My biggest regret as a codenon

In this society, no matter who lives in this world, there will inevitably be some regrets. This article introduces me as a code farmer to the code farmer, the biggest pity, I hope MFA can learn from this. More than 20 years ago, I was at a crossroads in my life. With the end of Deltagraph created by publishing houses (they hope to enter the emerging Internet space) over the past five years, my second company has gradually declined. At that time, I had 13 years of experience as a code farmer and about 9 years of experience in operating a company (at the same time ).

I don't want to assume two more roles. My first company not only created a new spreadsheet program from 1985 to 1987, but we also released it ourselves. I led the company to deal with all the media PR, management investors, and all the common business content. I also worked as one of the three coders and served as a UI designer. After the product was released in early, I was even tired. It is too much pressure to be the owner and the code farmer.

I don't want to assume two more roles. My first company not only created a new spreadsheet program from 1985 to 1987, but we also released it ourselves. I led the company to deal with all the media PR, management investors, and all the common business content. I also worked as one of the three coders and served as a UI designer. After the product was released in early, I was even tired. It is too much pressure to be the owner and the code farmer.

Therefore, based on these experiences, in 1994, I can either enter the technical management field or continue to work as a code farmer. I chose codenong, because I think it is easier. But now I realize that I am really wrong, even though I have worked and delivered many great things in the past 20 years. If I could move to the CTO, CIO, and vice president of engineering at that time, although it was quite fresh at that time, it would be a better plan.

I spent a year in the Gulf region, probably in 1995 and half a year at Apple. When I felt like Apple was about to fall apart, I left and went back to Texas because I didn't want to witness the death of my favorite company. Another big mistake I made.

One year later, not only did Steve Jobs return, but Apple started to get new vigor and vitality, and the Internet explosion occurred. As experienced coders and delivery owners (at that time we were going to build the main disk for nine apps, and there was no need to go into hot fixes, this was really hard at the time.) how I was welcomed at that time can be imagined. Once you have one of these titles, you can only keep moving forward and making progress.

My sister started as a programmer 30 years ago, but was transferred to management in the first year, and has been serving as vice president in a large company for about 15 years. The founder of the travel company I have been working for two or three years hired a CEO who was born as a programmer 15 years ago. Of course, it is not easy to change a job type, but it is a great way to increase salary. My sister's assets are 10 times that of me.

Over the years, I have witnessed how much code farming is ignored, no matter how good you are to make changes or change the destroyed things. I can't see any promotion space as a code farmer (or even an architect). as a pure delivery "machine", you have no access to the power of change to a certain extent. Coupled with economic benefits-more likely for the management to substantially participate in the IPO-and anything else that can be obtained, being a Codoon means that you must be satisfied with the opportunity to build your business (otherwise, it is hard to convince yourself to stay in this industry ).

Over the past five years, I have been working or serving as a consultant to help in some of the worst places-incompetent, incompetent, or out-of-the-box, idiotic, technical management. I will not elaborate on the details.

A candidate for vice president of Bank engineering once said that in management, he does not need to know the technology and can still make technical decisions. The chief information officer of the same company also said that he never believed what any employee told him, but he believed what the supplier said. Of course, we know that he gets kickbacks when we buy something useless and keeps writing articles about how useful these products are to us. However, in fact, we have hardly used these "good" products. After I resigned for a while, he was dismissed. After leaving, I immediately got another similar CIO position.

I thought the worst job I started was really great at first. A start-up has their advantages in the industry-they and their competitors (different benefits) all want to go public and the market is booming. I was hired as the second coders. I have hired another codenon and a manager to create a new and more extensive online store, because the current one is too inflexible and too slow in the big market. The company has no technical leadership, and neither the CEO nor the other two founders have any technical experience or knowledge. The codenon always boast about how wonderful his back-end code is, and his experience will only be unique to him. I have built a front-end clip and put it in the demo. I checked my source code every day. When I thought it was time for integration, I found that the coders did not perform any checks in the next 10 months. When I pointed out this, the manager also said, "because he has already checked for perfection ." No one except me thinks such an idea is foolish. In the next two months, I tried to bring the three founders into people who could actually deliver (I know a few of them), but they were afraid to make any changes, they are also afraid to admit that they have mistakenly hired these two incompetent guys. Finally, I gave up and left.

A year later, because the coders were still useless, the two men were fired together. They tried to hire some consulting companies but still got nothing. It is too late. Because their opponent has become a public company worth billions of dollars, sometimes I can still see their ads on TV. When I see these advertisements, I always have the urge to throw my shoes on the TV. We have everything except the damn online store and the real-world technology leader. If I was a decision-makers rather than a code farmer, I would have used tracking records and influence to do this for a long time. But unfortunately, I am only a programmer.

I can also say that the key here is that unless you have the ability, power, and opportunities, you cannot change the way people do things technically. Once you want to do this, and assume that you find the most suitable direction, the space for growth is still limited.

In early 1987, when I showed our product Trapeze on TV (Computer Chronicles), another host, Mike Slade, was the product manager of Excel. When I was young, I thought he was just a little guy (not afraid of tigers, didn't he ). However, he started many companies including ESPN and held various leadership positions at Apple. he was a good friend of Steve Jobs and founded his own venture capital company.

Today, I am still a programmer. Who are the little people now? I suspect that I will never really retire. Fortunately, I am still good at delivery (I was recruited by one of my former managers to my current position because he knows what I can do ), but I still want to complain about my current situation.

Codoon has been working for nearly 35 years. it is still interesting to do things well and release, and many surprising things can still be done over the years. However, I still have a deep regret for not challenging my leadership position. In some aspects, programming is an easy choice. Apart from the time schedule that I used to take care of the entire Dotcom company, I did not take a step closer. I was very close to leaving without Steve Jobs after returning to Apple's brilliant achievements, I have almost no regrets about my recent leadership experience.

Yes, I regret it. I didn't select another path, I didn't try a new journey, and I don't know what kind of high point it would bring me, although this will lead me to miss the fun of coding and the effort-often because you cannot really solve any problem.

I came to a fork in the road and chose the road with fewer people. It is not until now that I understand my regrets.