4 ms·

"In the catfish world, code speaks, money changes hands, and friendships are evanescent" :( friendships are important to everyone, this sounds like a really un

by xupybd 9y ago

"In the catfish world, code speaks, money changes hands, and friendships are evanescent" :( friendships are important to everyone, this sounds like a really unhappy way to live.

0xdeadbeefbabe 9y ago
I think the worst part is looking like a catfish.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
sbov 9y ago
I think you're taking it out of context. It's about work friends, not friends in general.
zeamaize 9y ago
At a certain point you get to the post friendship stage of life. :-/
- randallsquared 9y ago
  Well, the "post making-friends stage". Friendships you already have can last a long, long time, and if they don't, you'll definitely enter post-friendship.
esaym 9y ago
Not if you love code. Then code is your friend.
lhnz 9y ago
By the time you reach this point you have long steady relationships and are less fascinated by the churn of strivers looking for that one 'connection' that will make them rich.
- jackgolding 9y ago
  haha i wonder to what extent people in this forum are looking for that 'one connection' (i know i feel like i am a lot)
antihero 9y ago
I would imagine that they have friends outside of their work.
lordnacho 9y ago
I lost a friend through contract programming. I didn't even want to be involved, as I was having a baby around that time, but he was really keen on his startup idea, and knew a sum total of zero programmers. So I passed him on to another friend while keeping an eye on the Slack/GitHub. It started off as a copycat site, so my ex friend basically just asked for that site, with slight modifications. That was easy, so we costed it appropriately. Then of course as the idea ballooned, he wanted all sorts of bells and whistles. On top of it all, he thought he'd manage the coder himself. I told him to read a book about agile, so he could get used to the Trello card approach to managing it. He decided not to. Also there were a million other little pieces of advice that he had his own opinions on. For instance we told him copycatting a design is easy, but we can't do a new design without a designer, and that would cost both onboarding time and money. He went and got a designer anyway. And the guy quit after a week, so a new guy had to be found. In the end we delivered what he'd asked for, but he wasn't satisfied. I told him I was giving him honest advice as a friend, and that he could easily spend another year and another salary on some yesman who would take him for a ride. So he got a yesman who told him we'd really messed it up, it wasn't professional, and so forth. And then he threatened not to pay us, so I had to threaten him with debt collectors. Haven't talked to him since. Site came up eventually, a year and a half after we'd actually built it.
- robmaister 9y ago
  This is why setting up a statement of work contract at the beginning of the project is important. It allows you to defer ballooning ideas off until after the original task is done, and scope it out separately. I say this having done a decent amount of freelancing and making the same mistake myself (of course, after having read/heard this advice multiple times). Working for friends and not treating them exactly like any other client usually ends badly.

by xupybd 9y ago

"In the catfish world, code speaks, money changes hands, and friendships are evanescent" :( friendships are important to everyone, this sounds like a really unhappy way to live.

0xdeadbeefbabe 9y ago

I think the worst part is looking like a catfish.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

sbov 9y ago

I think you're taking it out of context. It's about work friends, not friends in general.

zeamaize 9y ago

At a certain point you get to the post friendship stage of life. :-/

randallsquared 9y ago
Well, the "post making-friends stage". Friendships you already have can last a long, long time, and if they don't, you'll definitely enter post-friendship.

esaym 9y ago

Not if you love code. Then code is your friend.

lhnz 9y ago

By the time you reach this point you have long steady relationships and are less fascinated by the churn of strivers looking for that one 'connection' that will make them rich.

jackgolding 9y ago
haha i wonder to what extent people in this forum are looking for that 'one connection' (i know i feel like i am a lot)

antihero 9y ago

I would imagine that they have friends outside of their work.

lordnacho 9y ago

I lost a friend through contract programming. I didn't even want to be involved, as I was having a baby around that time, but he was really keen on his startup idea, and knew a sum total of zero programmers. So I passed him on to another friend while keeping an eye on the Slack/GitHub. It started off as a copycat site, so my ex friend basically just asked for that site, with slight modifications. That was easy, so we costed it appropriately. Then of course as the idea ballooned, he wanted all sorts of bells and whistles. On top of it all, he thought he'd manage the coder himself. I told him to read a book about agile, so he could get used to the Trello card approach to managing it. He decided not to. Also there were a million other little pieces of advice that he had his own opinions on. For instance we told him copycatting a design is easy, but we can't do a new design without a designer, and that would cost both onboarding time and money. He went and got a designer anyway. And the guy quit after a week, so a new guy had to be found. In the end we delivered what he'd asked for, but he wasn't satisfied. I told him I was giving him honest advice as a friend, and that he could easily spend another year and another salary on some yesman who would take him for a ride. So he got a yesman who told him we'd really messed it up, it wasn't professional, and so forth. And then he threatened not to pay us, so I had to threaten him with debt collectors. Haven't talked to him since. Site came up eventually, a year and a half after we'd actually built it.

robmaister 9y ago
This is why setting up a statement of work contract at the beginning of the project is important. It allows you to defer ballooning ideas off until after the original task is done, and scope it out separately. I say this having done a decent amount of freelancing and making the same mistake myself (of course, after having read/heard this advice multiple times). Working for friends and not treating them exactly like any other client usually ends badly.