perri.to: A mashup of things (by Horacio Duran)

Comic by Work Chronicles — a webcomic that showcases the joys and frustrations of the workplace. “Dream Job” felt like a fitting opener for what follows.

I spent a large part of my life working in environments where everyone was, as a friend would put it: “money oriented”. Much of my youth, once passed the mandatory “free software” phase, was marked by the classic VC funded company mindset. I founded my own company along with friends. I worked for startups and startup-y companies.

I drunk the proverbial Kool-AID for years. My goalpost was in the general direction of “change the world” or “leave a mark” or “make a meaningful product with deep impact” until it wasn’t.

A Change of Scenery

Some years ago, we moved to France, a culture which has a very peculiar approach to work. People in france, for the most part, are not their work. Artisans (as we call here craftmen/women) are indeed proud of their craft, and so are many professional, but they are first and foremost a person, not a job.

After a few years working here (I kept working for an american company as a contractor) I realized the local professional environment was fundamentally different. Not completely in line with how I do things but also quite enticing.

VC funded companies either find a glorious high capital exit or a new round of investment that “changes everything and leaves us in a great position to face new challenges” which means we lay off some people and basically become a whole different company with the same name, when none of these things happen all your engineers fade away and burn out. When the typical burnout of VC company not finding an exit settled I was ready to taste some of that wine and baguette ladden life.

A Change of Perspective

As with many tired engineers, my first thought was towards a change in jobs. I did not think I needed to work less, just that I needed to work on different things. I reached to a colleague that had just posted a position for an IC and he told me… No. Instead he offered me a recently opened manager role which required strong technical skill, given I usually end up in exactly that position unwillingly I thought it would be good to make it by choice for once.

My new job had many old friends and a more relaxed atmosphere. More importantly, I was not a race to exit company, It was not even a “software” company in the more traditional sense. I spent a large part of my career building software for software builders, my new role however was to build software for end users with actual relation to the phisical world (logistics, to be precise).

Being able to see the actual effect of your work helps put it in perspective. You know the exact effect of what you do, not only in abstract metrics but your code literally provokes trucks to move. It does not get less abstract than that.

The change on abstraction level freed a large chunk of my mind that was occupied building an imaginary world where what I built was used, this led me to start thinking about … well… not work.

A Change in Awareness.

My aha moment was, to be on topic with current events, brough by AI. I started a company, focused on my strenghts:

• Software development.
• Migration of infrastructure to European Native infra.
• Architecture and consulting on organization.

I had a few promises by customers, some prospects, planned to go to mingling events, the whole projection.

Then AI flourished, much of what I did was/is still not done by AI beyond a starting point but it changed the way companies buy. My immediate reaction was to plan how to flip the company and do something else, refocus, add AI to the name, put in the hours to get it to succeed… for what?

I can go to the gym, ride my bike through the woods and mountains surounding me, walk to the see, stop at a winery and have a bite with a good glass. A regular job where I live allows you to buy good natural food, mostly grown locally. There was nothing that putting all this effort woud give me that I do not have, not even peace of mind because the risk goes up with the benefit….

A Change of Life

I currently work, dedicating the time my employer deems fair to my job. I make a conscious effort to deliver the best possible engineering and management I can. I get in calls out of my work hours if stuff is on fire or just someone from the other end of the world cannot meet in my 9-5, which is quite rare.

I would guess my employer is happy with that, I get good feedback and the bills I sent them are paid in due time.

I do some open source/free software when I need it, all my code is mostly released to be used by others, none of it useful for work, I mostly enjoy doing tools for people. I do sport, I enjoy nature, for the most part the same activities that are enjoyed by workers of all incomes around me, simple and inexpensive experiences.

A job is something ill need always, because I have expenses but no longer to validate my sense of self, it might be catalogued as a failure by many but for me is peaceful.