Ask HN: How do you escape CRUD jobs?
You're asking the wrong question, my friend.<p>Don't blame the CRUD for all the bullshit that is often associated with it.<p>(Reminder: CRUD stands for Create Retrieve Update Delete, and is the underlying philosophy for the database applications that run the world we live in, the 90% of the iceberg that most hackers never see or even think about.)<p>I've been doing CRUD for 33 years and it's been an incredible ride. I credit my CRUD work for putting me in the right hand 5% of that bell curve, ahead of the rest of my fellow hackers who have built so little of substance.<p>Sure, I've built apps that move people and things to the right place, and also have done a lot of "reports here, manage documents here, upgrade calender software here", but what job doesn't have some crap work go to along with the gravy? I've never seen any good job without it's share of maintenance, refactoring, testing, process, and meetings with drones.<p>I've also build software that generates other software, invented new frameworks, and devised algorithms that dramatically improved the way we make and build and move the stuff that's probably in your cubicle right now. I've taken cool academic theory from my pure mathematical background to build software that has blown away the posers everywhere around me. And you know what? You do that just once, and every champion in the enterprise runs to you with their giant budgets to solve their CRUD problem du jour with your "genius".<p>Believe me, you don't have to work at "Intel, Google, Apple, or NASA" to "change the world". You're just as likely to be a cog in the wheel at those places as anywhere else.<p>You can change the world from where ever you're at, and in fact, if you're working on a CRUD app, I think you're actually in a <i>better</i> position to do it. You just have to ask a better question.<p>My suggestion: "How to you escape the shackles and bullshit of your CRUD job and use all those great resources in your head to turn that job on its side and change the world from right where you're at?"<p>Find the answer to that question. It may be easier than you think.