Re:A conference about software you can love
by armadsen on Friday May 27, 2022 @03:31PM
(#31533847)
I've been lucky enough to be able to spend my entire software engineering career so far working on software that end users use and pay directly for. I often say that I really only want to work on software that makes money because it does an excellent job of solving a problem for its users, and that's the only reason they use it.
When you have other financial relationships and monetization strategies in the mix -- advertising, monetization of user data, virtual currencies and loot boxes, etc. -- the incentive structure is such that you have to focus on goals other than "make software that our users love".
Of course, it's probably not a coincidence that I haven't spent my software engineering career working for high growth startups or big companies. But that's a plus too. I really enjoy working at a company with 10-20 people making a product that people love, a completely straightforward business model (users buy our software), no VC money, and no ambitions to grow like crazy or get huge.
When you have other financial relationships and monetization strategies in the mix -- advertising, monetization of user data, virtual currencies and loot boxes, etc. -- the incentive structure is such that you have to focus on goals other than "make software that our users love".
Of course, it's probably not a coincidence that I haven't spent my software engineering career working for high growth startups or big companies. But that's a plus too. I really enjoy working at a company with 10-20 people making a product that people love, a completely straightforward business model (users buy our software), no VC money, and no ambitions to grow like crazy or get huge.