| A couple things I have learned from burn out: * Software, isn’t a profession. A profession is more than just employment. It’s a set of minimal agreed ethical standards that governs conduct, output, and relationships. Education, medicine, the law, the military, and most every industry has this. Software does not have this, so other developers critical of your anti-populist approaches to better performance and lower costs can go fuck themselves. * The primary goal of software is hiring and employment. If you are an experienced developer who ships completed products then build for yourself first. All be your first client/customer and realize other potential clients/customers are likely not shitty developers whose only concern fear of writing original code. * Jobs will come and go. Always have a back up plan, both financially and professionally. I have been doing this long enough that my retirement accounts are worth more than I am in every other regard, which is safety net. I also have back up employment with a part time job that is worth as much as being an experienced software team lead. * I love sharing and writing open source, but many people who write software just expect you to give them all the answers. It feels like there are now people who can build anything and there are people who barely open a code editor without crying. People who cannot receive guidance without first crying about why you didn’t do all the work for them or simply give them all the answers should just be ignored. * There are great leaders in software, but they seem exceedingly rare. Don’t be hurt when insecure people intentionally destroy your employment. Consider it the expectation of doing this work for a living. |