Who else is digging for freedom?

I am writing a free app which i hope will be bought over by some company some day.....

I want to be free from this damned job of programming. My current work requires me only 2-3 hours of work. So i spend a lot of time - evenings, weekends and late nights working on my application and slowly digging my way out of prison. Brick by brick. Layer by Layer.

I have been digging for around 3 years serious now. And the first release is also out. But no one is interested yet. But i hope they will be because i am porting it to Linux and my app will be one of the very few cross platform applications available.

Who else is digging like me?. Share your experiences please...

The Digger
Saturday, April 3, 2004

I hate to be the voice of pessimism, but I'm not so sure that writing software is a good way to get out of a programming job. If you want out, have you considered for example becoming a bartender? Even if you're not successful, there's a lot of liquer involved in that one...

Mike Swieton
Saturday, April 3, 2004

I found this article helpful: "Hackers and Painters" http://www.paulgraham.com/hp.html

"I think the answer to this problem, in the case of software, is a concept known to nearly all makers: the day job. This phrase began with musicians, who perform at night. More generally, it means that you have one kind of work you do for money, and another for love.

Nearly all makers have day jobs early in their careers. Painters and writers notoriously do. If you're lucky you can get a day job that's closely related to your real work. Musicians often seem to work in record stores. A hacker working on some programming language or operating system might likewise be able to get a day job using it. [1]"

Matthew Lock
Saturday, April 3, 2004

You have a (presumably well-paying) job that requires only 2-3 hours of work a day, and you're whining about how your work is a "prison"? Jeez, man!
  I don't know your situation--maybe the work you're doing is indeed dull, but every job in every field has occasional dull parts. It sounds like you've got life better than 95% of workers, so why the heck are you whining? Show some perspective, man!

Sexist
Saturday, April 3, 2004

"My current work requires me only 2-3 hours of work. So i spend a lot of time - evenings, weekends and late nights working on my application and slowly digging my way out of prison."

As opposed to showing some initiative on your part and asking for more responsibility?

The Contrarian
Saturday, April 3, 2004

Been listening to "The Wall" lately?

Cosmo Kramer
Saturday, April 3, 2004

As Mike mention, it does seem a tad illogical that you're breaking free of programming...by programming. If you really hate it so much, take up some other endeaver unrelated to software development.

.
Saturday, April 3, 2004

Yes, I am digging for freedom, too.  I can't speak for the OP, but the reason I am doing it is because the work environment in the corporate cube farm, and the corporate politics, and the 1.5 hours wasted every day driving, and the crappy fact that no matter how good of a job I do some VP will get all the credit, etc. etc.  That is what sucks.

To me, I like most of the work I do.  I like the people I work with directly.  I just want to have the freedom to on things I want to work on.  I am very lucky now, though.  I am working on a service, not a product, and a service that has a ripe market.  Not only that, but a business model that our target market would be insane to pass up.  The current proforma estimates I will be "free" in about two months.  If it falls through, the experience has been very valuable anyway.

Slicky
Sunday, April 4, 2004

Just finished watching "Open All Hours" on DVD. *That* makes you appreciate how easy we have it in a cubefarm!

Matthew Lock
Sunday, April 4, 2004

Lazy bum. Just quit that job so I can get it for 10% of your salary!

And you wonder why you lose your jobs to us... you don't even like them. Americans hate being engineers... but chinese love it!

Mr. Outsourcer
Sunday, April 4, 2004

Geez.. Give the guy some slack. He probably meant his day job *leaves* him 2-3 hours a day so he works nights and weekends. Well, maybe he didn't, but it sounds more logical this way.

Secondly, he is trying to free himself of his boss and the corporate monster... Not of programming.. I am doing a similar thing. I love what I do. I just don't like to be doing it so that someone else get's the bigger piece out of the pie.

You guys are so cynical sometimes.. Loosen up a bit!


Digger,

Why didn't you post your website so we can take a look at the program you released? Instead of complaining that noone is interested, you need to get feedback. You need to stay in touch with your (potential) customers and see what they want that you don't have or what they didn't want that you have in your app. Even if your app is free, you are still dealing with customers, and it is an iterative process.

geez!
Sunday, April 4, 2004

>If you're lucky you can get a day job that's closely
> related to your real work.

Not sure about this. I find it very hard to program
all day and the come home and program some
more. It would be better i think to have a different
type of job from the digging gig.

son of parnas
Sunday, April 4, 2004

I find it hard to work at a programming job all day and then come home and work on marketing related tasks. 

Sunday, April 4, 2004

It seems that the challeng you face is that no one seems to be interested in your program (so far).

How will porting it to Linux address your primary challenge?

(Are there a LOT more potential customers for YOUR application on Linux?).  I'd guess that, in general, the Linux market is about 1/100 the size of the Windows market.

It is unlikely that any company will buy your program unless you can demonstrate that people will PAY for it.

So, my advice (as the CEO of a software company) is to work on how to sell your product, not porting it to another platform.

Mr. Analogy
Sunday, April 4, 2004

Why would anybody buy an app which is free? Why would they be more likely to buy it when you have ported it to Linux where the culture is everything should be free? Why do you value your creation so poorly that you feel you have to give it away for free?

Tony Edgecombe
Monday, April 5, 2004

I'm a digger.  After hours.

Right now it feels like I am trying to bail a boat with a teaspoon.

Monday, April 5, 2004

After hour digger,

Here is a tip. Try digging out something smaller... When you are done with extraction, turn it into something bigger  ;)

geez!
Monday, April 5, 2004

and when you are done digging, you will still have to crawl through five hundred yards of shit.


RED: Andy crawled to freedom through five hundred yards of shit-smelling foulness I can't even imagine. Or maybe I just don't want to. Five hundred yards. The length of five football fields. Just shy of half a mile.
-- shawshank redemption

Tapiwa
Tuesday, April 6, 2004

Andy was the shit...literally. :-P

James B.
Tuesday, April 6, 2004

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