Comment by roughly
18 hours ago
> I admit it is exciting to make something you truly believe is good and helpful.
I want to double down on this - I’m lucky enough to have worked places where I truly believed the world would be a better place if we “won,” and not on the margins, and it really, really makes a difference in quality of life. I’ve worked at other places, too, and the cognitive drag of knowing that your skills and efforts - your ability to change the world - is at best being wasted is something you don’t truly feel until it’s gone.
I've wasted countless years on pursuits I thought were good but later determined to have been bad, and therefore deeply regretted. I don't wish this on anyone.
I've also wasted countless years on pursuits I still think were good but overall never truly helped make the world better. This was less bad and seems inevitable.
Yeah I got a couple places on my resume I don’t like to talk about anymore. Turns out an awful lot of things are bad for the world in the wrong hands.
Still, if I’m going to spend a third of my life on something - and, more importantly, if I’m going to be responsible for my efforts contributing to something - I’d prefer it be something I find value in. I’ll take the risk of being wrong - although I’m certainly looking at the world through less rose-tinted glasses than I used to.
I agree, and I'm convinced selling my own software is the only way I can do that. At least for me. I just need to put it all together now, all the skillsets I've honed for decades, and the insight I might have gleaned from what people need.