[Viliam1234]

> The only thing that somebody cares about is how much does your software cost and how much revenue it generates.

This is one of those "motte and bailey" statements, which can be interpreted narrowly or widely, depending on how you want to use it in given situation.

When you are in a generous mood, you can admit that -- of course! -- other things are important too, because they have an indirect impact on the cost and revenue. For example, a software full of bugs can make the customers unhappy, and can make them replace you with your competitor, thus reducing your revenue. A horribly designed code and bad management can make the good developers avoid you, because they have a choice, and that will reduce your team's productivity, and increase the costs. See what a smart statement this is? Everything relevant is included there, because everything has an indirect impact on cost and revenue.

The next day, when you are in a bad mood, you can turn this accepted piece of wisdom against your developers. No, you are not going to do this refactoring thing! It only costs me money, and the customers don't care about your hierarchy of classes or immutability of objects. Keep adding new features; and if the whole thing starts collapsing under its own weight, get ready for some overtime!

> As a developer and a professional, where does my responsibility end?

It ends exactly where you decide it does. Just like in any other human interaction, the more you let other people push you, the more you get pushed. Of course there is the possibility that if you decide not to get pushed too far, but someone else is okay with that, you might get replaced. But this, too, is just like in any other human interaction.

> Why must software developers have an entrepreneurial mindset while other professionals do not?

It makes sense if you are starting your own company. (Which is what Y Combinator wants you to do, I guess. For some people this is a good advice; others may lack the necessary skills and character traits.) Otherwise, you are simply doing an entrepreneur's job for an employee's salary... in addition to doing the employee's job, of course, because all this strategic thinking about costs and revenues does not get you rid of the duty to produce the software, fix the bugs, etc. It's not like when you volunteer to do the manager's job, the manager will do a part of your job in return.

[rnd33]

> It ends exactly where you decide it does.

> Otherwise, you are simply doing an entrepreneur's job for an employee's salary...

Thank you... I'm beginning to realize this but it's still sort of a professional identity crisis for me. Of course employers want employees who think, and I'm happy to think in terms of revenue and profit, but at the end of the day it's not my responsibility.

[Viliam1234]

I am just guessing here, but when I think about the possible origin of the idea "good developers think about cost and revenue, bad developers think about code", I imagine something like this:

* There are stories about how two or three people started writing code in their garage, and became billionaires later.

* Some guy thinks: "Huh, I happen to have an empty garage and some extra money... perhaps I should hire two or three nerds to write code and make those sweet billions for me."

* A few years later: The nerds wrote some code, and it works relatively quickly and flawlessly... but the promised billions are still not coming. The boss is frustrated, because this is not how the stories have described it.

* Now the boss could blame himself for being gullible, or for not noticing the selection bias (just because some nerds made billions, doesn't mean all nerds do). But it is psychologically more convenient to blame the employees.

* He cannot really blame the employees for writing bad code, because the code happens to be good. So instead he blames them for, essentially, not doing his homework, too.

In other words, I would expect this to happen in small companies. Most strongly when there is no intermediate layer between the company owner and the software developer.

A large company has people, such as managers and salespeople, who are responsible for minimizing costs and maximizing revenue. The software developer may feel the result of this pressure -- if the situation is bad, there may be slow computers, small screens, and a lot of overtime -- but the developer is still expected to focus on coding, not to make financial decisions.

Trying to look at the problem from the perspective of the boss... hey, of course I would like to own a pet nerd who is great at coding, but also at making his colleagues redundant, and who works hard on maximizing my revenue! The only question is why would such person work for me, as opposed to starting his own company and maximizing his own revenue. The more perfect I imagine my hypothetical employee to be, the less it makes sense for them to be my employee.

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More seriously: people have different skills and traits. There are skills and traits required to be a good software developers. There are skills and traits required to be a good entrepreneur. Some people are blessed by nature and have both these sets. Some only have one of them. Some have neither.

If you happen to be a person who could become a great developer and also a great entrepreneur... and you happen to work as a developer now... it is useful to remind you that you are probably using the less profitable of your options. That you are either not using the skills that are highly rewarded by market, or you are using them in order to make some other person rich instead of making yourself rich. Such advice may encourage you to start a new career, and perhaps improve your life.

But saying that you are not a good developer unless you are also an entrepreneur, that's wrong. From that perspective, Mark Zuckerberg would be a better developer than Donald Knuth. Nope, that's stupid. It is something entirely different to say that you would rather be Zuckerberg than Knuth. That is a legitimate preference, and if you have what it takes, go ahead. But I don't think that Donald Knuth or any other coder should have a professional identity crisis whenever he catches himself thinking about something other than cost and revenues.