I guess that makes sense, I've seen this myself as well. But it feels a bit weird. Probably it's because not many are able to actually keep up this flow for such a long time, but still, it sounds like a simple "recipe" to success so how is it that so many people don't do it? This is what makes me question this strategy?
What makes "just sticking with it" a good strategy, how is it that the same idea made 12 months later could work but made at the beginning of the journey couldn't?
That is so cool, I know both games but I never knew they posted their stories on here. It seems the first link points to this question though, do you have the correct one? If not, I'll just try to look for it myself
Ah I get what you're saying, but I feel like this is a bit of a dark take on the world. I know (relatively) rich people that are some of the kindest people I met.
But I do agree that it's much easier to get rich by being corrupt and stealing, the shortest path is and will always be by cheating.
That being said, there are plenty of counter examples out there, of people that built stuff out of love and reached financial freedom, not billions of dollars, but enough to buy a home and live with their family, by doing innocent stuff. I'm thinking about indie games, or small shops, learning apps, healthcare focused apps. Do you get an advantage by lying and marketing the "wrong" people? Sure. Do you have to do it to actually succeed? I don't think so
But I do not disagree with you completely, I think this is just a black and white vision when in the real world there are just many shades of gray. You will never be a completely innocent person and you will never be a completely evil person, it is just impossible.
And to say about myself, I worked as a developer for about 4 years, reached a position higher than peers my age and experience level usually reach, so it gave me confidence that I can actually learn and progress.
Some time ago I started seeing people bragging about how they made millions after starting their own thing. I knew that is probably not real, or at least not common, but I live in a country with smaller cost of living so for me even something like 1k a month would be enough to get by, I thought at least that might be more realistic.
Around 5 months ago I got fed up with my job. I was depressed and burnt out, felt stuck and as if I made no progress in a while. So I decided to give it a try. Worked on my own thing for a couple of months, decided I can't keep doing both so quit my job with about 2 years worth of savings and started working solo.
Currently nothing is actually making me money, and I'm getting a bit tired, but I still feel so much better than I was at my old job. I'm here asking this because it feels like people here are a lot more 'genuine' and might actually give better advice or more honest stories, so I'm curious
I usually use tools that allow me to check the file changes once it's done with one "prompt" or one "change". This makes the waiting period be smaller, after which I check the changes and understand the code, fixing any obvious bugs I notice.
Sometimes while I wait I like reading the chain of thought, even though I mostly zone out, sometimes I notice stuff that the AI misunderstood and go back to redo or better explain my prompts if I think it's important enough.
When I get bored though, I usually just leave it to finish the entire task, and to stuff like cleaning my desk, room, fold clothes, or just write the plan for next task, project, day etc in my notebook.
We are slowly literally becoming the "unrealistic" developers often shown in movies: a terminal running a bunch of lines on one or two screens, us moving our attention between multiple windows, shipping multiple apps at once.
The idea of working on a side project while your AI is working on your main object would have been unfathomable a couple of years ago.
I personally am of the same opinion that I, and honestly most people, can't focus on two serious "time sinks" at once, it's bound for one of them to get less attention in the long run and maybe even failing at both if enough bad decisions are made.
I didn't ever consider your other statement though, and it actually makes so much sense. When I quit my job I had so much saved up and still thought it might not be enough, still being on the edge on whether I should wait more or not. But since I knew I had enough, I made a lot of mistakes in my first project, didn't pay enough attention to inefficient code, which eventually made me pay roughly 8 times more than I should per month on some backend infrastructure. I'm honestly just now realizing that the thought of knowing I had enough saved up was probably what made me work so inefficient at first. I fixed most of those issues after some time, but I think that's really sound advice to keep in mind moving forward.
1. Which countries would this be focused on? I'm assuming the laws aren't the same everywhere so it might not be possible to take people to court from anywhere?
2. Would the attorney actually take the sender to court in case they don't settle? I'm assuming many smaller companies might just ignore the notice since they are not that trained legally and depending on amount maybe not even have the money to pay.
3. How would you assure users the extension isn't violating their privacy and reading personal emails as well? How do you prove only spam marked emails are ever sent over to you/given access to a real human?
What you are feeling right now is a lack of inspiration, actually extremely common in jobs that require extensive problem-solving, like engineering. Your job sucks so much out of you that there's nothing left for yourself.
You fix this by balancing the output with input: consuming content. Not just digital content, but anything from reading books, listening to other people's ideas and actually even stuff like going out in nature helps. Slowly, you will start noticing ideas you can improve on, or things you would have done better. Your mind starts to wander, you start thinking "what if he used something different there?" or "I bet I can make that more performant". The trick is to stay focused when consuming said content, and be open to improvement, try understanding what you hear or see, not just mindlessly consume. It's a slow process but you will get the hang of it.
One more trick I can give you that worked wonders for me: write down an idea each day. Have something like your phone Notes app, and force yourself to write an idea for an app or something every single day. It can be stupid, it can be something already done 100 times or something no one would ever use. But it's your idea. At some point, you will realize one of those is actually something that you would like to work on and be even potentially profitable.
You're gonna find something, don't focus on the money, focus on the journey. It's gonna work out. Good luck!
What makes "just sticking with it" a good strategy, how is it that the same idea made 12 months later could work but made at the beginning of the journey couldn't?