Life's too short to write shitty software
For those of you now <i>browsing Hacker News at his cubicle during his break under soul-sucking fluorescent lights</i>:<p>You <i>can</i> have it both ways (work for BigCo and build cool stuff), but it's not easy. You have to make it happen within the corporate systems and structure.<p>I have many times. A few examples:<p>- Boss to me: "Purchasing is complaining that the legacy system isn't doing what it should. Go find out what they need." 3 weeks later, my prototype is the basis for specs for a whole new system. "But you told me to."<p>- PM/BA to me: "I can't make it to the status meeting. Will you run it for me?" "Sure." Results: 3 new projects at the top of my queue. What the customer wants most and what will be fun to build.<p>- Big Boss in meeting: "I don't think corporate will approve $2 million for a Data Warehouse/Business Intelligence system, but we have to do something." One month later, after squeezing it in to my spare time: an MVP of a BI system that the users love and was fun to build. Now I get permission to finish it.<p>- Another boss: "I would love to sell our stuff on Amazon, but I don't know how to go about it." Me: "Want me to find out?" Boss: "Yes." A month later, we're on Amazon. Fun project.<p>- User VP: "Why do we have to wait 3 years to get anything done on our legacy system?" Me: "Send the quick critical stuff directly to me. I'll try to push it through faster." Almost always leads to building something cool.<p>The 3 keys to doing these kinds of things:<p>1. You must find the cool stuff to build yourself. No one's going to hand them to you. Opportunities are everywhere.<p>2. You'll probably have to make time for extra work. Shouldn't be a problem if you're a good programmer in an enterprise.<p>3. You'll probably have to hang your cool new stuff off something legacy. So what?<p>Maybe not as good as building something in a startup for the first time ever, but building is building. You can find a way to build cool stuff from whereever you are right now. "Finding a way" is the key.