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I’m about to join a startup. I just want to do meaningful work and learn new things. I view it as a learning experience. I am so fed up with corporation life. I

I’m about to join a startup. I just want to do meaningful work and learn new things. I view it as a learning experience. I am so fed up with corporation life. I don’t see a way out other than joining a startup or starting my own. I don’t want to deal with project managers and fill their spreadsheets anymore. The most valuable thing I have is the remaining time I have in this life. Not the number in my bank account.

jonathanyc 8y ago
> I don’t want to deal with project managers and fill their spreadsheets anymore. Oh boy are you in for a surprise. Whether a company is a startup or not is almost entirely orthogonal to a culture of “filling out spreadsheets.”
hsk0823 8y ago
Careful what you wish for, startups have people who will wear as many different hats as required to make it work. Corporate life may have had a really well defined job role, that may not be true in any startup you join.
- billconan 8y ago
  I think I'm very entrepreneurial. "wear as many different hats as required to make it work", this is basically what I do for my side projects. I write both the web frontend (vue) and backend (in c++), do devops, content marketing, whereas my day job is device driver development.
  - tiuPapa 8y ago
    > Backend in C++ Why? Is that simply because you are more familiar with the language or does the project actually require the raw power of Cpp?
    - billconan 8y ago
      1. manage the cost. I fund my project out of my pocket. knowing how expensive AWS could be (through my day job), I'd keep my code efficient. 2. yes, familiarity.
      - tiuPapa 8y ago
        Cool to know. Do you use any framework for the backend? And if you don't mind what's the project? I am thinking about using Rust for one of my projects but I am still unsure if I should use it instead of something like NodeJs or Python.
x220 8y ago
>The most valuable thing I have is the remaining time I have in this life Then why work for a startup? Most will demand a huge amount of your time compared to other jobs. Why not pick a job which demands a sane amount of your time and spend your free time on relationships and hobbies?
- billconan 8y ago
  the startup is in robotics, highly aligned with my interests.
  - x220 8y ago
    All the startup employees I've talked to work 80 hours a week. Why is robots so important to you that you're willing to accomplish absolutely nothing in at least a few of the important areas of your life such as health and fitness, friendships, romantic relationships, extraneous interests, relaxation, or family?
    - billconan 8y ago
      there are 2 kinds of engineers, one kind sent rockets and recollected them, made robots run and jump. The other kind, shrank blog posts to 140 characters, or added a timeout to short messages, removed the thumb down button, and called them a new feature. Today, we still remember the names of da Vinci, Tesla, Turing, not because they had a successful family ... I just want to keep the dream I had as a kid.
      - dta5003 8y ago
        It's not for everyone, but it sounds like you know what you want, and you are in the position to do it. Go for it!
      - x220 8y ago
        >Today, we still remember the names of So you're living based on how you will be remembered by strangers? That sounds incredibly unfulfilling and doesn't sound like a good way to live. In a few hundred more years almost no one will remember the names of those people either. >da Vinci, Tesla, Turing It's incredibly safe to say that you are not going to be as successful as these people. Almost no one achieves this much success in the sciences. At most you will probably advance your field by a few useful steps and then be personally forgotten about except in research paper footnotes. >not because they had a successful family You know who cares about you and remembers you more significantly than as a research footnote? Your family. >I just want to keep the dream I had as a kid Man, don't we all.
woolvalley 8y ago
I work at a big tech co. I almost never fill out any spreadsheet, use JIRA, use a ticketing system that strongly, worry about 'user stories', have 'hurry up and wait' deadlines and so on. Maybe go to another big co?
- mi100hael 8y ago
  I wouldn't say all of those things are bad things. I'd hope even the smallest of startups is thinking about how users interact with their software and organizing those interactions into some sort of prioritized backlog for development.
  - woolvalley 8y ago
    We definitely have a planning process, I do write things down into design docs, and do keep track of things in some spreadsheets, docs and tickets. But I don't find it an excessive, oppressive or impractical process, which is probably what the parent post is hinting to.
- foobiekr 8y ago
  I would love to know about the list of "good" big companies (and good teams within them). In my direct experience, the big companies are soul crushing and monotonous and one is surrounded by mediocrity.
  - woolvalley 8y ago
    The best way to find out is to go interview at big cos, and ask them about all of your worries about process. One team can have a ton of process, the other can barely have any. It's really mostly a team and department basis thing. In my limited experience in talking with other people, FAANG tends to not have as much process as finance, IBM, insurance or other 'boring big companies'.

