Ideally I am making something beautiful. This means languages and tools that are well designed and easy to use, enough time to make the program beautiful, and l

Ideally I am making something beautiful. This means languages and tools that are well designed and easy to use, enough time to make the program beautiful, and little or no bureaucratic paperwork to suck away energy. It is required that I make something I believe in, that I think is actually helping people. Note that this can be different from making something that people ask for or something that tickles their fancy in the short term but causes damage in some way long term. I would like to be paid the industry average for what I do. If I am paid a lot less, it had better be because I work for a nonprofit or something (see above about helping people). It's also dangerous to be paid a lot more than average, because I don't want to be a target for layoffs. I work with a laptop in my lap. I am low maintenance. I don't really want free soda, ping pong tables, company picnics, free tickets to the game. I just want a company network that doesn't flake out, high-quality open-source software wherever possible, and minimal management.