Build it and they will not come: Being a programmer in 21st century - Nathan Marz - Codemotion Amsterdam 2017
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In a world of open source, open ideas, and open collaboration, incredible opportunity exists for programmers that know how to grasp it. Participating in open source and the worldwide discussion of ideas can be a powerful way to boost your career, improve your skills, and lead a more fulfilling programming life. Succeeding in this world can be a struggle – the well known phrase "build it and they will come" could not be more false. Success requires you to grow in many new ways. For those willing to push their boundaries, the rewards are worth the effort a hundred times over.
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Build it and they will not come: Being a programmer in 21st century - Nathan Marz - Codemotion Amsterdam 2017
- 1. Build it and they will not come Being a programmer in the 21st century
- 2. My turning point • December 2009 • Started blog • Started Twitter account • Joined as first employee of startup • Open source!!!
- 3. Standard career path • Work for a company • Your work is hidden in the walls of the company • Get new/better job by interviewing • Leverage network of people you’ve worked with for new opportunities
- 5. Your value is hidden
- 6. Standard interviewing practices are wildly inaccurate
- 7. Hard to evaluate companies Good compensation Nice office Talented engineers Sensible dev processes Good management Good product team ? ? ? ?
- 10. December 2009 • 80 Twitter followers • Brand new blog • Minimal open source involvement
- 11. My plan • Blog every 1-2 weeks • Have as much of my work be open source as possible
- 12. Virtuous cycle
- 13. Twitter
- 14. Open source • My main reason to change jobs was for open source • Best decision I ever made
- 15. Open source • Public work = public display of value • Gives you things to write and speak about • Can build network far beyond walls of your company • Can contribute in ways other than code – documentation, answering questions on mailing list
- 16. Open source • Cascalog • ElephantDB •
- 17. Open source • Cascalog • ElephantDB •
- 18. Storm was a side benefit!
- 19. Challenges • Requires discipline and pain • Have to grow in new ways • Putting yourself out there publicly is hard • Public speaking is scary • Negativity of the internet
- 21. Open source advice • Get a job that gives you freedom to be involved in open source • Contribute to projects you use at work
- 22. Open source advice • Built it and they will not come • Documentation is essential • Getting started should be as seamless as possible
- 23. Writing advice • You should blog even if you have no readers • Writing is empathy
- 24. Speaking advice • Start at meetups • No silver bullet, you get better with experience • Stand-up comedy
- 25. Makes you a better engineer and a better person
Editor's Notes
- kangbashi district in ordos, china ghost city
- idea that if I made as much of my work and ideas public as possible, good things would happen
- this means the job marketplace doesn’t function like a normal market if you’re best programmer in world and everyone knew it, then normal market forces would price you the highest (whether money or otherwise)
- nothing to do with what it means to be a programmer some of best hires I ever made bombed their whiteboard interviews like hiring a pilot based on performance sailing a boat (aerodynamics, spatial awareness, radio)
- I’m only 31 and I’ve seen too many people fall for the trap of optimizing for money. It leads to unhappiness
- “when you take the standard career path, most of your opportunities are OUTBOUND opportunities" have to work really hard for outbound opportunities (job, conference speaking)
- for me: loads of conference invitations (like this one), travel the whole world for free my book deal consulting requests, training requests advisorships with awesome startups access to investors
- this sort of pathetic start inevitably led me to where I am today much more successful, much happier, and a better person in control of my life lots of options of what I want to do
- wrote 27 posts in first year Virtuous cycle of blogging, Twitter, conferences, and social news
- Virtuous cycle of blogging, Twitter, conferences, and open source more followers is a means to an end
- Greatest networking tool ever devised Get to know people and their work online, then meet them at conferences Stay up to date on what’s happening in industry
- old job had the outdated mindset that all code is precious company IP I had all sorts of ideas that I was totally blocked from doing at my old job so I did them at my new job
- that open source community is an audience for your writing open source is huge for building your “luck surface area” as a developer
- over next 1.5 years… storm never would have succeeded the way it did without lessons I learned from: blogging speaking cascalog & elephantdb your failures and your meager successes that set you up to be able to grasp opportunities when they come to you still would have made storm, it just wouldn’t have gotten big
- writing and blogging taught me MARKETING cascalog user base was fundamentally limited (clojure) elephantdb’s draw was less complexity for specific problem (doesn’t sell like NEW CAPABILITIES) social proof > performance
- don't need to do have a huge project to succeed in this path i've been describing your network will expand luck surface area will get bigger, increasing inbound opportunities doing work that affects more than just your company is very rewarding will have access to better jobs – I have personally provided this to people I’ve known through open source connecting right person to right company at the right time
- story of being attacked publicly about how to beat the cap theorem but it ended up being very influential and did a lot for my career people who comment without reading your post story of “racist” comment on y combinator post
- references and tutorials with storm: local mode, minimal configuration, and storm-starter project - storm-starter was brainless to try out getting a lot of traction on a new project is very difficult - catch 22 of building social proof
- easy to get timeslot, low pressure, no time limits usually can also do very short talks at meetups case study always good speaking topic
- learning to write makes you a better engineer engineering is >50% communication writing makes you more thoughtful in general pushing your boundaries is a humbling process, and it builds your character, makes you a better person “I hope I’ve inspired at least a few of you to think about your careers in a different way, and I wish you all the best of luck. Thank you.”