Comment by marginalia_nu | Hacker News Reader

Comment by marginalia_nu | Hacker News Reader

I don't think you'll find metaphorical rock stars working in a team in a salaried job, any more than you'll find actual Taylor Swift doing ten hour shifts in an office building. There's nuance to that though. It's really hard to distinguish yourself working in such an environment, you don't have the time, freedom and energy to do that. And if you can't do that, you won't ever be much of a "rock star".

Not that you can't work as an independent "creative" in programming though.

I've gotten to a point where I can work on Marginalia Search full time, and live off grants and donations for at least a few years. Dunno if I'm a rock star for it, I don't even have a Wikipedia page, but I at least reckon myself a fairly successful busker.

If I don't qualify, then certainly Serenity OS Andreas who made like $300k in a week with his browser shenanigans. Him and a other people far more talented than I am are able to live this way.

But it's a weird game. I think it's more or less all about the right sort of visibility. You distinguish yourself working on some large problem in a public fashion, and people inevitably will start throwing money your way; this enables additional work and additional visibility, it gives even more opportunities.

While maybe not reaching the John Romero levels of rockstar we had in the '90s, this manner of working is certainly closer to the success of a Taylor Swift than being the most talented developer in the IT department.

my first industry job was in 1995. after the interview process the hiring manager came in with an offer. it was 4x what i was currently making. after i accepted I had a half day with the admin.

she showed me the very nice hotel that they would be putting me up at until I found a place. no hurry really. one of my new coworkers was still there after a few months.

we went back to the office for tastings. coffee. wine. beer. whiskey. it was important that they knew my tastes and would have my preferred food and drink on hand.

i know that was the point - but I certainly felt like a rock star.

Man, the dot-com boom must have been wild.

It was! I remember my first job in a startup in 1999, I was third employee, arriving in a 2000sqm office... There was so much money wasted, at that time the most important metric was cash burn rate, to be serious player you should be able to burn at least 1M per month, even with 3 employees.

Plus, the managers really couldn't tell who knew what they were doing and who didn't, so the money just sloshed around to everyone.

I remember a ridiculous TV commercial where a stereotypical pointy-haired boss guy was talking about hiring programmers, and he said "a candidate told me he dreams in code, and... I hired him on the spot!" And it was unironically framed as if the boss guy was doing an amazingly smart thing!

It was a crazy time.

Money was just being thrown around. So many office strewn with toys.

It definitely was.

During that time I was earning almost 2000 euros, in a time where earning above 1000 euros was a dream for many Portuguese.

Wasting money on CDs, theatre, going out, travelling, first time I managed to buy a desktop PC without being on credit,....

Then came the dot-com crash.

I started my first industry job in 2015 well after this and I was still wined and dined the night before the interview. The cocktails were $12, I had three, my future manager assured me that there was nothing to worry about the next day. In my last job, there was still lunch at a "$$$$" restaurant (at least according to google reviews) after the on-site interview.

I once got flown out to Shanghai from NYC, all expenses paid for 3 nights to interview for the China operations of an European tech company.

I guess everything is now different with remote work but before the pandemic companies, especially your prospective manager, would go out of their way to make you feel good if they really wanted you. Those were the places you wanted to work, even if the salary was higher somewhere else, because you knew you would be privileged and respected before even stepping in the door. That meant getting more resources, having more leeway and freedom to do what you want.

I also get the feeling hackers and "creative programmers" are not as valued as much in today's market. Managers want "I" shaped as opposed to "T" shaped hires.

> Serenity OS Andreas who made like $300k in a week with his browser shenanigans

Any sources for this claim?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36502433

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36377805

Ok technically 10 days, but still.

To be fair, some "best works" were commissions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistine_Chapel_ceiling being a notable example.

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