path: root/memos/WM-041.txt

Document: WM-041                                                 P. Webb
Category: Career                                              2019.09.24

                   A decade in tech: a retrospective

Abstract

   Startups are hard, respect is easy

Body

   1. The Beginning

      I got my start in the web/tech space over a decade ago, during the
      economic recession of 2008.

      Two years prior I was in college for a couple months until Johnson
      & Wales' campus police called to let me know I'd need to leave by
      the end of the week. Unbeknownst to me the college fund that was
      *allegedly* prepared for me never existed (!!) and the funny thing
      about bounced checks is, *no one likes them*; especially an
      institution that needs to pay its faculty. Anyhoo, in 2008 I was
      tasked with "getting myself back into school" *somehow* and was
      sent to the next town over from JWU to start.

      My landlord, a portly self-deprecating guy with a glass eye and a
      heart of friggin' *gold*, allowed me stay rent free as long as I
      kept him up to date with my job search progress. In my downtime I
      perused online communities like deviantART and Pixelfuckers
      (defunct) and attempted to emulate what I saw in the awesome
      desktop modding scene. That led to attempting vector art and boy,
      this was frustrating as hell to learn. Photoshop's pen tool just
      did not make sense at *all* and Illustrator was too strange. One
      day…it clicked. I could do it!

      📸[2nd Vector][IMG1][1]

      Yes, revel in this *monstrosity*. Admire it. *Fear* it (the later
      version[2]) of this looks *way* better).

      At some point I was designing so much[3] that I decided I needed a
      website, naturally. I mocked something in Photoshop and emailed a
      PSD to HTML service to see how much it would cost to convert my
      "super awesome" design to a website and I was quoted either $100
      or $500. Whichever amount it was, I was *incensed*. Furious, even.
      Couldn't they see I was trying to start something? Why would they
      charge me so much? The au*dacity* of these people!

      In my anger, I learned how to code my first website[FOOT1].

      Yes. I was petulant and figured it out because I was misguided in
      my anger at someone/some people trying to run a business in a
      recession. It sounds quite silly in hindsight but, there you
      have it.

      At that point I also understood that web design and development is
      not something easily done *correctly*. Doesn't it make sense why
      someone would charge to do it for you? Armed with this newfound
      knowledge I dove into the Internet head first and scoured it for
      web development tips. Often, these tips came from horribly
      designed websites 🥴. Indeed there was a time before Envato and
      their Tuts+ tutorial sites burst onto the scene.

   2. I Made It

      Sometime in 2012 I was working retail and applying for web
      design/development roles I was *definitely* not suited for but
      YOLO (pretty sure YOLO wasn't said then but y'know, same energy)!
      Just fire and forget, leave for work, come back home and check
      email. One day I got a response back from thoughtbot[4], a
      design/development agency in Downtown Crossing (Boston)! One of
      the co-founders wanted me to come in and interview for their
      apprenticeship program. Elated, I made the trek downtown with my
      heavy laptop and couldn't wait to show off my work.

      My elation disappated when Chad Mazolla[5] said (paraphrasing, too
      long ago):

      > Your code is terrible…but your design is good. Great, even! We
      > need more stuff like this on the Internet.

      And with that, I was in! The program lasted a few short months and
      while I was the only one who wasn't offered a job through
      thoughtbot or their partner companies afterward, I will say that
      it was the best experience I could have had at that point in my
      life. If nothing else, I finally had something I could put on my
      non-retail resume!

      Over the next couple years I would go on to do contract jobs and
      later work for startup after startup after startup. I've worked
      for a "regular" company here and there but end up going back to
      startups. Even though they come with uncertainty[FOOT2], they are
      often working on challenging ideas and projects that can change
      some aspect of the world in interesting ways. I'm drawn to that. I
      also love learning how to do things I either don't feel like
      learning on my own time or never thought about learning. *The best
      teacher is experience so why not *get paid* to do it?* This allows
      you to initiate ambitious side projects solo instead of
      waiting/relying on someone else to get an MVP running.

      Perhaps more important than the technical skills acquired, I
      learned how *not* to treat people. Sometimes this was an
      analysis[6] of *my own behavior* but more often than not the
      actions of *leadership* exemplified this.

   3. Scenarios

      The following scenarios are situations I've been on the receiving
      end of.

