
Jobs don't scale - snitko
http://romansnitko.posterous.com/jobs-dont-scale
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DenisM
Good on you to have realized the inherent job scalability problem so early on
in your life - you have just easily saved yourself several years of your life.
The economical relationship between employer and employee is such that your
employer takes upon himself all small and moderately-sized economical risks
and in return collects most of the upside. There are exceptions such an
outsized IPO (very rare) on one side and layoff (not so rare) on the other. In
other words it's a risk swap not unlike car insurance or extended warranty.
It's a great deal for someone who can't tolerate cashflow problems (e.g. who
is in debt), but this sort of risk swap is unnecessary for someone who has a
cash cushion to ride out the rough times. Many people voluntarily put
themselves into such position e.g. by spending beyond their means - don't do
that.

Your #1 goal is establish the cash cushion. Your #2 goal is to find a worthy
idea. Once you have both you can burn cash to build business out of your idea.
Here's how you do it:

1\. Get a job and keep it. Reduce your burn rate and save money. You're ready
when you have 18-24 months worth of burn rate stashed in the bank CDs (do not
mess with the stock market - _you_ are your high-upside investment).

2\. While holding a job identify a group of people who have money, have
problems, are willing to pay to solve the problems, you are able to solve the
problems (it's in your domain), you can easily find and talk to. Bad choice
examples: software engineers, teenage gamers. Good choice examples: middle-age
middle-class women, small business owners. Business is not a legal entity and
not even a product - business is a group of people whom you can reach and
whose problems you can solve better than other people and who can pay you for
it. Once you have that you've made it.

3\. Talk to these people and verify the problem. Build a mockup of the
solution and talk to them again. Try to sell the mockup on google adwords or
any other channel you were going to use to reach out to your audience. This is
a low-bandwidth activity that you can do while keeping your day job. Don't be
afraid to drop one problem in favor of the another. In fact, strive for it -
try to discover the most pressing problem your audience may have.

4\. In a couple of years you should a solid idea about what to do, how to do
it and how to sell it. You should also have enough cash to make the leap. You
know the time is right when it doesn't feel like a "leap" anymore.

Also, read "Re-work" - it'll do you good.

Good luck.

~~~
kiba
The problem is, that I want to make games.

~~~
gfodor
At some point in the last 10 years I realized not only are video games a waste
of time but transitivity working on building them is nearly as much a waste of
time. They're fun, but ultimately are just entertainment. I still play them
occasionally. But the entire gaming industry from the players up to the
executives at the end of the day are just providing people means of escaping
from reality. Beating a game is a false, manufactured sense of accomplishment:
it's like getting a "participation" ribbon in the game of life. Fun, yes, but
ultimately I think it becomes as satisfying to beat a game as it is to eat a
pastry from starbucks: in either case you're consuming a wholly manufactured
experience that provides slim to nil real value for your mind or your body.

In other words, there are much more interesting, difficult, and worthwhile
problems to solve than how to build a better RPG or FPS. You're just not
looking hard enough.

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
You must be so much fun at parties!

I don't play video games either, but that hardly gives me the authority to
deprecate them for creating merely a "manufactured sense of accomplishment."
There are many people for whom games are the only practical release from daily
drudgery and that alone makes their existence, and by extension their
creation, worthwhile.

Not everyone aspires to solve "interesting, difficult and worthwhile
problems." Sometimes we just want to have fun!

~~~
gfodor
I never said everyone did aspire to solve interesting problems. But the point
of this thread, as so many others, is what do you do with opportunity given to
you to work on whatever you want.

I'm of the opinion that working on video games, generally speaking, is not
much more rewarding both to yourself and society as it is to play them. If you
had $500k, 2 years, and many ideas on how to make the world better, why would
you waste it on building something that serves no purpose other than sheer
escapism or entertainment?

I get a very negative reaction when I criticize certain pursuits as not being
worthwhile, as has happened before, but it's due to a misunderstanding of
context. I say this not in the context of life in general (as I said, I play
video games and don't always work on interesting, difficult problems) but
instead in the context of having the opportunity to change the world.

The truth is, these opportunities come across very rarely, and when they do,
it's important to deeply consider how you spend your time. Sometimes you want
to have fun, but that goes hand in hand with the fact that life is short.

~~~
kristiandupont
I think that video games can be said to make the world better in some sense.
My life is a little bit richer because of them - just like it is because of
films and books and music. Maybe not in a philantropic sense of the word but I
don't get the feeling that you are saying that he should be attacking AIDS or
world hunger? And even if you are, the sun is going to explode one day, wiping
out all legacy anyway.

I am not saying that you shouldn't try and do good, but I think that the kind
of statement you are making provokes these questions.

------
heresy
You sound like me 10 years ago...

I'm guessing you're in your 20s.

Take advantage of the mobility and freedom of choice that comes with having no
little people depending on you to bring home the bacon, as when that happens
your choices become somewhat less...

Not a bad thing, just a different thing :)

~~~
wyclif
_...I want motivation, and marrying someone ain't gonna give me one._

Agreed. When I read that, I _knew_ he was under 30 and not married.
Personally, I find that marriage rather focuses you in a laser-like way on
cutting out the extraneous regarding personal projects (i.e. those which do
not make money). Depending on your personality, this may inspire more passion
than working only for the benefit of your own interests.

------
ojbyrne
The size of CEO's salaries seems to make this claim false on the face of it
([http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/05/02/top-p...](http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/05/02/top-
paid-ceos-steve-jobs-drops-from-no-1-to-no-120/)). Admittedly some of those
people did actually found companies, but many also spent time getting an
education, moving into an entry-level (ish) job, then climbing the ranks,
building a _career_ not just a job.

I understand the point, but there are other perspectives.

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JonM
That all sounded a bit depressing..... but very familiar!

I suggest you get in the gym!

~~~
snitko
I go to the gym. I also run 3 miles every day and sleep full 8 hours. Not
depressed, just saying what things really are.

------
alastair
on a similar note, a great article on why a fixed income is a 'sucker bet' -
[http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2009/09/a-fixed-income-
is-a...](http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2009/09/a-fixed-income-is-a-sucker-
bet/)

------
incosta
Not everyone is bursting with ideas all the time. Make enough contacts and
meet people. Some travel may help, just like you said, it takes some effort.

Don't get me wrong but a relationship can help to get rid of the 'nothing
excites me' mood.

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olegkikin
_nothing excites me. Nor technical problems neither a project itself unless
it's my idea and my project and my business_

...

 _So what's the problem, you're saying? Well, I have no good ideas to work on_

:)

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bitdiddle
With all due respect this post is kind of pointless. What motivates the author
is more money and being wealthy. Well then go for it, build a company and be
wealthy. Don't work on someone else's idea.

The mistake I see a lot of young programmers making is to not realize that
when you are young all your capital is in your head. Don't squander it.

------
siculars
Kid, would you like some cheese with your whine?

~~~
DenisM
If we never talk about anything that ails us we'll never fix it.

------
olalonde
Jobs don't scale. No, really !? Am I the only one who's getting tired of
meaningless headlines :|

