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> Asking whether a programmer in Silicon Valley plans to start a company is a bit like asking a waiter in Hollywood about his or her acting ambitions. I wonder

> Asking whether a programmer in Silicon Valley plans to start a company is a bit like asking a waiter in Hollywood about his or her acting ambitions. I wonder if many of these programmers don't really like coding, just like the waiter doesn't really like serving people. Maybe it is just because I live outside the Silicon Valley filter bubble but I have no plans to ever start my own company. I like to architect really nice systems, and turn them into well coded implementations. I don't ever want to have to touch a pitch deck, or deal with investors, or worry about making money, or burn rate. I'll be the first engineer at someone else's startup, but I don't want to be a businessman first, engineer second. To me coding is not a gateway to getting rich by creating the next Facebook/Snapchat clone. Instead coding is the destination, and I'm at that destination, doing the thing that I enjoy every day.

deleted 11y ago
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Mikushi 11y ago
I'm an "engineer", went through Web dev, lead dev, CTO, and now Senior Technical Architect. But I don't like coding much, I'm good at it, but it's nothing more than a mean to an end for me, which is solving problems. Same goes for the business side actually, most of it is pretty boring/unchallenging, but it's a mean to an end, and if I want to meet that end I must do the best I can to be great at all those aspects. Or hire someone that will fill that in for me. But in early stages, I'll give my fullest on all angles.
tajen 11y ago
I confirm. I don't like coding and I'm a founder, 0 employees. When I took my first intern I thought "Thank god I have coded hard in the best environments during my 7 years of career so I still have something to teach him". Former colleagues say envy my position, but since they like coding better, they have a better compensation than I had. Truth is, I sell a very replaceable product, and even though I believe I offer a cute service to customers, I would take no offense if I were told I'm a con artist ;)
jasim 11y ago
"Business can be intellectually fascinating. As I’ve learned with age, new product development, microeconomics and game theory, and interpersonal interactions are just as rich in cognitive nutrition as compiler design or random matrix theory." https://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2014/11/28/on-the-supposed-aversion-of-software-engineers-to-the-business/ https://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2014/11/28/on-the-suppo...

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

Mikushi 11y ago

I'm an "engineer", went through Web dev, lead dev, CTO, and now Senior Technical Architect. But I don't like coding much, I'm good at it, but it's nothing more than a mean to an end for me, which is solving problems. Same goes for the business side actually, most of it is pretty boring/unchallenging, but it's a mean to an end, and if I want to meet that end I must do the best I can to be great at all those aspects. Or hire someone that will fill that in for me. But in early stages, I'll give my fullest on all angles.

tajen 11y ago

I confirm. I don't like coding and I'm a founder, 0 employees. When I took my first intern I thought "Thank god I have coded hard in the best environments during my 7 years of career so I still have something to teach him". Former colleagues say envy my position, but since they like coding better, they have a better compensation than I had. Truth is, I sell a very replaceable product, and even though I believe I offer a cute service to customers, I would take no offense if I were told I'm a con artist ;)

jasim 11y ago

"Business can be intellectually fascinating. As I’ve learned with age, new product development, microeconomics and game theory, and interpersonal interactions are just as rich in cognitive nutrition as compiler design or random matrix theory." https://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2014/11/28/on-the-supposed-aversion-of-software-engineers-to-the-business/ https://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2014/11/28/on-the-suppo...