jacobroufa

This isn't just a facet of the tech scene but jobs all over. I left my restaurant job for this very reason. I gave my managers ample opportunity to tell me where I needed improvement and give constructive criticism. Yet they continued to mess with my hours and not give reason, hiring more people instead of giving the hours to people who needed them. My managers would rather stay non-confrontational, not recognizing that confrontation isn't necessarily a bad thing but a way to improve relationships between coworkers and employees as well as improving quality across the board. It was this lack of communication that drove me away.

It was a tough decision for me, because I not only left the job but a steady paycheck. While the check may have been smaller than I'd have liked (or needed) there's something to be said for reliability. Being a contract dev has given me much more freedom and the ability to write my own paycheck, but it's definitely not easy. Some days I'd much rather be working for someone... but finding management that are willing to put themselves out there and communicate on the level needed to keep me happy is tough. I demand a very high level of communication because that's the way I've found to be able to do the best job I can. Make no mistake, I may be tough to get along with but I always strive to do the best job I can. I suppose the only one that really understands that and can deliver on those demands is me.

The majority of people/groups I see selling Drupal stuff sell themes which I see as legitimate... It takes a lot of work to make a well-written theme and once someone buys the theme, while GPL'ed it's possible to redistribute for free but why would you want someone else to use "your look"? Selling modules and functionality on the other hand... well, I suppose it's possible but why do it? Isn't the point of using software like Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla, et al to be a part of a larger Open Source community? I know I would never sell a module or theme rather than release it to the community, because that's what's been done by my predecessors in the community. I would be out of a job if that community didn't exist because by myself I don't have the resources, talent, and myriad of other attributes required to put together as complete and functional a product.

There's a good thread here http://drupal.org/node/237682 discussing just this and the general consensus seems to be that it's possible but generally harmful to the community. I think this applies not only to Drupal but to every Open Source project in general.

I'm confused as to this selling thing as well... I can understand developing something like this for a client's project and selling it to them as a part of your work... but selling it to the community?

This is why I use Drupal.

I used to work for a company, the Chicago Technology Cooperative, where we focused on building websites (and apps) for non-profit organizations. Maybe you could start a company with that intent?

Communication is vital. If communication breaks down then everything else turns to shit.

Also, handshakes don't cut it as much as we may want them to. I'd love to be able to trust people, but in matters where money is involved no one can be trusted.

I learned this the hard way. Please, use my mistakes to your advantage.

A friend of mine has a combination of cloud/hosted setup for his personal site, and I'm leaning towards setting up something similar. Why not set up a landing page on a cheap server (a la NearlyFreeSpeech) and use that to link to your presence in the cloud?

No reason to regret anything, as I see it. I am the culmination of my 24 short years of experience. Without my experiences, good, bad or indifferent, I wouldn't be the person I am today. And I like that person.

I think it's necessary to stick with your intuitive thought to a degree... at least until rationality takes over. Keep in mind that anything, taken to the extreme, can become unhealthy. I think you've hit the nail on the head in saying that "decisions and actions based on intuition usually end up having a rational explanation" and while I've found this to be true more often than not I feel the need sometimes to act purely in rational thought. It's something that, for me, needs to be decided on the fly. I can't plan when I'll act rationally, nor when I go with my gut. It just happens.

I don't think it's in our nature as human beings to act purely in a rational realm, but some degree of it has to exist or we'd never get anywhere. When I focus on matters of personal finance and productivity I need to think and act rationally or I lose objectivity (and ultimately much more). However in my work and much of the rest of my life, intuition goes hand in hand with experience and I find myself relying on what I "feel" to be the best course of action given whatever situation.

Again, this intuitive process that makes use of my experience (and that of those I've entrusted my thoughts to) is something I've given myself over to on a rational basis. If my experience-based intuition has served me well in the past, isn't using that to my advantage the rational thing to do?

For work, I'm building websites with Drupal. My latest project is http://dateunknown.com . As a side project, I've started to build a Drupal wrapper for Phono, a jQuery front end for sip calling, sms and xmpp chat in a browser.

