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Comment by ThrowawayR2 | Hacker News Reader

Well ...

- Mediocrity is normal, by definition. Half of software development teams are below average (or the median if you want to be technically correct).

- 95% of software jobs are web, CRUD, or mobile/desktop apps being developed in a team environment in an office.

That being said, doing technically interesting stuff is possible but it requires you to seek out the tiny percentage of jobs that meet that requirement. Being a solo software developer is possible, but you're now your own business guy, marketer, product manager, etc. Both paths are a hard road and not as easy money as following the mainstream. The question for you is, how bad do you want it?

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I don't think my heart is in the business of things. I look at people like Linus Torvalds or Larry Wall and see guys who developed their own projects and somehow made a living doing so. What is that "somehow"?

With LT and LW specifically, that somehow was developing something they themselves were looking for, dogfooding the heck out of it, and perservering for many years before it began to pay off.

If you ask me that particular "somehow" is by being some of the most brilliant software developers out there and creating stuff that is so impactful and important to the world that basically no one can ignore it.

Think about what that would take nowadays. Create the next iteration of Git or Linux, something that replaces either of those?

It's a high bar to clear. Not saying it's impossible, or that you have to clear it in order to be successful as a solo developer, but when you're invoking names like Linus and Larry, you should know what kind of mountaintop you're looking at.

Getting lucky with their project solving others problems at the right time.

You can't plan for superstardom. Unless youre selected and made one which doesnt really happen in software.

1. Be extremely skilled at a fairly narrow domain that hasn't been explored very well.

2. Work hard on the project for a continuous period of time.

3. Be fortunate enough to have picked something that the rest of the world wants.

And then your chances are still a "maybe". So you can't necessarily plan for it.

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