the freedom to focus on deep coding problems without fear of where the next paycheck is coming from is very nice.
> freedom to focus on deep coding problems without fear of where the next paycheck is coming
Depends on your risk tolerance. You will most likely not be able to profit greatly off of your deep coding problems if you do them for a company with highly stratified reporting chains. Profits will get passed around to the idiots above you in the chain of command, leaving you with peanuts; probably some small bonus or raise. In my experience, engineers aren't rewarded greatly at a company unless they fit a certain bill or serve a certain HR/political purpose, unbeknownst to you. Such implicit biases are however, impossible to hide as they can be measured directly.
If upper management doesn't like your attitude, behavior, your looks, your race, your gender, or anything else, they can and will stop giving you opportunities. Sometimes they will treat you poorly so you leave, sometimes they'll keep you around until you do something to get fired. The latter is certainly likely if they treat you poorly. This is not only unethical, but is a normalized practice in HR.
Now, consider the case of solving deep coding problems on your own -- you're not getting paid, but you will most likely reap all of the rewards for any big wins you have, and your life isn't at the whim of internal politics that you are unaware of.
I agree with the sentiment of working for oneself, some people are just wired with that kind of independence. However I wouldn't go so far as to say startup founders are just at another level of motivation - the successful ones that I know and have worked for are at another level of maturity in their thinking and approach to product development.
Ask an engineer to build something and they will think of the twenty features which will make a compelling product, and the great ones will work day and night to deliver them. A great startup CEO will identify the three features that get the first customer, then roadmap the remaining features in conjunction with sales, marketing, and hiring.
Great CEOs know how to build teams and solve hard problems, usually from years of experience and failures. It's hardly ever as simple as reading a book or overcoming some mental hurdles.
I think it's weird that his solution to being "unhappy and overworked" in a small startup is to make a new one and suggest that everyone else do the same.
A more interesting conclusion could have been that engineers should use their power to walk away to instead organize together and demand better from their employers.
I read this article expecting it to get somewhere useful but when I realized it was just propaganda it was already too late.
Seriously, the people who want to make a career in software and the people who want to be entrepreneurs don't need any convincing. What is even the point of this?
Why do so many of these "start your own business" nomads types have businesses that revolve around getting more people to start businesses? The author's business appears to be about monetising blogs.
There is no value, but it pays the blogger. In a way they prove the point, only that it applies to themselves or the followers who would do exactly the same.
The same can be observed in some educationnal subjects, some teachers make money teaching students how to become teachers of the same thing, with no concrete value other than filling jobs. The money often come from state funds :)
Why should I incur the risk and time investment of founding a startup when I can enjoy comfort and success working at a FANG company? Startups _sound_ great, but death marching myself without compensation is a stressful proposition.
Sure, I have a handful of ideas that seem reasonable and dreams of startup success—and maybe I'll explore them in early retirement.
Why should I incur the risk and time investment of founding a startup OR the culture at a FANG company, when I can thankfully avoid both and still be compensated really well and enjoy my work.
“At this point in my career I can write code for just about anyone. I don’t say that to brag, I say that just to lay out my options.”
I find this semi-guru semi-brag style of writing so infuriating. I’m sure he’s a great iOS developer but come on man... I wish more people wrote with the goal of genuinely helping others rather than just trying to promote their own brand.
"With Great Power, comes great responsibility" - Spiderman's uncle ?
Just because we have power as engineers, doesn't mean everyone is actually willing to go the extra distance to do their own thing etc. And I am as hardcore as you can get when it comes to controlling your own destiny. It comes at a significant cost and to be blunt, not everyone wants to do that. A lot of engineers are happy to have a good paying job that provides work-life balance, great benefits and most importantly: not worrying about the lives of a bunch of people (Read:employees).
I would not work a job, hopefully unless I literally cannot food on the table anymore. But I very well know that a lot of engineers who can be creators are happy to create things for others, work a job that they are satisfied with and call it a day. Nothing wrong with that at all if that's what floats your boat.
> can walk away from their work with the skills needed to create their own job immediately.
I have the skills to create my own product. Without customers, it is not a job. I realize that he corrects his terminology later on in the article, but he does not address that disconnect.
> You have 2 free stories left this month. Sign up and get an extra one for free.
I'm dumbfounded users do this on Medium. And to think I wasted a free story on a feel good, self-congratulatory, 4 minute blog post that says little more than "Just Do It." Amusingly enough, the author's main product is a service to "make more money on Medium," and yet the landing page provides no information about the service, just a huge "Request Access" button.
The irony of saying "don't be a serf! build your own products!" whilst depending on the Medium platform is either delicious, or painful. Not sure which.
Just like your codebase is bound to have dependencies, so will your company. If he's not depending on Medium, he would be depending on Google for ranking, hosting company for hosting his blog, Mailchimp for sending out email marketing campaigns and so on. The difference is doing the work according your own decisions versus dealing with decisions made by other people higher up in the company according to some agendas that may not align with your needs.
