I was talking to a pal about how some software developers are able to operate in a sort of timeless way. If contemporary tech, the stuff that made “tech people” the antagonist, is on one end of the spectrum, these developers are all the way over on the other end.
Picture a sleepy strip mall: grocery store, clothing store, paint store (why is there always a paint store?), and then, improbably, a software store. Inside, a proud but humble proprietor.
“What do you have for sale?”, you ask.
“One application, available on two or three platforms, you can buy ‘em all for less than $99”, they reply.
“You got anything else?”
“Nope, just this one program.”
Maybe you buy it, maybe you ask a few questions. Either way, the owner heads back to the workshop and keeps at their thing.
It makes an okay living. There are a couple of other people back in the workshop, helping to fix bugs, add minor new features, and keep things moving along. But it hasn’t grown to planet scale, doesn’t require astronomical growth to make payroll and pay holiday bonuses.
I’ve conveniently left out all the other small business things they have to do: accounting, marketing, so many kinds of insurance, budgeting, etc. Small businesses are all alike in that way.
It’s really great that the curious shop in the strip mall of the web, the personal website, continues to forge ahead. Maybe you call it a blog, a webring, a portfolio site, whatever. It’s still out there, doesn’t need astronomical growth to satisfy end-game finance or investors. It just is.