If there's one thing I think I'd most like about working for myself, it's that I wouldn't have to justify my decisions to anyone (other than my customer, probably). I could just do what I knew was right without wasting time explaining the "why" to anyone.
You get a great idea, you discover something new and useful, you just do it, you don't explain it. Wouldn't it be nice to spend no time justifying, and all time doing?
Maybe the best way to become more efficient/productive is to reduce the amount of time you have to spend justifying things to people.
I'd be interested to hear from sole proprietors or other one-person businesses out there:
- Is not having to justify your decisions to managers, co-workers, etc. one of the big reasons you chose to go solo?
- Is it really as great in practice as I'm imagining it to be?
I know there have to be downsides, like being solely responsible for any negative outcomes of your decisions/whims, but living with total integrity and accountability appeals to me as well.
13 comments:
One potential downside is that justifying your actions to others forces you to think through your actions entirely. Otherwise you would be unable to defend them. If you have no one to justify your actions to then over time you could stop questioning your assumptions and start believing that you are always correct.
When you work for yourself, you are still justifying, you are just justifying it yourself. As soon as you bring other people in, then you expand the scope of decision-making. Justification is a necessary step in all decision-making.
I've been on my own almost exclusively since 2001. To answer your questions:
Yes, I truly enjoy not having to justify nitty-gritty tech decisions to anyone, so yes, that is a major reason I'm on my own.
Is it a great as you imagine? That depends because there are so many other issues with being on your own that those technical decisions become a small part of what you do. ;-)
@Justin @Corey
Yes, I understand that concept and there are definite cons to never justifying things to anyone, but I'm just wondering if it's more trouble than it's worth ultimately.
@Michael
I was hoping you'd comment. :-)
And I know there would be many things about going solo that would suck badly.
"You get a great idea, you discover something new and useful, you just do it, you don't explain it."
'Useful' is a loaded word. By determining it was useful, you had to go through (albeit a very quick and subtle) justification with yourself.
I don't argue that your point is sound, but I do think that you are walking into a slipper slope when you term it "justification"
Also, I agree with Justin that justifying/explaining your decisions to others has a huge benefit. Personally, I enjoy justifying my technical decisions, as it does force me to explain the why behind the decision. If you can't articulate the 'why' then, potentially, you have not thought it through enough.
@Corey
"'Useful' is a loaded word. By determining it was useful, you had to go through (albeit a very quick and subtle) justification with yourself."
Yes, good point. I ruthlessly self-justify always. At the risk of sounding (even more) arrogant :), I think my self-awareness is quite a bit higher than average, and that helps me in that regard.
And yes, there's a definite "slippery slope" danger present in this line of thinking, and I'm aware of that.
I want to point out that there are plenty of things I do that require justification, especially for my clients, BUT those are normally "big" things. Like I said in my original comment, I don't believe it's productive to have to justify every single nitty-gritty technical decision you make, and believe me, I've been there and it sucks.
Should you have to justify using MVC.NET on a big client project to your client? IMO it depends. My clients don't necessarily care how I do something, just that it gets done in a timely manner and it's correct both from the technical and business views. As Corey said, I, of course, would have to justify in my own mind that it's the right thing to do.
On the other hand, I would definitely expect to justify my decision to use SQL Server 2008 to my clients because that will cost them a lot of time and money to implement (BTW, I'm *not* talking about the Express edition).
As I pointed out in a recent blog post, being on your own means just that - you're on your own and you may not have people to bounce ideas off from or discuss decisions. On top of that, depending on any client contracts in place, you may not be able to discuss things with people outside of the project.
I feel like I'm rambling now. I'm simply trying to say that being on your means you have to make lots of decisions every day, some big, some small. Some of those decisions must be justified to others, but others...not so much. It can be a tough road, but it's very satisfying.
Matt,
I never feel like I am justifying my decisions to others. When I have those types of discussions, I am bouncing ideas back and forth and solidifying the ultimate solution. I usually end up changing my idea about as much as I keep it the same.
As far as the time it takes to "justify" - I don't see that as a major problem mostly because I'd rather spend the time up front than later down the road because of short sidedness on my part. Bugs found in design or easier and cheaper to fix than bugs found in QA.
I've never been out on my own, but I have been the sole developer on a few projects, and I can tell you that I feel better about the solutions I build where I have to justify my decisions than when I work in a vacuum on my own.
Lately I've been just making justifications to myself and not the client. For example, in my current project I am deviating from the agreed upon designs because some things were vague or didn't seem to make any sense when it came to actual implementation. If the client asks, then I'll justify my decisions, but it's a big time saver to just do things without asking questions to which you already know the likely answer.
Usually the client doesn't notice or care. You're being paid for your expertise. Making judgments about the technical aspects of a project is part of that expertise.
I suppose it would be a nightmare if we had clients that demanded we do everything to the letter of the design document. We'd also need much more thoroughly thought out specs in the first place!
@Michael
You're not rambling at all. I'm very interested in hearing your first-hand experiences as an independent.
"It can be a tough road, but it's very satisfying."
That's what I suspected I'd hear. I know it would be a major pain in the ass in many ways to be independent, but getting to live with total integrity might trump those negatives.
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@Joel
"As far as the time it takes to "justify" - I don't see that as a major problem mostly because I'd rather spend the time up front than later down the road because of short sidedness on my part. Bugs found in design or easier and cheaper to fix than bugs found in QA."
I'm not really talking about the cost to my time, more about the cost to my happiness and sanity.
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@Nathan
Asking for forgiveness rather than permission is a concept I'm still trying to imprint on my brain. I may be feeling pressure to justify that's not really there.
last week I celebrated my fourth anniversary of working for myself. For the most part it's been a great improvement over working for The Man.
You still have to justify the important stuff, but you justify it to yourself and to the paying clients. You don't have to justify every little decision you've made, like why you're taking the morning off to bring a child to the doctor. And you don't have to put up with utter crap, like the meetings to get yelled at for not meeting unrealistic and meaningless targets for whatever the moron pointy-haired boss wanted.
There's less justification of every little design decision. The client has brought you on board for your expertise, and will trust you to decide the dumb stuff yourself.
Just don't forget to listen to feedback!
Doesn't look like there's any danger of that, though :)
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