The very best developers tend not to go mercenary. They tend to stay missionary and work at big corps that can do things small ones can't.
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And others sometimes choose to stay because they want to work with the A+ missionaries. Efficiencer work is not as satisfying a big mission
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100% agree. Also most efficiencer type work is pretty boring/easy if you're a great developer.
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Is there seriously no ambitious original work done by freelance software devs? Most ambitious writing is done by free agents
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no sure, it definitely happens. Just ambitious software work generally requires considerable funding so generally happens at large companies
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Ambitious software (barring exceptions like bitcoin) need vast datasets, cloud-scale compute ($$$), PhD colleagues versed in esoterica etc.
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The analogy to writing is false. Software is fundamentally a systems-and-teams sport. A better analogy is to legal institutions
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Google's search infrastructure is more like the knowledge base represented in US judicial system case law than like a novel.
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but yeah, great software is a few original ideas combined with an enormous heap of "case law" aka bug fixes, UX tweaks, etc.
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My point is, only a fraction of seriously ambitious software can be pursued by individuals or small startup teams.
I'm enjoying reading through this thread. Off the cuff, I think I'd like to see a new career trajectory of mercenary->f-u money->missionary.
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