Time for programmers to grow a spine
cahlan.tumblr.com
cahlan.tumblr.com
What the hell is wrong with you? "If you're spending your free time not working, you're distracted! You should be spending it working!" How about no? Maybe my life doesn't revolve around filling as much time of it as possible with work, ironic considering that seems to be the angle you were getting at earlier? This article contradicts itself by first telling you not to waste your life working and then telling you to take 15 more hours out of your week working.
I just think talking yourself out of working extra hours when you waste a lot of those extra hours is just self deception.
Why does "wasting time" matter when there's a 100% guarantee that we're all going to die and that the universe is going to come to an end?
Fuck it. I say: Do whatever is necessary for you to lead the life you're happy leading and then... well... lead that life.
If someone is happy doing the bare minimum necessary to spend the rest of his/her time stuffing his/her face with junk food and pigging-out on reality TV, then who are you to call that time "wasted"?
The universe is going down the toilet and, when it does, there will be nobody around to think "Hmmm... Calhan Whatshisface should have spent his time learning the @$$32 JS framework instead of watching Real Fartfaces of Silver Spring".
If working gets you off, then that's fine, but please step off your high horse and stop expecting everyone else to want to spend their life slobbing the proverbial knob of ProductiveWork™.
It isn't self deception. Just like I know that I'm less productive at complex problems at 3am, I'm less productive if I'm doing it for 11 hours a day instead of 8.
You can become mentally exhausted to the point your work output is worthless because you make stupid mistakes that take longer to QA.
The cost of me making a mistake for 8 minutes? ~$10,000. The cost of me being properly rested, properly QAing things, etc. is not as expensive as the damage of a single mistake a year.
You are instead addressing any and all programmers, and are assuming they all want what you want. I hope you realize how off-putting this is to the people who are just fine with working in a "safe" job and chipping away at their 401k and playing with their kids/TVs/Xbox for 15 hours a week.
The thesis of the article is basically:
1. You're wrong to be happy with your non-entreprenuereal career
2. You're wrong if you aren't trying really hard to become an entrepreneur
This is a very dickish piece.
TV and computer games do not require the same level of attention, involvement or energy as work does. They are wind-down activities. They are pure fun. Not that coding isn't rewarding, but it's different and it takes it out of you rather than putting in. I'm not exhausted after playing a game for a couple of hours after work, but a couple of extra hours work would shatter me and make my quality of life worse.
My risk is that I take on short term contracts. My reward is that I get paid at about the 97/98th percentile in my country. This is enough spine for me :)
I guess the point is that everything can be taken seriously enough to the point that it becomes something which takes a lot of effort (and that effort can be rewarding or stressful).
There’s nothing wrong with risk, but many people reasonably expect to be paid a premium to take it on.
Maybe the real reason guy didn't join, although compensation is "good" is not that good? Maybe he saw the writing on the wall and didn't want to go for a "good" salary only to be forced to look for another job in next few months when funding money expire? Maybe he didn't like the prospect of working 60+ hours weeks? Maybe he just doesn't like 2x startup culture?
There are a million valid reason why someone wouldn't want to join startup, even for a "competitive" salary, and it has nothing to do with having spine or not. And he's not obliged to tell a real reason to anyone, so "too risky" is as good as an excuse as anything.
Were they profitable, or at least did they have a clear path to profitability? Monthly revenues of $20k is great, unless they are spending $50k per month to get it. If that is the case, $500k won't last long. That would be a risky place to join, if it weren't clear how to get to profitability.
"The only job security is the security you create for yourself." Sure. For some that might be to work for a startup. For some it might be to found a startup. For some it might be to work for a "safe" company doing something innovative (it happens).
Risk ultimately is weighing the probability of some amount of loss versus some amount of gain. It is subjective and historically informed. The OP stated "Think about it: when is the hardest in your life that you’ve worked? For me, it was when everything was on the line. Not just my job, but my income, my children’s schooling, and our groceries. I wasn’t working hard to impress my boss, get a promotion, or avoid a negative performance review. I was working hard to make ends meet." That's fine for him. I would rather not be in a position where my children's education is on the line. Does that mean I don't potentially hit the high gains the OP has? Maybe. Or perhaps others are making more informed decisions or slightly different risk-based decisions (maybe that key hire ended up going to a company who already has their series A or B, has better revenue / pipeline, and is going for a slightly lower equity package..that's still risky it's just not as risky what OP seems to be suggesting)
Also, to be perfectly honest, I imply the issue is with me when I decline jobs [e.g. I don't think I am good enough, I do not have the stomach for risk] regardless of the real reason.
The last time I did that I asked some friends of mine if I should state what the real reason. The company in question was suing someone for making the same transition they were asking me to make, the hypocrisy of it combined with the fact it'd probably happen to me 5 years down the road when I changed jobs was the real reason I declined.
People lie when they decline jobs because they don't want to create a greater negative impression that might be caused by the truth. That is also something I don't think the OP is taking into account.
Another job interview apologized that I was not the perfect fit when I never had any intention of taking the job once I had gone in for the interview and heard more about them. The real reason they declined was I think they figured it out during the interview but we both played along until the end and stated different reasons that were as gentler than the reality to avoid a greater negative impression.
Maybe the author wants to 'inspire' but that's not what I feel after reading the article.
also: it might be time for some Tumblr users to brighten their font color as well.
I was deeply impressed by Paddy Ashdown's biography (former leader of UK's Liberal Democrats). He joined the Royal Marines at 18, served as an officer seeing combat in Malaya and the Middle East, joined the SBS, spent 2 and half years learning Chinese in Hong Kong "immersed" in the local culture, joined MI6, spent 7 years of immensely hard effort (some of it while scraping through while unemployed or dead end jobs) becoming an MP, became leader of his party, helped in the conflict in Bosnia (with a multi-million dollar price on his head)....
