
I dumped my day-job like a stage 5 clinger. The results? Amazing - CodeLikeAGirl
https://code.likeagirl.io/i-dumped-my-day-job-like-a-stage-5-clinger-the-results-amazing-cc9e9d46f8cd
======
bitwize
I'm sure if you're young, pretty, and can hold forth effusively on the
framework du jour, you "magically" get invites to host _webinars_ all the
time. But when you're old and jaded like me and have seen fads come and go --
history spitting rhymes like Eminem -- you can't muster that oh-so-marketable
enthusiasm for what's hot this month, and as a freelancer you may find
yourself struggling for scraps. In that context, the corporate nine-to-five
starts not looking so bad. Especially if you have other mouths to feed.

~~~
mercer
I wouldn't mind some elaboration. I'm early-thirties and find myself dwelling
on these issues regularly. I feel I'm at a crossroads where on the one hand I
can still go for those 'hot' things with enough excitement, but on the other
hand find myself tired of feeling like I'm just following trends and
reinventing the wheel, instead of actually getting _better_ at my _craft_ ,
much as the word makes me feel self-conscious.

~~~
bitwize
Technical experience and expertise is no longer enough to be successful in the
software business. As a developer you are only one source of technical
expertise, competing with other sources, including offshore workers and
libraries on GitHub and npm. To make it you have to have well-cultivated soft
skills and be exactly what your client is looking for. This is increasingly
true of nine-to-fivers -- for whom an entry-level job requires at least three
years' experience in whatever framework the company is using as well as
"cultural fit" (a proxy for who knows what kind of discrimination) -- but it's
still _especially_ true of freelancers. If you're not exactly what your client
needs, you're out. And if you're in the Valley startup scene, where every new
JavaScript framework has apocalyptic implications and no one over thirty is to
be trusted per the words of God-Emperor Zuckerberg, then what your clients
need is for you to be young, hip, and smart -- but not wise to the fact that
the latest stuff is yesterday's advancements, warmed over and retooled to hide
the deficiencies in today's tech. Or at least you can't let _them_ know you're
wise. _Them_ being the people with the money.

If you want to make it in this world, fuck your craft. Crafts are for evenings
and weekends. Work on your hustle instead. Look up some hot new framework and
build a thing in it, then prepare some slides and give a talk -- to no one, in
your room -- about what you learned so the words roll off easy when you're
trying to impress somebody at your local meetup. Stock up on Just For Men so
you can still pass for 28. If you want to be where the true advances in the
field are, go back to college and get a Ph.D. or at least a master's because
blockchain, AI, machine learning -- these require more math than the average
baccalaureate college grad has been prepared with. (But mind your love life
while there; if you fuck the wrong girl you are automatically assumed to have
raped her per Title IX regulations.) And robotics and IoT require deep
engineering backgrounds.

If making it in Hollywood means sucking Harvey Weinstein's dick, then you know
what you've gotta do. Get on your knees, or walk out the door and do something
else. It's not fair and it's not just, but this is the world we live in.

------
aqp_rune_scimmy
Did we really need yet another article about this? We get it, being in a box
for 8 hour sucks.

~~~
kiraleighleigh
OP here. I mean, 'needing' is subjective. I just like writing stuff...what
would you, specifically, want to read about? I might be working on an article
now about it, to be honest (hah).

------
romanovcode
What is a stage 5 clinger?

~~~
Consultant32452
It's a reference from the movie "Wedding Crashers." It basically means a
person who doesn't understand that the person they're into isn't into them.
They are border-line stalker/clingy.

