Joined 13 years ago
I moved to London some years back, and was pleasantly surprised by the vibrant cinema scene, that seems to be in a steep decline in so many places. On any day of the week, one can find independent films, old and new classics, Q&A's with filmmakers etc. playing in one of the many theaters across the city. Staying on top of it all is a chore though, and I found myself missing out on screenings regularly, because I didn't check that one cinema's website on time.
This is also my first time building and releasing an independent app. The journey from research, backend development and learning SwiftUI has been a trip. Released on TestFlight a couple of weeks ago.
Location: London, UK
Remote: Yes
Willing to relocate: No (possibly at a later date)
Technologies: Python, JavaScript, Node.js, Swift, C#, Linux, Docker, Git, AWS, Google Cloud, PostgreSQL, React
Resume: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martin-raag-391a2430/
Email: martin.raag[at]gmail.com
Ideally, I’m looking to join a committed team working on interesting challenges full time, but am also open to consulting opportunities.
He argues that anyones decisions are a direct result of the physical structure of their respective brain, which in turn is moulded by their genes and experience so far, rather than a by an unexplainable free will.
The book made me reconsider how people treat each other because of their beliefs and actions - from harbouring negative feelings towards somebody due to their opinions to locking up people for committing crimes.
At the very least it has helped me in personal relationships and encouraged me to try to understand where another persons opposing viewpoint is coming from rather than feel negativity or superiority towards them because I feel they are wrong.
IMO you don't have to, or rather shouldn't, close the sale when first reaching out to potential customers like this. The goal should be to simply validate the problem statement - if that's done with enough potential customers you should move on to the next part of planning and building the initial implementation.
To your point, new information might still surface at this point, which could lead to the project being dropped. Having not sold (promised a solution) to anyone at this point, the likelihood of unhappy clients is rather low.
All that said, I think calling this initial work "sales" might give the wrong impression here, as I would categorise it more as market research. Whoever is carrying this work out should be very aware of this and not actually close the sale on something they are uncertain can be delivered in a profitable manner.
Now I have shortcuts to my most used apps on the left, a Now Playing display connected to Spotify in the middle and audio controls (including a volume slider that you don't have to expand first to use) on the right.
This setup is always displayed, regardless of the app currently on the foreground. This means the controls are once again in a predictable place for my fingers and has made using the touch bar a much more pleasant experience.
In fact, it took me another couple of years, and witnessing that the grass is no greener in the startup world, to finally come to this conclusion.
Even though I have come to terms with this, I have not really been able to completely adapt yet. Which is why, again much like the author, I have currently landed on working for myself. I do miss working on more ambitious projects with bigger teams, that a job like that enables, but for now, I have no interest in playing the game to achieve my career goals.
I too would be interested in knowing if that has actually worked out for anyone long term.
I too was hoping for a senior level promotion. The last project I worked on, I was the only non-senior level developer in a team of 5. I went out of my way to ensure we released a well designed, built and tested system on time. At times I felt like I was committing more to the project than any of my more senior comrades. Come release time, I even saw one of the design decisions I had insisted on save us from down-time. All of this I was sure would lead me to the desired promotion.
Come performance review time, I was rated at the top performance tier, as I had the past couple of years. Unfortunately however, I was informed not enough time had passed since my last level increase, but I was sure to get it if I kept it up for another 1-2 years.
It's hard to describe the feeling of defeat I felt at that point. I resigned and left within the next few months. What I found most off putting, was when meeting my skip-manager (your managers manager) for the first time during my exit interview, all doors for a senior level promotion were suddenly open, to incentivise me to stay. Doesn't feel great when negotiations with your employer are comparable to those had with your cable provider.