I’m Not In It For The Money
Posted by Davy Brion on December 14th, 2009
Some people frequently ask me why i spend so much time working for free outside of my job. Other people frequently ask me why i don’t go to work for a bigger company because “they pay better”. The title of this post is the answer to both questions. I don’t really think money is all that important in my life right now. I’m not rich or anything, and i don’t make huge amounts of money. I do make enough to live comfortably, right now. As long as i can live comfortably, i don’t really feel the need or urge to make more money or to “better myself” as the recruiters like to call it. What is far more important to me is what i get to do, instead of how much i get for doing it. If i have the choice between a high paying job which would increase the number of unwanted situations i have to deal with, or a lower paying job which would enable me to work on interesting things, then i wouldn’t even consider it a choice right now. I’d go for the most interesting one without a doubt, provided of course, that i can resume living comfortably.
I often cringe when i see people leaving a good job (or turning it down) just because they can make a bit more somewhere else. They never seem to realize that more money often means a lot more crap you have to deal with or put up with. Want to work for a big company that offers big paychecks? Fine, go ahead, but don’t expect it to be a wonderful ride. There’s a reason why those companies have a lot of money, and it’s because everything is about the money. You hate the fact that you have to do something that you’re not comfortable with? Too bad, suck it up and do it because that’s how the company gets paid. Granted, every job has moments and situations like that but it’s all about how frequently they occur. And those kinds of situations and moments are just a natural side effect of working for a large company. In those places, people are typically there for the job security, the money or the status. It invariably leads to an environment where the actual quality of the work is never someone’s primary focus. Well, at least not somebody important enough to actually make a difference, that is. I’ve worked in an environment like that, and i would never want go back to something like that. I get miserable when i have to be in an environment like that for more than a short while, so what good will that extra money be for me then? Not a whole lot.
As for working for free outside of my job, it’s pretty much the same thing. I could start working on some commercial products which i could sell, but that isn’t always a lot of fun either. You’d have to spend a lot of time polishing things and that’s almost always boring, frustrating work. Not exactly what i’d want to do at night or during my weekends. You’d also have to deal with issues that customers of your software have, and that can be a very annoying and frustrating experience as well. But you’d have to do it and you’d have to do a good job of it no matter how little you feel like doing it at that time because hey, it’s a paying customer. It also increases your no-fun-workload because you have to deal with some legal issues when you’re releasing commercial software. Are you sure you can sell your software without getting raped by the financial authorities in the country you live in? Are you sure you can’t get sued for your software in some way? If you want to deal with all of that, go ahead. I won’t.
Instead, outside of work i prefer to work on whatever i want to work on, whenever i want to work. If i feel like writing some blog posts, i’ll write some blog posts. If i feel like writing some code, i’ll write some code. If i don’t feel like working, there is no pressure whatsoever for me to do anything. I’m pretty much fully in charge of what i do and when i do it. I get to learn from what i do, and i get to help other people who also want to learn. All of that is worth a lot more to me than making some extra money.
December 14th, 2009 at 8:26 pm
Couldn’t have worded it better myself, I only wish more people in this field had a similar mindset.
December 14th, 2009 at 9:11 pm
I’ve got a little more pragmatic view that I hope in no way discounts your meaning, but before I get to that… My name on most sites is “YankeeImperialistDog” this is fun self mockery of my USA citizenship. Calling someone a dog in some cultures is the worst offence and my user name was used very often as an insult. I’ll not argue politics, but I have to say I do take great exception to cultures that consider dogs the lowest form of life. I’ll take any dog over most people I know. As an American, well, that just suggests money, money, money. It’s often true I’ll not argue that! In truth I often say I’m a pure communist at heart. I give my knowledge whenever I can. My offerings are quite humble compared to what I’ve seen on your blog, but I would like to think we are of the same spirit. My emails often end with “Share the Knowledge, I want all the help I can get and I hope you do too!”
