3 ms·

"Beware of doing good things at work" You do have the option of becoming self employed. If you do, then you might discover a very different perspective. I've

"Beware of doing good things at work" You do have the option of becoming self employed. If you do, then you might discover a very different perspective. I've been doing it for 23 years now, with two partners and around 20 odd employees. IT company, you wont have heard of us but you will know some of our customers. I'm still sort of working now (its ~0030 here) keeping an ear to the ground - HN, r/sysadmin (int al), The Register and a few others are some of my canaries. I listen to their songs. I also have a BirdNetPi doing the same for actual birds too. If my company cocks up it will probably be fatal. I/we don't get the luxury of blaming someone else and I certainly don't get to mumble some sort of bollocks about "Your x is very important to us, soz we failed, lol and that - here have some free credit rating checker thingie". Why not try running a small company and living on your own wits with no mother to land on - you are mother!

johnnyanmac 3y ago
one day, maybe. Today, I personally lack the savings buffer nor desirable kinds of skills to pull it off properly. Wasn't born with a silver spoon, so I guess I gotta pay my dues. Even then, my kind of self work is just as unstable as my industry. I may in fact be good at it and still fail.
- rpmisms 3y ago
  You're probably just unhappy with what you do and don't realize it. I am on my journey out of exactly what you're describing, and it came down to me realizing that I'd rather make less and solve real problems, instead of being an overpaid Copilot operator.
  - johnnyanmac 3y ago
    I'm a bit angry at the current market, but I like the work I do. And sadly, I'm far from overpaid (you can probably guess my industry in 1-2 guesses now. Not like I keep it secret on this profile to begin with). I really do want to do my own work without being binded to corporate whiplash, but I still have a mortgage and car to pay off. And I need to rebuild my 6 months savings after the current year of layoff. I'm going to start laying down the foundations on the side next year, but I see at least 5 more years before I can even consider jumping off.
    - rpmisms 3y ago
      Aw man, gamedev is rough. That's a bad spot to be in today's market. I'm primarily frontend, but now work as solo eng for a sizeable nonprofit. So much better, I'd say 30% of my work is code and the rest is people work. Absolutely fantastic balance. There's always career direction change. Lots of folks are eager to hire gamedevs, because they work hard and think different. Not sure if that's something you want, but perpetual burnout is never worth it.

johnnyanmac 3y ago

one day, maybe. Today, I personally lack the savings buffer nor desirable kinds of skills to pull it off properly. Wasn't born with a silver spoon, so I guess I gotta pay my dues. Even then, my kind of self work is just as unstable as my industry. I may in fact be good at it and still fail.

rpmisms 3y ago
You're probably just unhappy with what you do and don't realize it. I am on my journey out of exactly what you're describing, and it came down to me realizing that I'd rather make less and solve real problems, instead of being an overpaid Copilot operator.
- johnnyanmac 3y ago
  I'm a bit angry at the current market, but I like the work I do. And sadly, I'm far from overpaid (you can probably guess my industry in 1-2 guesses now. Not like I keep it secret on this profile to begin with). I really do want to do my own work without being binded to corporate whiplash, but I still have a mortgage and car to pay off. And I need to rebuild my 6 months savings after the current year of layoff. I'm going to start laying down the foundations on the side next year, but I see at least 5 more years before I can even consider jumping off.
  - rpmisms 3y ago
    Aw man, gamedev is rough. That's a bad spot to be in today's market. I'm primarily frontend, but now work as solo eng for a sizeable nonprofit. So much better, I'd say 30% of my work is code and the rest is people work. Absolutely fantastic balance. There's always career direction change. Lots of folks are eager to hire gamedevs, because they work hard and think different. Not sure if that's something you want, but perpetual burnout is never worth it.