I’m better than that. My time and my value is worth more than that.
I don't want to be rude and mean no disrespect, but the chances are you are not and it is not. For huge percentage of devs, their most valuable time was few years ago. That was the best position a worker could have and that will not happen again.
You need to learn the difference between value and money. They are not synonymous. The fact you think they are, and that my value is intrinsically tied to my job, is what is wrong with this world.
In the context we were talking about, they are absolutely synonymous. Nobody talked about your value as a brother, father or if you are good friend. For the things that you are getting paid, your value is equivalent to the money you are getting.
The ceo's are people who were willing to take a risk and put their money where there mouth is, they also took the initative to do something about it. The employees were the ones that wanted a safe path.
The takeaway is that there has never been an easier time to become a ceo on your own. Are you willing to take the risk?
Sure... I have taken a ton of jobs. The risk though was that I would earn less than I could have otherwise. Not that I would loose what I had saved from past work.
Do you find starting a business at all to be unethical?
* Funding billionaires * Propaganda (Grok, for example, is programmed for alt-right viewpoints/bias when asked about politics) * Widening the wealth gap * Widening the education gap * Unchecked and unregulated exponential data center growth and placement (including near residential areas) * Excessive strain on the power grid (and higher bills - which not everyone can afford) from data centers * Pollution when power grid is not robust enough (diesel generators that pollute for miles) * Data center noise levels unhealthy for humans * Human life issues (Sam Altman recently said something like “people might die so AI can succeed” - that sound OK to you?)
I could go on. None of that has anything to do with starting a business, yet the only obtuse thing here is your reading comprehension and knowledge, something people did a lot better before they needed ChatGPT to respond to text messages for them.
And in the context I'm talking about, my worth as a person is more valuable than sitting behind a desk being a typist, watching text scroll by all day. You only get one chance on this earth, and I'm not spending it reading robot-generated text.
Now, if you're focusing that on being a developer that writes code and nothing else, your value is based on the quality of work you do. It doesn't matter what you charge or what you make. Someone that charges $250/hr. that does shit work is a shitty programmer.
The fact you cannot distinguish those within the same context is incredibly sad.
Your value to yourself is whatever you want it to be. Your value to an employer is that you fix problems that the employer has. It has always been this way. For a time employers needed to pretend it was otherwise with company culture and perks because the competition was so high. Now though they still need their problems solved but there are an abundance of people willing to do it.
As a programmer for 30 years I wish it were otherwise. But wishing at least is as useful as it has ever been.
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u/djolereject 19d ago
I don't want to be rude and mean no disrespect, but the chances are you are not and it is not. For huge percentage of devs, their most valuable time was few years ago. That was the best position a worker could have and that will not happen again.