
Side Projects Are Not Evil: Why Businesses Should Deliberately Encourage Them - retrospective
https://retrospective.co/side-projects/
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mattbgates
Great article.

A mind that is constantly thinking can doing something great. For developers,
we turn it into productivity and into programming. Constant never-ending
ideas. My goal is to have my side business/side projects and my main job.

I see it this way: aside from learning new things and even being able to bring
them to the table to advance the primary company I work for, I would love to
be making $100,000+ a year. I'm far from ever making that. I probably will
never ever make that salary if I continue working for my company. I also can't
ask my company for and expect them to pay me that much. They are a business
trying to cut their expenses and save money as well.

I'm pretty sure the job I do is not worth _that much_ but it would be awesome
if it was! Yes, I could go get another job, but why? I love my job, and I love
the people I work with. But its not a job that entitles me to make that much
money, no matter how well I do my job, or what "senior position" I obtain, or
how much convincing I do, or how many times I ask for a raise.

While I'm certainly not in any competition with my company, working on my side
projects, I feel, is going to help me make up for what the company cannot. So
hypothetically, if I can make $50,000 from side projects and $50,000 from my
main job, than I would say that is a successful accomplishment of hitting my
goal and making it happen.

Why would I want to put that awkwardness and demand on my company? I have some
expectations that they will pay me close to what I ask for, but they may think
otherwise. They set the price for how much they should be paying me and
compare it against the general salary for my title position and then they may
even pay me lower than the national average to save a bit of money. Now lets
say hypothetically, they gave me what I asked for. When it comes down to it,
in a tough market, in a tough economy, or in slow times, the very first
person/people likely be let go are those they feel they can save the most
money on by laying off. Most companies think that way too: "We could hire 3
college students and pay his salary to them."

But side projects go beyond to encourage creativity and ambition!

