

Things Developers Want More Than Money (2006) - jmonegro
http://www.softwarebyrob.com/2006/10/31/nine-things-developers-want-more-than-money/

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jawn
This is a false choice.

There are more choices in your professional life than:

A) Being 9-5 daily grinder (for some reason this is always implied as being a
bad programmer -- why?)

or

B) Working your ass off for some schmuck for terrible pay who gives you free
snapple and a (perceived) enjoyable project.

In either case: THE FINANCIAL REWARDS ARE NOT GOING TO YOU - (Drinkers of the
VC kool-aid this means you too).

To every passionate developer out there I challenge you to milk your 9-5. Then
go home and make what YOU want, and live and die by that effort.

Take both of these perceived benefits for everything you can. The security and
stability of the 9-5, and the sense of enjoyment/accomplishment/financial
reward from your independant work.

Do not work for other people except as a means to a guaranteed paycheck.

Do not let others enslave your passion and creativity.

~~~
DannoHung
Ehhh, you know what? I've done both (and I actually did work on my own
projects in my own time while doing A).

B is actually better.

There is an indescribable psychic toll that working at a megacorp takes on
you. Daily I would wish for the sweet release of death rather than deal with
another god damned conference call.

Now I just get a little cranky when I've been working for too long or
someone's being an asshole.

I suppose I could try doing my own startup, but that's terrifying.

~~~
jawn
Maybe it's an opnion thing than.

I've done both and am currently working on my own startup while keeping a 9 to
5. While the startup work moves along at a slower pace than I'd like, I
wouldn't change it for anything.

~~~
DannoHung
How big is the 9 to 5 you're working at? That might have something to do with
it. I was at a 200,000+ employee firm.

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mynameishere
_As Herzberg noticed, this scenario leads to employees viewing the job as
little more than a paycheck, which is probably all right for companies like
Countrywide and IndyMac._

Ha ha, probably not.

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dnsworks
Whenever I read articles like this, I wonder if there's some management
conspiracy, especially amongst VC-backed firms, to keep tech salaries
stagnant. A very successful conspiracy, seeing how programmers and systems
administrators in San Francisco make roughly the same amount of money in 2010
that they did in 1999, without any inflationary adjustments (because they
never got those adjustments).

