> Unlearn the "large team workflow mindset" and embrace the "single developer mindset" again
This worked for me. A few months ago I quit a really great job partly because I was struggling with motivation. Fast forward to today and I’ve got a couple freelance projects on the go which aren’t even that interesting, yet sometimes I can’t stop working on them.
I think the large team workflow took far more of a toll on me than I realised at the time. A single line of CSS might start with a discussion in Slack, followed by a ticket, which then gets brought into a sprint some unknown time in the future. Make the change and wait days for the PR to get approved, PR might have a discussion so you need to find the original discussion in Slack, someone might suggest multiple different ways you could have made the change even though it makes no difference. Someone else might suggest that because you’ve touched this line of code you should refactor the entire file, to avoid conflict you just make all the changes even though you disagree, put it up for review again, someone else says they liked the first way you solved before any changes but whatever, tag it in a release go through QA, QA and BAs interrogate you on why you refactored more than the ticket, QA picks up issues that have nothing to do with your change so you have to figure out how long those issues have existed for, finally 4 weeks later your change is in prod and you can move onto the next task.
Working by myself has been incredible. I don’t miss having to justify every technical decision to a team that can’t ever seem to agree on anything. I’m able to react and ship so much faster and the product is more stable and of a higher quality (subjective) than anything I worked on within a team. I’m not sure what this means for my future prospects, but also not too worried at the moment.
Do you have advice stemming from your move from salaried life into freelancing? I started my career freelancing, but now a decade-ish later, freelancing seems both enticing (a way to find the "I work when I say I work, not when someone expects me to work" balance 4-day workweeks kinda get at, but also not really, and also a way to perhaps more freely select for problem spaces that interest me vs. whatever is the current VC hype train), but also terrifying (because I recall there being non-trivial overhead on the "business end", there's no long-term stability, there's not even really short-term stability in the sense of "I have bills and debts to pay that are not exactly negotiable", etc)
Love seeing such a similar quip about team vs solo work here. I find I get much more done when free to just explore and do what makes sense to me on a given day vs. whatever is someone else's priority item, and when I can use all the tools I choose (vs the tools someone else chooses for me).
Haha my career was the same. Started off freelancing about 14 years ago and moved into salary.
I’m actually “taking a break” from work at the moment. I just happen to still have a couple of freelance clients from the old days because they’re great people. After I left my job, one of them had a project for me which was great timing, but I’m talking like 40 hours. And apart from that I’m only making a few thousand per year.
I agree with you 100%. As a way to make stable income, not great. And the overhead was one of the reasons I went salary. I don’t think I want to ramp up my freelance stuff again. When I’m done with my break, I’m going to try my luck at 3-6 month contracts. I don’t need much money these days, a 3 month contract would set me up financially for the rest of the year.
This worked for me. A few months ago I quit a really great job partly because I was struggling with motivation. Fast forward to today and I’ve got a couple freelance projects on the go which aren’t even that interesting, yet sometimes I can’t stop working on them.
I think the large team workflow took far more of a toll on me than I realised at the time. A single line of CSS might start with a discussion in Slack, followed by a ticket, which then gets brought into a sprint some unknown time in the future. Make the change and wait days for the PR to get approved, PR might have a discussion so you need to find the original discussion in Slack, someone might suggest multiple different ways you could have made the change even though it makes no difference. Someone else might suggest that because you’ve touched this line of code you should refactor the entire file, to avoid conflict you just make all the changes even though you disagree, put it up for review again, someone else says they liked the first way you solved before any changes but whatever, tag it in a release go through QA, QA and BAs interrogate you on why you refactored more than the ticket, QA picks up issues that have nothing to do with your change so you have to figure out how long those issues have existed for, finally 4 weeks later your change is in prod and you can move onto the next task.
Working by myself has been incredible. I don’t miss having to justify every technical decision to a team that can’t ever seem to agree on anything. I’m able to react and ship so much faster and the product is more stable and of a higher quality (subjective) than anything I worked on within a team. I’m not sure what this means for my future prospects, but also not too worried at the moment.