Software development is all about glamour. The smiling faces of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs bring countless programmers (both good and bad) to the field of software development. The same smiles of successful entrepreneurs have also inspired movies like the Social Network and Pirates of the Silicon Valley.
Every startup story that tells you how a young kid made a million dollars adds spice to the equation.
Glamour is a two sided sword because on one hand it motivates the competent and helps them continue practicing the craft of building software without quitting on the other hand it attracts programmers who cannot program to the software development world.
Any glamour based industry, Hollywood, Music Albums, Writing or Software development has an inherent problem. In these Industry it is easy to overlook the amount of effort that goes behind a success story.
In each one of these industries it is easy to be charmed by smiling faces of startup CEOs, actors, authors, Entrepreneurs and not look at the pain, the hard work, the risk and the mental turmoil those faces went through.
"All we need is an idea! Let's look for a Venture Capitalist! Let's find an Angel Investor! Let's spend time on Twitter and facebook all day long!"
And then when things don't work out blame it all on bad luck, not having the first mover advantage, lack of the vision on the part of the investor or worse.... on your development team.
Perfect recipes for failure. All of them.
The stories of colossal fuckups aren't new in the software development world but we don't hear them as attentively as we watch movies like The Social Network or Pirates of the Silicon Valley.
Your only chance of survival. The only one you have, is that you realize how the quest for glamour, acceptance, attention and power destroys lives. Lower your expectations. Focus on doing something that you love doing and please stop worrying about the outcomes of large scale adaption and success.
Separate out the cash part from the sex part, find pleasure in practicing the art with cheap tools and stop dreaming about being the next Mark Zugerberg.
No you're not going to make the next facebook. No amount of bullshitting and power points presentations will help you become a millionaire. Yes they don't give a shit about you and your product and yes, you are going to be the only user on your product, service, tool or blog for a very long time.
The sooner you realize that and the sooner you drop your expectations, open the IDE and start working on something you love the happier you will be.
I'm sorry I am breaking your cute little dreams, but I hope you realize that shattering them into tiny bits is your only chance at materializing them.
Here is wishing you good luck.
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