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Thanks for sharing that. I am most interested in working with folks where I can make a difference; not just be a coding cog. I'm spoiled. In my open-source work, I've done some fairly significant (but still below-the-radar) stuff, and got used to basic, simple, respect; without people trying to wrestle me into some kind of subservient role. That's not to say that we didn't have disagreements. Quite the opposite, in fact. I've done Service for some of the most disagreeable people that you can imagine, and left them happy and enthused. So I actually looked at a few startups. I have a fairly unique conflux of skills and experience that could make an enormous difference in small teams. What I found, is that they imagine themselves to be "mini-FAANGs," and treat their prospects pretty badly. I know that startups tend to have rather chaotic, personality-laced workplaces (see "working with difficult people," above), but if they can't keep that crap out of their triage interview, then the place, itself, must be a nightmare. I'm working for free, for a friend. I stepped in, because I watched him being set up by contract houses that were obviously going to do very bad work, for lots of money (they barely hid it; I guess because he's non-technical, and doesn't know better). Since he's doing an NPO, and looking at grants for funding, he can't afford that kind of object lesson. Instead, he's getting a platform that would make a lot of "big houses" green with envy. For free. This is something that I have a lot of prior art in. It's already pretty awesome, and I've only been working on it for a month. There's a lot to be said (and gained) by simply treating people with basic respect, and motivating them. The workplace is not the military. If we treat our employees and co-workers badly, they won't stick around. If we treat them well, they could do some pretty amazing stuff. |