
Things Developers Want More Than Money (2006) - peter_d_sherman
https://robwalling.com/2006/10/31/nine-things-developers-want-more-than-money/
======
high_derivative
"Money is a motivating factor for most of us, but assuming comparable pay,
what is it that makes some companies attract and retain developers while
others churn through them like toilet paper?"

My take on that would be that paying more would almost certainly help.
Companies who are wondering why they can't seem to find or retain top talent
should most likely not wonder about all the soft factors but pay more.

There is this almost comical aspect to companies hand-wringing about how they
tried everything, except paying closer to top of the market.

------
scarejunba
The first time I started looking for my next job I realized what this guy was
saying, some half a decade after him. I didn't want to work for the sort of
team idealized on HN: good pay, 9-5, fixed vacation days, no social events,
private offices, clear spec to code to.

I wanted the high variance outcome. I say this because usually when HN threads
with titles like this come out an army of people descend to say "No! This is
not what developers want. They want cash".

I wanted to work in a competitive atmosphere where we had to demonstrate to
the market that our stuff was good. I wanted to be an engineer but not a spec-
to-code converter. I wanted unlimited vacation. I wanted my coworkers to be
fine being my friends (though I have friends elsewhere too). And I didn't want
private offices or cubicles.

But what I really really really wanted:

* Trust, and from that, autonomy

* Coworkers I could trust

* Recognition of achievement

* Intelligence org-wide in decision making. And true openness in this.

* Rapidity in development

* Interesting technical problems

I actually found a place I liked and it didn't have all the things but it had
a lot.

I thoroughly enjoyed working there and would happily "work" in the shower.
None of the scare factors materialized. It actually worked really well. Many
of the people I knew there senior to me went on to found other companies and I
can see that they took a lot of the culture with them.

There are lots of 9-5ers and there are lots of companies for them, but the
best companies for the other kind are in the Bay and I love it for this.

It's funny but when you have a good management team, so many worries go away.
You don't have to protect the downside of "what if the company doesn't
actually respect 'unlimited' vacation?" Or "What if they won't buy me the new
Tesla GPU for my work?" A good management team won't nickel and dime you and
they know when to say "Cash is tough now, we can't expand that cluster. Let's
try to make the job more efficient" (less relevant now when you don't have
this massive necessary capital expenditure and have some elasticity, but it
was back then). They won't screw you on options because they aren't planning
for this to be their only success.

In fact, now I'm fully confident that the leadership is everything when it
comes to a startup. Life's too short to downside protect. It's a hell of a lot
of fun to swing for the fences.

------
steve_taylor
After 10+ years working in software project teams of various sizes, the thing
I want more than money is to work solo. No peers. No project managers, product
owners or scrum masters.

Working in a team is extremely frustrating. It's like artists working together
to produce a portrait. No matter how good the artists are, the process would
be mired in conflict and compromise and produce a mediocre result.

~~~
wildmindwriting
Does this not imply that your "way" is the "correct way"? As frustrating as
teams, peers, and different stakeholders are, they make the thing we are
building better. Yes, group think doesn't produce the best results but it is
no worse than someone building something in solitude without outside input.

~~~
steve_taylor
> Does this not imply that your "way" is the "correct way"?

Not at all. There are many ways to get the same job done. Ideally, the best
ideas would win. In my experience, however, the hierarchy always wins and
creativity is punished.

> it is no worse than someone building something in solitude without outside
> input.

In a solo dev project, outside input comes directly from stakeholders.

------
revskill
As a solo developers, i have no team. I have no time (it means i need to
deliver product as soon as possible). I have no tool (that means i only use
what i discovered myself, because i have no consultant).

The only thing i want, is to reuse my code. To save everything above.
Frameworks exist for a reason.

------
greenleafjacob
I would trade double digit thousands of dollars per year if I had a private
office.

~~~
joshka
I was curious about the actual cost of doing this.

    
    
       Average annual rent $/sqft = $30 (US), $40 (Seattle), $70 (SF/NY) [1]
       Average private office space: 196 sqft [2]
       Average cubical: 90 sqft [2]
       Price of upgrade: $3180 (US), $4240 (Seattle), $7420 (SF/NY)
    

Another way of looking at this is ~$2-4/hour.

This ignores that if you did actually give every developer an office, prices
would increase due to lack of space. It also likely ignores a slew of other
factors from the real world.

[1]: [https://www.seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/seattle-
re...](https://www.seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/seattle-rents-for-
offices-soaring-much-faster-than-elsewhere/) [2]:
[https://www.thercfgroup.com/files/resources/Revisiting-
offic...](https://www.thercfgroup.com/files/resources/Revisiting-office-space-
standards-white-paper.pdf)