jonathanyc 8y ago

> I don’t want to deal with project managers and fill their spreadsheets anymore. Oh boy are you in for a surprise. Whether a company is a startup or not is almost entirely orthogonal to a culture of “filling out spreadsheets.”

hsk0823 8y ago

Careful what you wish for, startups have people who will wear as many different hats as required to make it work. Corporate life may have had a really well defined job role, that may not be true in any startup you join.

billconan 8y ago
I think I'm very entrepreneurial. "wear as many different hats as required to make it work", this is basically what I do for my side projects. I write both the web frontend (vue) and backend (in c++), do devops, content marketing, whereas my day job is device driver development.
- tiuPapa 8y ago
  > Backend in C++ Why? Is that simply because you are more familiar with the language or does the project actually require the raw power of Cpp?
  - billconan 8y ago
    1. manage the cost. I fund my project out of my pocket. knowing how expensive AWS could be (through my day job), I'd keep my code efficient. 2. yes, familiarity.
    - tiuPapa 8y ago
      Cool to know. Do you use any framework for the backend? And if you don't mind what's the project? I am thinking about using Rust for one of my projects but I am still unsure if I should use it instead of something like NodeJs or Python.

x220 8y ago

>The most valuable thing I have is the remaining time I have in this life Then why work for a startup? Most will demand a huge amount of your time compared to other jobs. Why not pick a job which demands a sane amount of your time and spend your free time on relationships and hobbies?

billconan 8y ago
the startup is in robotics, highly aligned with my interests.
- x220 8y ago
  All the startup employees I've talked to work 80 hours a week. Why is robots so important to you that you're willing to accomplish absolutely nothing in at least a few of the important areas of your life such as health and fitness, friendships, romantic relationships, extraneous interests, relaxation, or family?
  - billconan 8y ago
    there are 2 kinds of engineers, one kind sent rockets and recollected them, made robots run and jump. The other kind, shrank blog posts to 140 characters, or added a timeout to short messages, removed the thumb down button, and called them a new feature. Today, we still remember the names of da Vinci, Tesla, Turing, not because they had a successful family ... I just want to keep the dream I had as a kid.
    - dta5003 8y ago
      It's not for everyone, but it sounds like you know what you want, and you are in the position to do it. Go for it!
    - x220 8y ago
      >Today, we still remember the names of So you're living based on how you will be remembered by strangers? That sounds incredibly unfulfilling and doesn't sound like a good way to live. In a few hundred more years almost no one will remember the names of those people either. >da Vinci, Tesla, Turing It's incredibly safe to say that you are not going to be as successful as these people. Almost no one achieves this much success in the sciences. At most you will probably advance your field by a few useful steps and then be personally forgotten about except in research paper footnotes. >not because they had a successful family You know who cares about you and remembers you more significantly than as a research footnote? Your family. >I just want to keep the dream I had as a kid Man, don't we all.

woolvalley 8y ago

I work at a big tech co. I almost never fill out any spreadsheet, use JIRA, use a ticketing system that strongly, worry about 'user stories', have 'hurry up and wait' deadlines and so on. Maybe go to another big co?

mi100hael 8y ago
I wouldn't say all of those things are bad things. I'd hope even the smallest of startups is thinking about how users interact with their software and organizing those interactions into some sort of prioritized backlog for development.
- woolvalley 8y ago
  We definitely have a planning process, I do write things down into design docs, and do keep track of things in some spreadsheets, docs and tickets. But I don't find it an excessive, oppressive or impractical process, which is probably what the parent post is hinting to.
foobiekr 8y ago
I would love to know about the list of "good" big companies (and good teams within them). In my direct experience, the big companies are soul crushing and monotonous and one is surrounded by mediocrity.
- woolvalley 8y ago
  The best way to find out is to go interview at big cos, and ask them about all of your worries about process. One team can have a ton of process, the other can barely have any. It's really mostly a team and department basis thing. In my limited experience in talking with other people, FAANG tends to not have as much process as finance, IBM, insurance or other 'boring big companies'.