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Ask HN: Should I continue as a developer or transition to indie creation?

2 points by abhnv ↗ HN
I have 7 years of experience, mostly in JavaScript/Node.js, but I coasted for years and now feel unqualified for senior roles. I was recently fired from a senior developer job after 3 months.

I want to work on passion projects (e.g., indie games, open-source contributions, compilers, or graphics), but I need a stable income in the short term. I also dislike corporate culture—standups, bureaucracy, and endless Jira tickets—but I’m unsure if indie work will pay off.

Should I focus on sharpening my skills (React, system design, Golang, etc.) to land a solid developer job and fund my indie ambitions? Or should I take the leap and go all-in on building something solo, even with financial risk?

Would love to hear from others who’ve faced a similar situation. How did you balance stability and freedom? What worked for you?

PS : This was very long rant about my situation (I was fired yesterday). I have used ChatGPT to make it concise and to the point. I wish to work on things I find interesting, but I am forced to act like a professional developer, because money.

4 comments

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not_your_vase
Working on interesting things and being a corporate code droid requires the same skillset[1].

  > unqualified for senior roles
Lol. You just landed one 3 months ago. On a different note, "senior developer" is such a joke-title, don't you think? In what other profession can you be a "senior" with less than a year of experience? It's only in sw dev...

The inconvenient truth is, you can't make a living of hobby projects - some can pull it off, but that's always exceptional. That's why they are hobby projects - they usually cost money rather than make any. On the other hand you need to skill up for hobby projects also. You can write a compiler in JS, sure. But should you? Upskilling is required anyway, so why not get on it, regardless of how you decide about your future

[1]: corpo jobs require also ass kissing, which is an art in itself

abhnv
They just offer senior titles to justify the paycheck, I think.

I just want an out of this fullstack web dev work. I was considering targeting HFT companies for money and complex technical work (but there are very few openings). Or maybe invest some time in golang, and target getting into dev teams that build AWS, GCP etc. Or something niche like VMWare, that builds virtual computers.

But the skills required for these are very different from my current skillset. I don't want to end up investing time and effort in something, and get nothing in return.

How do I take calculated risk? I already need to be proficient in NodeJS Typescript, JS frontend frameworks, using docker / AWS.

GianFabien
The amount of money you earn is a function of how big the problems are that you solve. Of course, the problems are rarely just technical, that's where most of us get it wrong. Politics, brow-nosing, making your boss look great, etc generally pay far better.

Working on your indie creation is rather like the 100 thousand people flogging their scented candles on etsy.com

The signpost fell off at the fork in the road: one said more money, less fun and the other more fun, virtually no money. It is hard to be passionate and have fun when your stomach is growling.

abhnv
Money is definitely an issue. And if I decide to build a family, then it'll be more of an issue.

These people at indiehacker.com post some very positive stories, it does compel me to try and see if it works for me. If I can build something and get some paying users, it could be a passive source of income.

But, yes I do need to keep my JS chops on point and get a new job in a couple of months.