| I am old enough that there was only one way to go once you hit "team leader" and wanted to earn more -> "management". About 3 years ago I said stuff it, took a pay cut and spent a long and happy time just coding all day. It seems however that no matter which way I turn people will not let me sit in a box and type, I have to help straighten out teams, talk to humans, navigate politics. We use coding as if it was a real job - it is no more a job than writing or literacy. A few privileged, talented people will be paid for their writing skills. the rest will use coding in the same way as literacy, as part of their job 1. You won't ever escape "people management", but that's not a bad thing. People (especially highly skilled professionals) are like autonomous self-guided missiles, you just need to know how to guide them, and let them be guided by you. Start with Google's 8 rules http://www.davidzinger.com/8-google-rules-improving-manageme... Remember - you will not be making the tough decisions - your team / people will. You just get to guide which tough decisions get looked at. 2. Having a "constant flow of new challenges" is all about building and filling a sales pipeline. This is pretty brutal work. There is nothing other than knuckling down, calling people, building audiences, sales sales sales. To me this is the biggest cost of being in business for myself - and I am a long way from having got it right. So the advice I have and am trying to live by is * build an audience on a subject you are good at * build a product related to what you are good at * keep going |