DanUKs

I love the idea of this but you read so many stories about the owners of open sourced projects not making a penny, whilst millions use their work and benefit financially.

It’s difficult to do this when there’s belly’s to fill.

Agreed. The tech bubble will be difficult to pop but it will.

I don’t agree with developers being overpaid because the knowledge we need at a high level is ridiculous.

I do agree that there’s too much money in tech though.

Grab it whilst you can I guess.

That’s great at your parents house but when you have kids to feed and a mortgage to pay, doing it for free is off the cards, no matter how much you love it.

The thought of writing JavaScript in my 60s is a painful thought.

How? It’ll be very difficult to make working with algorithms for fintech company, sacred.

100%. Very Elon Musk BUT even Elon himself had looked after his own and made his own millions before trying to tackle that.

So what’s the point? You want to work forever? There’s no goal to retire early and just enjoy life or start your own company?

> I’m very far from making a lot of money

The software engineering career is a ridiculously “fast paced”. career. 5 years experience in programming is the equivalent to 20+ years in another industry. There’s very few industries where you can make a 200k+ salary in your 20s.

Honestly, no. Programming is all I know... Which is kinda sad.

You either churn out work and hope you can climb to the top with the seniors and managers, or go down the entrepreneur route and try out your luck.

I'm facing this exact problem. The guy that works on the weekend, is unfortunately the most senior engineer on our team (it's quite sad really. He has nothing to prove, a wife and kid, yet he works weekends with no reward).

He's setting the benchmark higher and higher with everything he's doing. It adds zero value, yet he still does it. It leaves us other devs having to keep up for the sake of it.

Burn out here we come.

All the best man. I hope you get the freedom you deserve one day.

I guess it's a really foolish way to think but whenever I think about those who suck up to their bosses and work weekends for no reward, I just think about the story of the CEO that pulls up in the expensive car. He tells his employee, "if you keep working hard, I'll be able to buy another one."

It's not necessarily "working weekends" that's the issue. You can have a job that requires you to work 2 hours per day and still work 6-7 days a week.

It's more the constant backlog of stuff that needed to be done yesterday, more than a deadline for a specific feature(s).

I have zero control over that, which inevitably leads to the stress of work spilling into my personal life, weekends etc.

I'll feel the need to do some work at 10pm on a Sunday night every other week, just to keep things afloat.

LOL. Correct. This guy who works weekends without even being asked to, is genuinely a genius in that area but he just churns out complete sh*t. Mindlessly building.

I really hope we both make it out, man. I really do.

We'll be free one day.

Keep building.

Keep at it. We'll get through it and have freedom one day.

One day.

Great comment. Thank you.

I'm currently reading "Manifest. 7 steps to living your best life". It's pretty much exactly what you've described. It sounds like you're going through an amazing transformation. Embrace it and change your life. They don't come round often.

Give that book a read when you get the chance :)

The outcome of working weekends on my own project is the chance that I may actually build something that can feed my children, give them a good life, give us freedom etc.

The outcome of me working weekends for a company I work for is potentially having a pat on the back from my project manager and to have my name on a powerpoint at the end of the a sprint if I'm lucky.

The CEO doesn't even know your name. Know-your-worth.

Good on you. I wish you all the best with your project. Please nail it! Do it for us struggling programmers.

Good luck man.

Very, very good points here. You're right, the stress part is 100% a personal and perspective issue. I do try to convince myself that "no-one is dying" but the sad reality is that if I don't constantly meet deadliness, prove myself, and go above and beyond for the company (over-time and over-work); as "over the top" as it may sound, it's my kids that "die" when I lose my job and cannot provide.