Comment by justinlloyd | Hacker News Reader

Comment by justinlloyd | Hacker News Reader

My career gas been a little odd. I earn less than some, but more than most. But I don't ever really feel like I've worked a day in my life. I get paid ${ridiculous_sum_of_monies} to play with cool toys. I find interesting problems people have, and then I sign up for that. Some days are more difficult than others, but I am not interested building yet another "it." I am always looking for the "it+1" or "it+that" or "it*n" or "it/time" or "it=>(return null)"

I think I am more tactical in my approach to my career, rather than strategic. I don't really have an end goal. I am not looking to maximize income or climb to the top. I see people racing ahead of me every day, younger people chasing up the corporate ladder to earn millions or get that VP role at BigMegaCorp. And they are so successful. And I know that isn't in my mental makeup to want that.

I made a comment on another thread about "I will stop work the day that I die" and someone else pointed out that was the saddest thing they ever read. For me, it isn't. Because I don't define "work" as toiling away on a souless project without meaning, or building yet another CRUD app (doing "it"), or not finding meaning in my work.

I play.

Every day.

And I'm happy.

And when someone tries to get me to do something that is more like "bullshit jobs", I'll tolerate it for a while if it is "we need to do this to ship." I am willing to do whatever it takes to make the project a success, and if that means I have to push a broom about for a while, cleaning up dust, I will. But if my role becomes permanently that, and we've shipped, or we keep delaying our ship date and the bullshit goes on too long, I wander off to find something else to play with. I do what I do out of love for my work, but not out of love for my job or love for a company. I'd do the kind of work I do for free, even if I wasn't getting paid. But I still want to get paid for my production. I think I have an incredibly privileged position and I realise that probably 90% of software engineers, if they are honest with themselves, probably are doing absolutely meaningless work that nobody wants.

You sound like a slightly older version of me. And then I read your profile and you work in precisely the same field. I honestly feel that robotics is one of the few domains in which this kind of play can yield a sustaining and continually interesting career. I'm currently building an autonomous wheelchair for about half my usual rates just because it sounded fun. :-)

Sounds amazing. Can you offer some insights in how other people might apply your approach? Are you a contractor? How can you tell if someone is offering a job of the sort you want, and how do you convince the gatekeepers you can do the work well?

Sometimes I am a contractor.

Sometimes I am a W2.

I am a contractor right now.

Because the company is new.

But I will probably be W2 one day very soon

Possibly tomorrow. Or by the next cheesey moon.

As to how?

I build "stuff." Then I show "stuff" to them.

Them being people, them who run companies small and really big.

It takes me to new jobs. Or brings in a gig.

I message everyone on LinkedIn. And at hackathons too.

And meetups, and greetups, and gatherings old and new.

Anywhere I can think of, reach out to people in the Bay,

and those NFT'd out weirdos down in L.A.

Sometimes directly in Frisco, and that one guy at Cisco.

And then them say "can you come here and work for us to build 'stuff?'"

And we talk about fun things as I walk through the code.

And sometimes I find out, in the course of the day,

they are really building "it" which I've already before built,

and I say "no, not interested" and we go on our way.

Other times it turns out they want to build "it+that"

but they don't know how to build "it"

but do know a world about that "that"

And somewhiles it is the other way round

They've got the shape of the problem

But not the geometrical bound

Sometimes the glue that bonds "it" and "that" doesn't work

and I come up with some new formula for the glue that will stick

And somewhiles it don't pay well, but it's the problem I pick,

My career might seem strange to them that build "it"

But I'm happy for me, because don't I give a shit

I've talked with entrepreneurs, they'll say

"We're planning on send a Musk to the Moon"

But he asks always impatiently 'will it be soon?'"

Turns out they're just building yet another crap app

I'm always happiest when stacking "that" on to "it"

Sometimes I'll add one, five or eleven to see what will fit

There's an upper, upper limit of the stacked up "that"

Sometimes it's nine, more likely sometimes its four,

But if we just keep stacking, eventually I'll look for the door

I once had a project where they'd divided "it" by zero

And I got to fix "it", and look like the hero

I'll go to my grave, working each day

And my last words will be "I had fucking fun, I say!"

Wow, I don't often get answers in rhyme!

Thank you.

I could have bombastically told you my secrets

Of how to sell a skill set into saturated markets

Really nobody cares, what school you attended or subjects you studied

They don't care if you were turtleish slow or rapidly hare hurried

When it comes down to avoiding the build out of another crap app

Of avoiding those jobs that you would describe as bullshat

You just simply show them of what you can do

How you've managed to stick together "it", "this" and "that"

With a wonderfully super sticky new glue

And so repeat after me

It isn't the product that you sell, but the story you tell

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