[+] [-] mattmanser|5 years ago|reply
I like how utterly brazen his job titles are, he was the 'Director of Engineering' of a team of him, and is now the 'Co-founder and Editor' of his own blog.
[+] [-] qz2|5 years ago|reply
No one gives a crap about your title apart from HR and your ego.
[+] [-] hirako2000|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rellekio|5 years ago|reply
That or having a good idea that isn't just marketing. No matter what organization your in there is internal marketing and external in terms of what we produce. I say that as sometimes despite what we advertise as ground breaking is just a web form plugged into a dockerfile.
[+] [-] vanillacupcake|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vanillacupcake|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bJGVygG7MQVF8c|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] cheschire|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jfim|5 years ago|reply
Some of it is deep coding problems, but there's a fair bit of FAANG that's just protobuf/avro engineering and GRPC/thrift/restli midtier apps.
[+] [-] anonytrary|5 years ago|reply
Depends on your risk tolerance. You will most likely not be able to profit greatly off of your deep coding problems if you do them for a company with highly stratified reporting chains. Profits will get passed around to the idiots above you in the chain of command, leaving you with peanuts; probably some small bonus or raise. In my experience, engineers aren't rewarded greatly at a company unless they fit a certain bill or serve a certain HR/political purpose, unbeknownst to you. Such implicit biases are however, impossible to hide as they can be measured directly.
If upper management doesn't like your attitude, behavior, your looks, your race, your gender, or anything else, they can and will stop giving you opportunities. Sometimes they will treat you poorly so you leave, sometimes they'll keep you around until you do something to get fired. The latter is certainly likely if they treat you poorly. This is not only unethical, but is a normalized practice in HR.
Now, consider the case of solving deep coding problems on your own -- you're not getting paid, but you will most likely reap all of the rewards for any big wins you have, and your life isn't at the whim of internal politics that you are unaware of.
[+] [-] formalsystems|5 years ago|reply
Ask an engineer to build something and they will think of the twenty features which will make a compelling product, and the great ones will work day and night to deliver them. A great startup CEO will identify the three features that get the first customer, then roadmap the remaining features in conjunction with sales, marketing, and hiring.
Great CEOs know how to build teams and solve hard problems, usually from years of experience and failures. It's hardly ever as simple as reading a book or overcoming some mental hurdles.
[+] [-] matsemann|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ramshorns|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Kaze404|5 years ago|reply
Seriously, the people who want to make a career in software and the people who want to be entrepreneurs don't need any convincing. What is even the point of this?
[+] [-] thespoonbends|5 years ago|reply
It's circular. Where's the value?
[+] [-] hirako2000|5 years ago|reply
The same can be observed in some educationnal subjects, some teachers make money teaching students how to become teachers of the same thing, with no concrete value other than filling jobs. The money often come from state funds :)
[+] [-] jamil7|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] m463|5 years ago|reply
There a plenty of folks actually starting a business, and you either didn't click on their blog articles, or they didn't write a blog.
[+] [-] lochlan|5 years ago|reply
Sure, I have a handful of ideas that seem reasonable and dreams of startup success—and maybe I'll explore them in early retirement.
[+] [-] nineteen999|5 years ago|reply
It's not like there's only two options.
[+] [-] legerdemain|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] exdsq|5 years ago|reply
I find this semi-guru semi-brag style of writing so infuriating. I’m sure he’s a great iOS developer but come on man... I wish more people wrote with the goal of genuinely helping others rather than just trying to promote their own brand.
[+] [-] codegeek|5 years ago|reply
Just because we have power as engineers, doesn't mean everyone is actually willing to go the extra distance to do their own thing etc. And I am as hardcore as you can get when it comes to controlling your own destiny. It comes at a significant cost and to be blunt, not everyone wants to do that. A lot of engineers are happy to have a good paying job that provides work-life balance, great benefits and most importantly: not worrying about the lives of a bunch of people (Read:employees).
I would not work a job, hopefully unless I literally cannot food on the table anymore. But I very well know that a lot of engineers who can be creators are happy to create things for others, work a job that they are satisfied with and call it a day. Nothing wrong with that at all if that's what floats your boat.
[+] [-] MattGaiser|5 years ago|reply
I have the skills to create my own product. Without customers, it is not a job. I realize that he corrects his terminology later on in the article, but he does not address that disconnect.
[+] [-] toastercat|5 years ago|reply
I'm dumbfounded users do this on Medium. And to think I wasted a free story on a feel good, self-congratulatory, 4 minute blog post that says little more than "Just Do It." Amusingly enough, the author's main product is a service to "make more money on Medium," and yet the landing page provides no information about the service, just a huge "Request Access" button.
[+] [-] unknown|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] mindfulplay|5 years ago|reply
And the message? Quit some VC funded thing and start a blog?
The world is a strange place... Hedge fund sellouts now have finally found an alternative.
[+] [-] inopinatus|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rl1987|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lerpapoo|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kthejoker2|5 years ago|reply
I'm all about creative expression as therapy, but please don't confuse it with a worldview you wish me to subscribe to.
[+] [-] fwip|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eddhead|5 years ago|reply