      - You're an apprentice and a developer mentoring someone else in
        the program regularly talks over you and pumps up his apprentice
        whenever he can. Maybe his disdain for you is because you're
        self-taught or was personally invited by the co-CEO to join the
        program. Or maybe the developer didn't like you having regular
        conversation with the (female) office manager. You're new, you
        just want to absorb information from everywhere.
        - You learn many years later that this same developer also
          treated prospective clients quite rudely.

      - CEO picks his nose and makes eye contact with you. This happens
        enough that you learn how to have a blind spot whenever you turn
        your head and see him in your peripheral vision.

      - As a contractor, you end up doing the job of the guy you're
        reporting under while he browses Joystiq[7] for gaming news. You
        are later fired and realize he threw you under the bus for his
        work not getting done. *Many* years later you see him in a
        Target department store and after recognizing you he discovers a
        sudden interest in ceiling architecture.

      - As you're dealing with the excrutiating sorrow of miscarriage,
        the CEO puts you on a dubious "project" for his father's
        company. A week or two later you're in a firing meeting, sans
        CEO. In the minutes following the firing you look around for the
        CEO to have a conversation with him but he's nowhere to be
        found, even though you just saw him five minutes prior.

      - CEO constantly lies to you and your coworkers about the health
        of the company and surprises y'all a week or so from Christmas
        *on pay day* with "Hey, sorry, we can't pay you" phone call.
        Money eventually shows up but this happens at least once more
        before the company folds.

      - CEO loves your work and mindset and tasks you with unleashing
        your creativity on core properties. Then come caveats. You
        create something cool, you guess, with caveats because core
        users would be "confused" by drastic changes. A month or so
        later, CEO okays a developer *not* hired for their design
        sensibilities to drastically redesign the core product. CEO
        reiterates your importance while restricting your expression.

      - You notice there's someone on the platform you are helping
        develop who has advocated for harm and negative energy towards
        people who share your creed/likeness/ethnicity. You get on a
        call with the CEO and he not only downplays the matter but he
        disregards how you feel about it. He also claims
        organizations like SPLC[8] are disengenous and
        blow things out of proportion.

      These scenarios are situations I've witnessed and/or stepped in to
      defend/protect.

      - Designers wrack their brains over new features and present to UX
        lead for her expert opinion. Idea gets shut down due to claim by
        lead over "impossible"[FOOT3] claims.
        - I walk by and overhear the designers speaking amongst
          themselves, bummed about yet another idea that *seems*
          feasible but apparently "isn't".
        - I create a branch and implement their idea in ~10 minutes.
          Designers are happy, UX lead is not.
        - To be clear, this doesn't add extra work for anyone but me.

      - Back-end engineers who want something done on the front-end
        approach UX lead. "Too much work", "not worth it", "impossible",
        and so on is claimed.
        - I'm present during this conversation and rattle off similar
          experiences I've had in my personal projects that relate.
        - Developers are happy, UX lead is not.
        - No extra work for anyone but me and it's not an
          obscene amount.

      - At an annual all-hands event, CTO speaks about how he learned
        the importance of listening from a leadership course he's been
        taking. 10 minutes later, CEO blames entire company (and himself
        but not really) for our lack of innovation leading to the
        then-(still?)negative status of the company while the CTO stares
        at the ground in deep thought.
        - A developer protests accusation and mentions several instances
          where he tried to provide input, only to be shut down by CEO.
        - Conversation turns into a shouting match.
        - Other developers jump in to co-sign the initial protest.
        - You later learn that some developers at the company ignore the
          CEO and pursue things *they* know they need to work on.

      - Marketing team repeatedly express frustration with lack of
        non-developer-friendly tooling for things like updating the
        company blog, sending email blasts, and so on. CEO is a
        technical developer and regularly dismisses them, starting
        sentences with things like "It's so easy" and "All you have to
        do is…c'mon, it's not so bad."
        - I don't have much to do so I offer to improve some aspects of
          their job. After initial pushback I'm begrungingly allowed to
          do so.
        - Two days later, I'm tasked with going about this process with
          caveats (and throwing away substantial work in the process).

      - CEO has something negative to say about anyone who quits. "He
        wasn't that great anyway" and things like that, often on
        conference calls.

      These are all the scenarios I could list off the top of my head.
      I'm a positive person by nature so this was an uncomfortable walk
      down Memory Lane.