I really appreciate people like you who offer knowledge freely. When I have it I like to do the same. The flip side is the part a lot of people don’t get, the more people know how to do what you do the easier it gets to branch out and do something new. Job security based on hording your knowledge is death sentence to your creativity! I see it a lot. That and co-workers who feel threatened by another so they spend more time trying to shore up their place rather than making the whole greater than the sum of its parts. I’ve had my frank honesty used against me once or twice. If I don’t know something I say so, but it doesn’t mean I can’t learn it. I figure the sooner I admit that the sooner that changes.
Now the pragmatic part, if a company is not making money it really can’t survive. I doubt you’ll disagree. There has to be some consideration for things that will keep the lights on. I need to temper that with the realities of our own venture EverybodySafe.com. I wish a year ago I knew what I do now thanks to people like you and I’m rewriting it. In the spirit you wrote about we’ve all put our careers on hold for about 2 years now, because we believe in this. Were it not for people like you it might not have happened. We could never have afforded to pay you for what you freely made available. We could use a little capital, but our hearts are in this project. It’s what we want to do.
Thanks.
December 14th, 2009 at 9:43 pm
I’m on a roll I guess. I hope you don’t mind. It’s on the subject of giving credit where it due. Nothing encourages a junior developer more than when you publicly admit they showed you something you did not know. The best case is when you admit it publicly to your boss. It needs to be true, and not an empty embellishment, but it will encourage a greater sense of discovery and the importance of sharing. It encourages a worker more than money or an empty title. Likewise nothing discourages a junior developer more than discounting their discovery simply because you already knew about whatever it was they found.
December 14th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
Well, …
.
I do agree with most of the post, and having worked at the office you’re working right now, I’d say it’s a pretty interesting company, that likes to keep up a rarely seen high standard of code quality.
And I definitely agree that more money does not equal ‘bettering one’s self’.
But there’s just one thing :
There’s a reason why those companies have a lot of money, and it’s because everything is about the money.
… it’s always about the money.
People have to get paid. The definition of a company is that it’s about the money. However idealistic the people in charge, the prime directive is always : ‘Make a profit’.
I think that your company has realized (and quite soon, compared to a lot of other companies) that producing high quality code is in the long run just more economically viable than going for the quick buck. They’ve decided to invest in people because that’s what IT-shops should invest in. It’s their only capital. And even though I have personal issues with some (well just the one really) people in charge in your company, I don’t doubt the idealism with which the company was founded.
Just as the fall-out from 9/11 weeded out a lot of IT-companies that were just acting as middleman, selling contracts instead of knowledge, the current financial crisis has allready had a serious impact on IT-shops with a similar short-term vision. Eventually we’ll end up with a healthy bussiness, although I personally think a social bloodbath and a serious reorganization of our society looks inevitable, bit of a communist at heart aswell I suppose.
I guess I’m just too much of a bittered paranoid cynic.
A related example :
I used to rely solely on my income as a musician and have quit more than one band right before it hit the ‘slightly-bigger-than-totally-unnoticed’-time for the same reasons mentioned here, but try living in a squat amongst a bunch of homeless junkies for a while, same politics, … it’s always about the money.
Being able to live comfortably just makes one able to ignore this fact, which is probably why I’m a developer right now
December 14th, 2009 at 10:19 pm
of course every company exists to make a profit… the question is: how much are you willing to maximize it, while fully realizing at what expense you’re doing so
December 15th, 2009 at 7:15 am
I don’t completely buy your view but really appreciate your intention and the spirit.
BIG companies = BIG paychecks = MORE craps. Well, not necessarily its true always. Think about Google, Microsoft, Apple and ThoughtWorks.
One open question – why don’t you follow Ayende model then – a good balance of $$ and interests.
December 15th, 2009 at 7:51 am
@Dhananjay
i wouldn’t assume that working for google, microsoft, apple or thoughtworks is all great… i’ve heard a lot of bad stuff about working for either one of those, with Google being the one you hear the least negativity about
as for following the ayende model… i’m pretty happy with the way things are right now, so why change a good thing? also, his model includes releasing commercial software, and as i mentioned i’m not really interested in that
December 15th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
Right on Davy. I’m mostly of the same mind: it’s about the continuing education, trying new ideas and taking on new challenges. The money aspect is a necessary evil, as money makes the world go round. I’d happily work for a lower pay rate – as long as it was at least enough to get by on – if it meant I could continue self-development on the job.