A Simple Way To Go Faster Than Light That Does Not Work

My LinkedIn page is the second Google hit for [boston perl consultant]. (Number one is the LinkedIn of another local hacker who has been consulting for 17 years, so yeah.)

I've been meaning to note for a while that I am no longer in hell, and am once again happy with my work situation. I say this fully realizing that I also said this last summer before I fell flat on my back. But I know exactly what I did wrong then, and it's a mistake I won't make again.

In short, I ran a business with no marketing and a single customer, who was under no obligation not to simply wander off when they felt done with me. Leaving me with no income and no plan to attract new customers. It turns out that customers aren't employers.

After six harrowing, empty-cupboard weeks of full-time, unpaid work I had some marketing in place and a small corral of active customers. That interim was really rough, but knowing that I pulled myself out of it through my own strength (with assists from my excellent friends) is awesome. My confidence in my ability to do business as well as sling code shot up tremendously, even before I started actually collecting money again, just from witnessing my own success at finding and connecting with new customers.

Gord willing, I now have a heightened awareness of pitfalls that I haven't fallen into yet. Not too long ago I was talking with some friends on the train. One, who had just landed a lucrative full-time job, said he was tempted by my stories of the independent life, but was also made quite wary by my little time of troubles. I said that I had learned my lesson from all of that, and I don't foresee any other terrible things happening to me. "Unless someone sues me," I mused. Suddenly, I felt very cold. "Yes, that would count," said my friend.

So that is why I am moving forward with this reorganization plan, primarily as armor against any future legal blows. (No, I'm not expecting anyone to sue me. And really, that's the point.)

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I am seriously considering writing a book, or something bookish, about my experiences. There's a lot of spilled ink about becoming a consultant, and far more about embracing the freelance life in general. But I haven't encountered any works targeted specifically towards software professionals, coming to them with the message that there is another way and offering advice on how to break free and get started.

I discovered the lifestyle by accident, by way of launching an unrelated startup, and later looking for supplemental income without having to go back to a job. After a year of trial and error I finally have an idea how it works. And from this vantage point, I continue to feel surprise that I know tons of software people, but only one or two work for themselves. It's certainly not the life for everyone, but for me it is without a doubt the best job I've ever had. I probably could have started years before I actually did, had I only known it was possible. The message needs to get out more.

In New Jersey again, hanging out with doctor_atomic through Sunday morning. We just spent several hours burning our brains over the latest issue of Puzzles and Answers Magazine, knocking over two puzzles and shouting "This is brilliant!" at a third though we have no idea yet how to shake the meta out of it. Taking a damn break now. (I also love grumbling at test-solver tahnan via IM while working on these.)

Starting work on the one contract next week, though I noted half an hour of billable time on the train while I absorbed spec docs and such. Not a peep from the client who owes me in excess of two large now. Since I now have barely enough liquid to make rent, this makes me sad. Yes, I will get quite aggressive about it once I'm back on home turf.

I am annoyed at Blip.tv. They changed the design of show pages in a way I really don't like, and which apparently I have no control over as show operator. If you go to http://thegameshelf.blip.tv you are treated to our first episode from 2005, and while I Stand By All My Work, boy does that shit show its age. It's not the first impression I want made on a visitor. And yet it clearly is, in many cases, since my blip.tv stats show an order of magnitude more views for that ep than any of the others... which means that it's often the last impression made, as well. Blah.

I should just set up a Movable Type thing for the show, already.

Worked for close to six hours editing The Gameshelf #6. Too much time spent in tweaking greenscreen stuff - it won't look quite as good as last time, sadly - and nosing around for appropriate (and CC-licensed) background music. If you know of an instrumental that would work well against several minutes of blathering about a corporate-takeover-themed board game, please do share. (Especially if I can legally use it.)

I now understand why other low-budget (but still some-budget) shows like The Phantom Gourmet seem to like having a small library of background music, from which they pick something more or less arbitrarily to throw on when nothing else is happening.

I hope to finish the show tomorrow. We'll see.

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After negotiating a couple of points, I signed a contract that will keep me in part-timey work for the rest of the year. Suddenly, half my work-time allotment vanishes, ker-chunk, and I have to be careful about farming out the remainder. I will allow myself to take on one more such contract, and that's it until 2008. If both of the big uncertain deals pop the question this week, I'll almost certainly have to turn one down. A good problem to have. Until then, I've slowed down my frantic job hunt.

In the background, I've felt myself warming up to the idea of working on the web client again. Don't expect me to lift a finger for it until my working schedule is completely defined, but when that happens (and it won't be too much longer), I'll be ready to pick it back up again. It doesn't hurt that someone put the idea into my head that, once it's up and running, I can much more reasonably add Volity game developer to my list of services as a software consultant...