Software Development While Living Aboard

[hblask]

The days of hiring cheap programmers is ending as fast as it began. As with boats, you get what you pay for. Our company had a "mandatory outsourcing" policy for a year or so. It is now "no more outsourcing without a really, really good reason."

Real programming -- not hacking together a crappy webpage -- requires a certain set of mental skills that only exists in about 3% of the population. And not all of that 3% wants to be a programmer. Yes, the easy stuff can be shipped off to cheap programmers who will do it for cheap, and you'll get a semi-functional webpage that looks like it cost $5/hr to get built.

But real programmers will still be hard to find and still make a lot of money. But I do agree, that will probably not be possible from a boat unless you work somewhere for 10 years and make yourself so valuable that they will put up with your idiosyncrasies.

The stuff you can do from a boat -- short term, quick hit projects -- yeah, there won't be a lot of money in those, but my idea is that I won't do it unless I need NO extra money, and anything I find just improves my lifestyle, an extra night or two having dinner at a nicer restaurant.

[sparau]

Another thing to add to the cheap o-desk coders, in some areas there is a culture of never finishing a job, it is all about getting a progress payment/s off some sucker knowing that there isn't a snowball's chance of it ever working...

as tbodine says, having a working relationship with people is very useful.

[hblask]

Originally Posted by sparau

Another thing to add to the cheap o-desk coders, in some areas there is a culture of never finishing a job, it is all about getting a progress payment/s off some sucker knowing that there isn't a snowball's chance of it ever working...

Those of us who have had to work with outsourced cheapo labor have NEVER seen that....

[bdbcat]

Hello Developers/Cruisers....

...or, you might consider working on some fun, practical, and rewarding OpenSource project (like, ahem, OpenCPN). No pay, but lots of learning experience and a real feeling of "giving back" to the society and infrastructure that enabled our cruising in the first place.

After an early-out from high pressure mega-corp ProdDev career, I've been leading OpenCPN development for 10 years from the boat. I can say without a doubt that this has been much more rewarding spiritually and mentally than anything, anything, that I ever did managing PD at a big Austin computer company.

So, there are lots of ways to stay technically vital while cruising. Consider them all.

My two cents.
Dave

[sparau]

Originally Posted by bdbcat

Hello Developers/Cruisers....

...or, you might consider working on some fun, practical, and rewarding OpenSource project (like, ahem, OpenCPN). No pay, but lots of learning experience and a real feeling of "giving back" to the society and infrastructure that enabled our cruising in the first place.

After an early-out from high pressure mega-corp ProdDev career, I've been leading OpenCPN development for 10 years from the boat. I can say without a doubt that this has been much more rewarding spiritually and mentally than anything, anything, that I ever did managing PD at a big Austin computer company.

So, there are lots of ways to stay technically vital while cruising. Consider them all.

My two cents.
Dave

I know what you mean, it took my starting this project to re-discover my love of coding, i HATE my current job (ending in 4 weeks, phew), it is just about money and aggrandisement of ego with the customer in a distant second place.

If i had the means to be free and come onboard with OpenCPN right now i would, give me a couple of years and hopefully i'll be able to help

Else if someone has a spare 40-45ft cat they don't want i'll come onboard the project tomorrow lol

Cheers
Shane

[rebel heart]

I'm mainly a manager now but before that I was a no-kidding developer, and still hop onto the ide sometimes for this or that. It depends quite a bit on your team. The whole "build stuff, check your code in, and get direct deposit" doesn't really work too well with a team of any size, or even just working with anyone else really. If you have some one-man-band projects it can work because you're the only one making changes, but when you start talking about agile teams and complex environments with n-tier architectures, it gets pretty impossible to do disconnected for long periods.

You can of course sit in paradise on broadband staying synced up with your people, but now you're basically working from home somewhere else.

I've worked remotely as a developer, manager, and now director in software development for about six years now. It's hard to make generalizations because every situation is so unique. Some places can be flexible, some projects you can just own yourself, some projects just can't work with developers not plugged in all the time on schedule.

[Zonker]

Originally Posted by tbodine88

The problem with trading or day trading is it requires a good internet connection. Some thing that it hard to get in Tortola, or the Pitcairn Islands. Especially difficult in mid-ocean.
...
Furthermore when its a choice between coding for 16 hours on the boat or swimming around in the reef, then sipping Mai Tais afterwards in the shade, it might be hard to be as consistent while cruising. :-)

There is where your skills re software engineering comes into play. Just thinking of a "remote control" .. :-)
...
Hehe ... but even paradise becomes boring at some point ...

[K_V_B]

Originally Posted by sparau

I know what you mean, it took my starting this project to re-discover my love of coding, i HATE my current job (ending in 4 weeks, phew), it is just about money and aggrandisement of ego with the customer in a distant second place.

I hate my current job too. And thus quit. 3 more weeks to go. Than it's of the the Netherlands, then the UK and finally Spain for some serious sailing. then after that we'll see.