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Ask HN: Do you prefer working as a solo developer or as part of a team?
Obviously there's a limit to what a single person can build. But do you prefer working solo, perhaps as a freelancer, or as part of a team were tasks are delegated?
- bhu1st 2y agoThe teams I worked with in the past (even a Bay Area startup) never felt like a A-team. Over the last few years, I've developed a preference for Indie work and loving it.
- purple-leafy 2y ago100% solo, I get much more done, to a much higher quality, much faster
- bloomingkales 2y agoSolo is my default mode, so I don’t really see it as a preference. If there’s no one else, I’ll do it solo. In my past I’ve had a very enjoyable experience in a complimentary duo team. In my actual career, I was always on reasonably big teams and never preferred it. I often felt like my past team (just me and some other person) could have done what many companies do with full teams. Not to sound so arrogant, but a lot of features go through product/design/dev/qa and really me and another dude used to knock stuff like this out without even using project management software. Crazy how much we got done just going back and forth in chat. That’s been my general feeling in the industry. I just never really got why there’s so many other people at software companies (shrugs).
- chistev 2y agoI feel you.
- panchhhh 2y agoI learned a ton from my early days in teams, but I've grown to prefer working solo - feels more liberating without all the meetings and red tape.
- panchhhh 2y agosolo all the way for me. Too many meetings just kills my flow
- herbst 2y agoSolo. And definitely not as freelancer that rather feels like having a part time boss.
- babyent 2y agoBoth but I like to be the one delegating and leading.
- HumanifyAI 2y agoBoth have their merits, but I've found team environments generally better for growth - you learn from others' expertise and code reviews. Solo work offers more autonomy, but you miss out on knowledge sharing and can develop blind spots in your technical practices. The ideal might be alternating between both throughout your career.
- marvin-hansen 2y agoSolo. It wasn't much of an option early on in my career but now as I went full Indy two years ago, I'm not going back. I think the recent advancement in Ai coding assistance really has changed the game what an individual can do. Just wrote about the topic recently. https://neoexogenesis.com/posts/rust-windsurf-transformation/ https://neoexogenesis.com/posts/rust-windsurf-transformation...
- chistev 2y agoBookmarked to read later.
- subeadia 2y agoObservation: If your blog post starts with a clearly AI-generated abstract, why would I be motivated to read the rest of it? It's unfortunately indistinguishable from AI slop.
- philomath_mn 2y ago> delves Dead giveaway :D
- bdangubic 2y agoif that was the only one … :)
- austin-cheney 2y agoIt depends entirely upon the team. When I was writing JavaScript for a living I preferred to go solo but in absolutely every other work experience I preferred to be part of a team. There was too much insecurity in corporate JavaScript about writing original logic, so being a team player meant doing the same stupid color by numbers nonsense as other people on the team and keeping your mouth shut.
- codingdave 2y agoWhat about a team of independent devs? Where each have their area of ownership, so can operate autonomously, but they come together for big picture planning and coordination if they need help on a large effort? I've worked that way in both SaaS and Enterprise environments, and it was the most enjoyable type of team setup across my entire career.
- bloomingkales 2y agoThat’s basically ideal. I hate when companies over staff and it becomes like a clusterfuck of developers of the same type that literally break up a task like vultures trying “share” a paltry piece of meat. Ownership in these companies become “Joe owns the one line sql change, and Mary owns updating the config file”. It’s the most soulless shit ever.
- Mystic_09 2y agoAs an experienced one, I will definitely go for a solo, as you have more chances to explore and learn new things, I was working along a team just 12 weeks ago, and from than I have been a whole different developer.
- nejsjsjsbsb 2y agoAs a team. As long as the team is high functioning and pleasant.
- uncomplexity_ 2y agoreally depends on who am i working with, but im fine with teams.
- not_your_vase 2y agoIn my life, I have worked only once in a competent team. It was great - people actually knew their stuff. But that was a one a off. In literally every other team I have exclusively worked with incompetent people, who were only detrimental to the project and to my mental state also. Due to this, I prefer to go solo whenever I can.
- gaws 2y ago> In literally every other team I have exclusively worked with incompetent people What made them incompetent?
- not_your_vase 2y agoJust to mention a few: Not knowing how to use their tools. Now knowing how to read the diagnostic/error messages they received. Not knowing how (and refusing to) to learn new things. Not understanding and/or not caring about the product they were working on, and thus adding bad changes to it. Very frequently one person can bear multiple of these properties. If none of this is familiar to you, then just wait, and you will see how extremely lucky you are...
- jf22 2y agoI've heard this sentiment from people on every team I've worked with, sometimes multiple people on the same team. Everyone thinks they're an above average driver...
- Clyd3Radcliff3 2y agoI like to be solo sometimes but most of the time i do prefer working in teams. Working in teams (regardless of the level of each individual) is the best way to grow up as an engineer/whatever, you can learn from more talented one as you can learn from junior by guiding them, also considering that confronting with other help you to watch at things in a different way.
- solardev 2y agoI love love love working in teams, as long as it's not micromanaged and Agiled to death. Being able to work with people of different skill levels, both learning from them and tutoring them, is amazing for professional growth. I also love hanging out with them outside of work. But I'm probably more social and extraverted than most devs. I get lonely if left alone for more than a few days.
- dakiol 2y agoIn general I like to work with other fellow programmers. What I dislike are product managers and engineering managers (because all the Agile/Jira/Scrum/performance that comes with them)
- bravetraveler 2y agoNot a proper developer, but I prefer to do SRE work on my own where possible. Unfortunately, done well, it tends to share common ground with pretty much the entire organization. Some reprieve is found with the little development work this role offers I appreciate well-run teams, endure the rest. Truly enjoy working alone. It's less about the people. After seeing how the sausage is made, I just want to get paid until I can retire. Disillusioned, to put it nicely.
- jjice 2y agoFully solo can be a lot of fun sometimes, but a good team that complements each other makes the days so much more enjoyable. I've worked on many projects where I could almost completely ignore our front end because we had great front end engineers that loved doing that part. A good team that fills the gaps you don't enjoy or know and vice versa is a wonderful time.