      For people in the web/tech space, the aforementioned scenarios are
      quite common. Heck, I'm quite sure they echo what happened *today*
      somewhere…and you witnessed it. A common thread that links the
      leadership mentioned (aside from the CTO) is apathy; a complete
      lack of empathy, social understanding/awareness, or just *care*.
      In the comment about my self analysis earlier, I linked a blog
      post where I realized I put my ego before the team I was hired to
      work with. I was, quite frankly, a jackass[FOOT4] and there's no
      room for one unless you work at a zoo. Self-reflection is a useful
      tool you should pull out every now and then and as you can
      probably tell, most people don't utilize it.

   4. Software is hard, relationships are easy

      > If you don't build your dream, someone will hire you to help
      > build theirs.
      > — Tony Gaskin

      I reflect upon this quote often as I help people build their
      dreams (startups) while also building my own[9]. I do believe
      there's been a sea change in the industry around employee
      happiness and retention. Have a look at job postings and you will
      see work satisfaction and happiness as a perk.

      No one wants to work in a hostile environment and after a while,
      people realize they don't have to put up with bullshit and they
      quit (or are fired before they get the chance, lol). To echo the
      tone of Gaskin's quote but modified for business leadership:

      > In order to build your dream, hire the best people and treat
      > them like family.

      Assuming you have a great family or a close cadre of friends you
      regard as family, would you treat them like the aforementioned
      leaders have? Probably not. It's really not that difficult to be a
      decent person.

      One of my closest friends is in a coding bootcamp and shares his
      works in progress with me and another close friend on a regular
      basis. I'm the most technical of us but what sense would it make
      for me to downplay his efforts? What would I gain from that? It's
      my responsibility to assist in his professional development
      because I have the means to and I consider him family.

      A decade is a long time and software and startups come and go.
      Even people do. Memories, do not (I mean, aside from
      cognitive disorders).

      You remember the developer that treated me like shit during my
      apprenticeship? His name came up in an interview I had two years
      ago via my interviewer, half a decade later! Therefore, it is
      *imperitive* that you treat people how you would like to be
      treated, your reputation could precede you whether it's positive
      or not.

      No matter what life-changing product you embark on or assist with
      creating, you will get there a helluva lot faster surrounded by
      people who respect you and vice-versa. If you've forgotten about
      the Golden Rule, here's a handy refresher[10]. 🕸

References

   [FOOT1] My first domain name was `pw-software.com` (it now redirects
           to `webb.page`). Back in the early 2010s, I blogged about
           design and redesigned my site at least three times a year.
           It was the *hottest* of messes. Back then I used Google and
           regularly searched for "PW Software" to check my search
           ranking. For a while, a company called "P+W Software" was the
           first result. The constant linking of my website to Facebook
           and deviantART improved SEO so much that I soon took the
           number one spot. P+W Software was later acquired[11] by
           another company. When ICANN released the `.page` TLD I was
           absolutely *required* to obtain what's probably the nicest
           domain on the planet and make it my new default home on
           the Internet.

   [FOOT2] All but two startups I've worked for no longer exist. The
           first one was acquired but I was seasonal help and thus was
           too far gone to delight in their success. The second one
           seems like it's not doing too well behind the scenes.

   [FOOT3] A word I hate more than almost anything (the taste of
           asparagus will be difficult to unseat) is "impossible" and to
           hear professionals in the web/tech space use this word so
           casually is *frustrating*. We literally have supercomputers
           in our pockets to share *memes* but it's "impossible" to make
           text with a drop shadow expand across the screen before
           flipping into an explosion of color with emoji rain.
           *Impossible is not a word, it's an excuse.*

   [FOOT4] I really wanted to underscore how much of a jackass I was
           prior to that post being published but was advised against it
           by leadership. This most likely had something to do with
           editorial voice of the company but few words exist to
           exemplify negative behavior with such conciseness.

   [1]    <https://www.deviantart.com/nokadota/art/2nd-Vector-72286668>
   [2]    <https://www.deviantart.com/nokadota/art/Above-The-Clouds-71695497>
   [3]    <https://www.deviantart.com/nokadota/gallery>
   [4]    <https://thoughtbot.com>
   [5]    <https://chad.is>
   [6]    <https://2016.dsgn.io/thoughts/post/the-importance-of-process>
   [7]    <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joystiq>
   [8]    <https://www.splcenter.org>
   [9]    <https://socii.network>
   [10]   <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Rule>
   [11]   <https://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/press-release/consumer-health-technologies-inc-acquires-pw-software>
   [IMG1] <https://🔥.pixels.wtf/blog/image/2019/a-decade-in-tech-a.png>