Everyone's gotta start somewhere. My advice to you is to stop worrying about how long it's going to take you to do what you want. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other and working towards that (those?) goal(s) and you'll be there before you know it. If you've worked with startups before, just not the technical side, talk with some of the programmers you know and ask them to give you a lesson or two or even just direct you towards some good resources and cheat-sheets (these are a lifesaver for me). Just stop worrying about the time; you'll drive yourself crazy and it will feel like going nowhere fast.

@abraham. Dude's way up there in terms of Twitter knowledge. Found a replay bug 3-4 days ago they still haven't fixed... I'm surprised he hasn't gotten job offers. If anyone knows him, they should hire him.

That being said, I'm with travisjeffery and Osiris on this. Twitter may be a good way to start a conversation related to coding and such, but is by no stretch of the imagination a good place to hold that conversation.

Thanks for the link! I'm alright with being "out of a job"... I telecommute with most of my clients anyway. It's just difficult for me being physically separated from a population conducive to creativity and filled with professionals who network and meet up on a regular basis. To give you an idea of where I'm coming from, I moved to Idaho over a year ago from the Chicagoland region and being within a 1-2 hour drive from multiple meetups and networking events... So it's really the networking scene I'm missing desparately and being able to really keep a finger on the pulse of what's up and coming and where the web technology is moving.

If it's a good day and I'm paying attention to my body, I just get up whenever my I first wake up, usually before my alarm goes off. Sometimes I think it is the cats that wake me, other times I think I wake the cats... I can never tell. If it's a bad day I don't get up right away and then proceed to sleep through multiple alarms; often I will snooze them and go back to sleep until I run out of snooze cycles and then wake up hours later wondering why my alarm went off. I sleep snooze.

I have noticed though, that when I wake up first without (before) an alarm and promptly get out of bed and start my day I am usually less groggy and more inclined to be productive. My body has ~1.5hr sleep cycles, meaning if I sleep in increments of roughly 1.5hrs I tend to get better sleep. I learned all this about myself when I was practicing a polyphasic sleep experiment. I don't recommend this to anyone as an actual method of sleep or rest (my experiment was less than successful) but I sure learned a helluvalot about my body and tolerances.

Read more at http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/10/polyphasic-sleep/ or on http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/4/15/103358/720

I think you will be making the right decision.

A year ago, I was working for a web design firm working with the Drupal content management system. I wasn't the greatest at it, but I was in the position to learn and grow my skillset and not have people upset at me for getting things in late or asking questions... rather they were excited because I was learning and saw the potential I saw in myself. Needless to say, I wasn't working there too much longer, for personal reasons. However, I missed the job like no other. I had finally found a job I could truly love.

After that, with the economy the way it has been, I bounced from a tree care company (working with a friend, not so terrible) to a fast food restaurant (horrible, never again) and then to a call center providing tech support for Blackberry phones to people who under other circumstances should seriously find a twelve step program for their addiction to those damned devices. Bouncing around, I thought I would never get the opportunity I once had. I missed it terribly and pined for it regularly.

And then I found it. After two weeks working part time as a contractor, I was asked to leave my job because they (my new employer) knew they could provide me with enough work and I was doing better than they expected as far as quality of work and timeliness of delivery were concerned. I didn't give it a second thought. I hate not working with the web. I am totally and thoroughly enamored by this technology and know that if I could stay in this career field I will be happy.

The point is... do what you love. Don't hesitate, don't second guess, just do it. You won't regret it. :)

I highly recommend Logitech's VX Nano. I've had mine for almost 6 months now still using the original batteries, and I use it every day! It's small which I thought would be a pain at first (remember Apple's infamous "hockey-puck" mouse?), but it really feels natural in my hand. Also, it is precise on any surface I use it on, using the laser sensor. I really like the dual scroll wheel (clicky until you press down and then it freesrolls through any doc in 2 seconds) and the forward/back buttons. Its receiver is so tiny I just keep it plugged into my laptop and never worry about it. I could go on and on and on, but you get the point.