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Have you tried Meetups? If you are in a reasonably sized city, Meetups can be great (and free) to talk to linkminded devs using the same technologies, making co

Have you tried Meetups? If you are in a reasonably sized city, Meetups can be great (and free) to talk to linkminded devs using the same technologies, making contacts and maybe even finding business partners.

abalashov 8y ago
I spent most of the last ten years in Atlanta and tried the full gamut of coworking, Meetup and networking options, which are extensive. But it’s very much as jwr said - very few of those people are truly flying by today’s bank balance, bootstrapped in the most literal (and perilous) sense possible, so nobody really understands where you are and presumes you have time for the same BS people with some kind of funding or employment do. Plus, being in an obscure niche means nobody understands what you do, or much cares. Telephony ain’t sexy, and most specialised things that cater to very particular intra-industrial needs aren’t either. There is a small coterie of people in ATL with whom I can have fulfilling conversations about VoIP, and many of them are among my customers already. The chances of that happening at a generic business networking event are substantially zero. So it’s not that one has literally nobody to talk to, anywhere. There just isn’t much of a support system given these two factors. It’s very rarefied, and one must develop a high tolerance for toiling in obscurity and the loneliness that comes with. Some developer types don’t mind that, I gather, but if you’re used to and generally enjoy working with humans, it’s really tough sometimes.
- jwr 8y ago
  Exactly. Even in technology circles people will not necessarily understand the compromises you have to make as a self-funded entrepreneur. To take an example, there is often a way of building things that is understood to be the "correct" way. Comprehensive tests, continuous integration, container orchestration, there could be many examples. What people do not understand is that a self-funded solo entrepreneur has to compromise all the time, being desperately short on time and money. So yeah, some tests, very limited CI, and scripts that start docker containers, for now, until there is time to do more, because time is so short. Talking about this openly always raises eyebrows. What few people understand is that a solo self-funded developer is not supposed to get tech things "right". That is a good way to run the business into the ground. Instead, the goal is to optimize cash flow by carefully balancing your time investment between technology and marketing.
  - abalashov 8y ago
    Or people don't understand why you build things "right" anyway and are always broke. ;-) But yeah, I agree. So much advice out and Best Practices out there that only work if you've got a 10-person org and plenty of time to spare, as well as a clear ROI for gold-plating.
  - ryanwaggoner 8y ago
    Few of my projects have ever had any tests. And none of the even remotely successful ones have. Luxury I just can't afford. The work I do for clients is always much higher quality from a purely technical perspective, but when you're solo and working on side projects, you optimize for a completely different set of variables (or fail).
    - abalashov 8y ago
      Interesting. For me it's the opposite. I'm not saying I do sloppy work for clients, but the gold-plating really happens on the product side. For consulting projects the decisions are usually more pragmatic and get-it-done oriented.
      - ryanwaggoner 8y ago
        I used to be more like this. To a fault. Being a perfectionist and having no accountability and unbounded time to tinker on a side project and not release it or charge for it or market it is a recipe for disaster in my case. So now I try to do the shittiest first version that I can live with, and then revise as I go. It’s painful and stressful, but the money the projects make really helps :)

abalashov 8y ago

I spent most of the last ten years in Atlanta and tried the full gamut of coworking, Meetup and networking options, which are extensive. But it’s very much as jwr said - very few of those people are truly flying by today’s bank balance, bootstrapped in the most literal (and perilous) sense possible, so nobody really understands where you are and presumes you have time for the same BS people with some kind of funding or employment do. Plus, being in an obscure niche means nobody understands what you do, or much cares. Telephony ain’t sexy, and most specialised things that cater to very particular intra-industrial needs aren’t either. There is a small coterie of people in ATL with whom I can have fulfilling conversations about VoIP, and many of them are among my customers already. The chances of that happening at a generic business networking event are substantially zero. So it’s not that one has literally nobody to talk to, anywhere. There just isn’t much of a support system given these two factors. It’s very rarefied, and one must develop a high tolerance for toiling in obscurity and the loneliness that comes with. Some developer types don’t mind that, I gather, but if you’re used to and generally enjoy working with humans, it’s really tough sometimes.

jwr 8y ago
Exactly. Even in technology circles people will not necessarily understand the compromises you have to make as a self-funded entrepreneur. To take an example, there is often a way of building things that is understood to be the "correct" way. Comprehensive tests, continuous integration, container orchestration, there could be many examples. What people do not understand is that a self-funded solo entrepreneur has to compromise all the time, being desperately short on time and money. So yeah, some tests, very limited CI, and scripts that start docker containers, for now, until there is time to do more, because time is so short. Talking about this openly always raises eyebrows. What few people understand is that a solo self-funded developer is not supposed to get tech things "right". That is a good way to run the business into the ground. Instead, the goal is to optimize cash flow by carefully balancing your time investment between technology and marketing.
- abalashov 8y ago
  Or people don't understand why you build things "right" anyway and are always broke. ;-) But yeah, I agree. So much advice out and Best Practices out there that only work if you've got a 10-person org and plenty of time to spare, as well as a clear ROI for gold-plating.
- ryanwaggoner 8y ago
  Few of my projects have ever had any tests. And none of the even remotely successful ones have. Luxury I just can't afford. The work I do for clients is always much higher quality from a purely technical perspective, but when you're solo and working on side projects, you optimize for a completely different set of variables (or fail).
  - abalashov 8y ago
    Interesting. For me it's the opposite. I'm not saying I do sloppy work for clients, but the gold-plating really happens on the product side. For consulting projects the decisions are usually more pragmatic and get-it-done oriented.
    - ryanwaggoner 8y ago
      I used to be more like this. To a fault. Being a perfectionist and having no accountability and unbounded time to tinker on a side project and not release it or charge for it or market it is a recipe for disaster in my case. So now I try to do the shittiest first version that I can live with, and then revise as I go. It’s painful and stressful, but the money the projects make really helps :)