Ask HN: Jobs without Managers for Programmers? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Jobs without Managers for Programmers?

1 point_lwrr4 comments

I have worked as an average programmer for about 15 years. I am approaching 40 and I've come to realize that I am too arrogant to work under managers, although I don't deny the importance of someone for tracking tasks. <rant> Task/status forwarding, artificial deadlines, self serving HR policies, information hiding are some of the behaviors I find hard to work with.</rant> I have explored freelancing as a career option for about a year on upwork but, with a limited skillset, never made enough. My current job ends this month and I wonder if there are avenues other than freelancing which I haven't explored yet. Also open to suggestions for subordinating myself.

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It sounds to me like maybe your problem is not necessarily with "managers" specifically, but more generally with people, and by extension, yourself. Relationships are hard, no matter what. We humans are primates by nature, and domination and submission are facts of our everyday experience. I myself struggle with "authority figures", with people "telling me what to do", etc. And I think we all struggle with this as it is just a condition of being human.

I think if you can work on accepting this fact of "primate-ness" that we have, and look not just at your work relationships, but also your personal relationships to see how you are at times either dominant or submissive, you will begin to see how accepting a "subordinate" role not only benefits you (with a paycheck), but also benefits the person "above" you (your manager who gets to feel dominant), and the people who depend on you (family and friends who care about you, they can see you holding down a job).

This quote by Robert Heinlein springs to mind:

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."

OP here. Thanks for saying that. Hard to disagree.

Upwork is about as bad a place to find freelancing work as you could find.

It's pretty unrealistic to expect a job without a manger. I also hate being managed.

My solution? I started my own company 10 years ago and have been running it ever since.

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