Monetize Me

I'm sure I'm not the only one.

We're entrepreneurs, you and I. Forget the mythical beast known as the day job. We know what we're doing. We have skills, perhaps even mad skills, in anything and everything related to our job. Able to provide tech support even to other programmers with the energy of a single brain-cell, our minds are free to mull the minute enhancements to the efficiency of the tasks (for which we're likely over-qualified) that largely consume our digital daydreams. Once in a while, we even finish a universe-altering code project.

So where's the money?

When do I get paid to know everything there is to know about Emacs? (That may be the definition of a hypothetical question, but its worth using as an example.) When does the evening news talk about how rich I became adding interfaces to my classes during a difficult upgrade from PHP4 to PHP5? When does writing my code in C, Python, PERL, JSP, and PHP (just in case my users prefer one over the other) make me an industry hero? Its not happening. I wouldn't want it to; don't expect it to. But somehow, the default logic that my mind relies on in the background as I develop my ideas thinks that is exactly how things work.

People don't pay you to learn, unless you're a student, and then they want it back in 30 years. To truly function in the digital economy, something - anything - needs to be placed in front of the man or woman who will write you your next check. And it needs to meet their needs. At a price they can afford.

Oh no, my subconscious dot-com daydream just got slapped by reality! Economics hasn't changed just because machines have made our work more economical. Economics has become a magnified science, and we developers are now staring it in the face as though our only view is through an electron microscope. Can't see the forest for the trees?

Back up a little with me. Now walk it out. ;]

People that "earn a lot of money on the Internet" didn't win the lottery. They put something out there that met a need. Maybe they're really good at C#. Maybe they're really bad at ColdFusion. But the teenage girl sending pictures of her dog to all her friends doesn't care. And as long she's a regular user of that service, the advertisers don't care either! Another developer out there likely had the idea first. Still another might be better at putting it into action. Neither of them will ever benefit from their creativity or skill though, if they lack the one thing that made the latest craze a success: those developers delivered.

There is an awkward juggling act that must take place when you work with advanced technologies and cutting-edge services. On the one hand, you must gain and maintain certain skills to be capable and well-rounded in your pursuits. On the other hand, you must not only pursue - you must overtake!

I'm reminded of a story I just made up: Three mountain climbers set out to win the grand prize in a contest to reach the top of a mountain. Specifically, according to the rules, to "reach the top of a mountain first".

Climber One realizes that the better the climber he is, the better he can make the climb. He researches the best climbing gear, goes on test-runs in local indoor gyms, and even patents a new oxygen regulator. He's going for the big one - Mount Everest. We leave him behind to his studies in our story, because the other two are already well on their way to the top... The second mountain climber was also ambitious and knew that he could become a better climber, but only if he sidetracked from the climb at hand. Besides, this climb would have its own educational factors along the way, and it is the one that counts! (I respect that. I do.)

The third climber got in his car with his wife and kids, drove them out past the foothills, and together they climbed to the top of a mountain.

Not a big one. Not one that was hard to climb. But they reached the top of a mountain first. (You did read the rules, right?)

Which one of those three guys would I rather be? Which one(s) do I act like in my work? How rhetorical is that? Heh heh. Well, first of all, I'd take having a wife and kids to climb mountains with over any other kind of "success" any day. But from a business perspective, meeting the basic requirements for success was possible without risking death or deadlines.

Am I telling myself to lower my standards? Certainly not. Not if your standard of happiness is guided by time with your family, by a contentment with success itself rather than a grandiose overdose of it, and by preferring the satisfaction of taking a step (no matter how small) over the fiction of planning steps with rocket boots.

And mightn't that have been a part of why the dot-com bubble burst to begin with? We've forgotten basic economics. We're funding "the big one" with our time, money, and attention. I'm not one to give up on those dreams. But perhaps we should be funding "the big one" with all the little ones we actually deliver. Maybe "the next big thing" will be possible because of all the small achievements we've brought to market along the way.

Maybe I've finally figured out how to monetize my skills.

I don't want to get rich quick. I want to get it right; NOW.