It is a fable, that certain kind of work changes the world for better. The reality is changing the world is a slow process, it takes a sequence of events which eventually makes things better.
You do not have to work for a large famous company to start making things better.
I absolutely believe that if you want to make a big impact in the world, you need to start small - with something closer and around you.
Consider a few things ... (use your imagination)
At social level, start small, if you want to make a change to world:
1. Help a Child
2. Teach someone something, may be online.
At personal level:
1. Work on a hobby project, have your own vision for the world.
2. Learn something you would really like to do.
To take things off your current negativity, take a break, may be a vacation, do something you enjoy, Hiking, Music, Books ..whatever is your thing.
Do not judge your friend, purely based on the "Number of Commits"
Business needs many kind of people.
People who do, people who think, people who get things done.
You mentioned, he is more a Sales and Marketing person - Do you think he is going to be an asset there? Is he the lateral thinker - who is going to turn your story around?
A Business is a combination of many things:
- Market Fitment
- Product Concept & Market Fitment
- Resources (Money, Time)
- Business Development
- Operations
- People
- Ideas
- Hardwork
- Perseverance
- Service & Support
- and 100s of other paramemters
Think, if he is going to be an asset somewhere, where you are not good at (Trust me, no one is good at everything).
Ofcourse, sometimes you have to bite the bullet and let even the best people go, then - do be prepared for the consequences.
Biggest problem in this is, one size does not fit all.
It is hard to compile a stack - which would be useful for most companies.
Yes, there have been attempts made - for Example, Open Stack. But then I feel, there is always an element of specific technology based on the needs of the product being built.
Few Options:
1. Friends, Family, Colleagues etc. Although, I do not prefer this option, as friends and known colleagues tend to be sugar coat their feedback, and that is not something you want.
3. If you can showcase your product on KickStarter or other crowd funding - brilliant, as it also kind of proves people will be willing to pay for your product in future.
4. Meetup Groups etc, walk into these groups, if you find people who would fall into your target profile. Do not hesitate to politely ask, if they would like to have a look.
5. If you have a target list, offer them free access, with a concise email or some other medium.
You are right, accountability is one valid point, and large companies typically are used to having people on speed dial, when things break.
But then - aren't there questions about - how really agile they really are?
Large operations with a lot of custom software, and license based models and Time & Material based customization - it is always very hard to get things moving faster.
Also, I feel Large Operations have to hire a lot of people - just to manage what vendors are deploying. Very large operational costs.
But then, What stops SaaS providers from Hosting in their own environment?
With Modern day Containerization technologies and orchestration layers, I believe it is not as difficult as it used to be - to be infra agnostic. A lot of large Enterprises are now - investing in their private cloud (AWS, Azure etc.)
IMHO, it is much beyond the Hosting part (which is mostly applicable during the installation stages).
There are questions about,
- Accountability in case of failures.
- Continuous Support and Customizations
- Is there a Dedicated Support team etc.
- more ...
I do not think you can segment Engineers different from the society & Humans in General ... There are Arrogant people everywhere, those who think they are in some way better than others. Not just that, they think everyone else is stupid :)
The Man has a lot of points about how to Optimize your income and Saving. Which are good values to be honest.
As a child, we (me and my brother) were taught by our parents to Save Pocket Money, when we don't really need them, and later we can buy something more meaningful with it.
Having said that, I do not think I want to retire so early :) ... May not be for the money, but for the fact that I learn everyday when I venture out and take on the challenges of life!