Trapped in the Technologist Factory

If you are a technologist/generalist, aiming for small companies is a good strategy. If you're not in SV even better, you may end up in a real grass roots business and a really interesting problem domain that is ostensibly Not Software.

I personally, cannot stand the software for software industry. You, me, we have all built such arbitrary bullshit machines that link together in a web of unnecessary business. We lambast redundant jobs and useless management, but a moment of reflection for our industry and just how much software we have built for entirely self-serving purposes. So many man hours spent on the ephemeral whims of software. Sorry for the cynicism.

Less cynically, I feel the smaller the company, self-funded, the more likely a generalist will thrive and the business domain will be real-world and impactful. If it's venture funded and can pivot to advertising, it probably will. If you move away from tech hubs the wages are lower, but you might find a more fulfilling role.

Get out from under the VC playbook and start asking yourself and the people around you what should exist. What is the world missing? Use AI as your cofounder as prototype with basic tech - html, css, js, sqlite. Gain traction. See the truth about the audience by doing your own customer service. Then when you find something with true traction, talk about scaling it. You will learn far more and do better.

Dynamic pricing. Gross. Thanks a lot.