Even though I've co-founded a VC founded startup and worked at other startups I felt distinctly risk-adverse after reading about all of that. After all, anything you do while sitting at a desk using a PC can't be that risky....
Maybe I'm incorrect about the average startup, but at least from what I've seen and been offered, I would have to give up too much of my family time to work for one.
Many startups are composed of mid-twenties white males. The culture of work becomes 10am to 8pm, then go drinking.
If you have a family, you could work 7am to 3:30pm and be out the door in time to see your family, then work some more at night. But you'll get glares, and eventually you won't be a "team player" or whatever they decide to make up.
If you can find a startup run by people with children it can be a good fit, but you don't know until you interview.
> A fulfilled life is inherently a risky one
Is it really? Is that necessarily true for everyone?
What's wrong with you, McFly? Why won't you work for your good pal Biff? You chicken?
I have worked at a startup before. And I have worked in "safe" jobs. Truly safe jobs don't even exist any more. If I'm going to be "at will" anywhere I go, I'm going to make my primary job the one where the employer can reliably make payroll for the foreseeable future.
Never mind even 40 hours a week. If you're a startup, I might give you that 16 hours you think I waste on leisure activity as my second job, in addition to the primary job I can count on to pay my bills. I'll go full time with you only when I start to believe you're not going to make me unemployed, burnt-out, and homeless six months from now.
People aren't just looking for base pay. They want financial security. It does no good to offer a $150k annual salary if the business ledger says that you can only pay that for three months. It does no good to offer a potential $1M in stock options, if the VC or private equity investors are going to ensure they never pay out. People are not stupid, and a lot of people in this industry have already been burned multiple times. So telling them to just stop being pussies and to get their asses back in the fire is insensitive and condescending. And I'm already sick of working for people who don't respect me.
For example, I am fulfilled by aesthetic pursuits like painting, writing music, and performance literature. I don't fool myself into thinking I am good enough at any of these things to make money off of them. But it's no less fulfilling than the kinds of risks one would take in business. In fact, I'd argue it's more fulfilling to artistically express something about your core self and then put it on display. This is with my impression (from stories on HN) that the startup world can be very superficial.
The point is fulfillment and risk come in many shapes and sizes. You don't have to risk your family's welfare and work 55 hour weeks to get valuable life experiences. Maybe you need it to develop flawless business acumen, but the OP is pretty clearly talking about life experience here.
Sometimes you can predict, but as you look further into the future the less reliable those predictions are. If you went to college, you choose a major and a school, you have no idea how it will turn out. You will meet people who change your life, but you had no way to predict that when you met them. If you meet and becomes friends and work with Zuckerberg or Gates, you're life is going to be different. You had no way of knowing that "this MicroSoft company is going to be huge" when it was just starting out.
I went to work at a startup in College that failed. After that large corp with long term contracts, 10 years later layoffs started. I went back to a startup again. I have no regrets about any of it though.
Some of life is just luck. Don't not prepare though. That would be folly. Just be aware you can't control everything.
My general rule is that if you are pretty happy with the way things are stay the course, if your not happy, look for something you love and want to do and go in that direction. That goes for personal life and work life.
Here is one (anecdotal) example. I have been working on a business idea, and everyone tells me it is a good idea. I even have a working prototype. But the conversation always turns into a discussion about getting a job. I ask for a few hundred dollars to help with the business, they say no. Then later in the discussion they offer (without me even asking) a few hundred dollars to help support me while I find a job. Either way it is a few hundred bucks, but the job is acceptable, the business is not. This happens even for other investments where I show them numbers and we have a high probability of making money. Even then, no.
Even outside the world of business, people are afraid of risk. Even something as simple as trying a new food is too risky for some people. Our culture is so risk-averse that it is frightening.
I was particularly struck by this "I hope you didn’t work a safe job, at a safe company, in a safe industry for your entire life. I hope you weren’t content chipping away at your 401k day after day, year after year."
"Hi, I'm an individual who didn't struggle financially in life, my job afforded me the luxury of traveling and engaging in activities that make me happy." To me, that's it. If you can do that, plus have your health and collection of interests that keep your mind entertained, you did it. Life is very difficult for the majority of people. Surviving the best you can, enjoying what's out there, doing things that make you happy, is all you can do.
The author's thoughts rang very true to me. As programmers, it's true, times are good, salaries are high, employment is easy to come by. Sometimes I can't believe how much "easer" it is to live on compared to my non-tech friends & neighbors. But at the same time, that benefit it the worst drawback.
I am that programmer he is talking to. Even though, in the past I have started my own company, and have worked at "scary, early stage startups", I now have a good job, good pay, and I have been the one who has turned down interesting, challenging, fun-sounding opportunities because of "the risk", the "uncertainty".
I miss those days of being fully engaged in what you are building, waking up thinking about the problem, coming up with the solution while you are in the shower. and building it that day.
I guess if I am trying to say anything, it is that maybe we need to reassess the proper kind "risk" as being a plus instead of a negative. Certainly there are are dumb risks, and startups that might make a ton of money but would not be worth thinking about in the shower, or give you that "I'm making the world better" feeling. But the risk of doing something you love, having to give it all you've got, knowing that if you don't build this, no one else will, and that the world will be a better place with it? That's not risk, that's happiness, which is what I'd be spending my money on anyways.
But I also agree that programmers should grow a spine. In modern society they actually do have substantial power if they acted collectively on some issues.
The delivery (and I'm not just talking about the incompetent CSS) is horrible.