Crossroads
I’ve finished reading A Generation Lost in the Bazaar by Poul-Henning Kamp (of Varnish fame).
The key takeaway is simple enough: quality happens only when someone is responsible for it.
Right now, I’m working on my personal/family project, modernising the infrastructure of a 16 years old Perl application, and moving some parts to other languages to make it easier for us to hire resources. I love Perl, and still is my favourite language, but getting people to work on it in Portugal is a very hard proposition.
But the future is uncertain. What should I do after I finish this task? So I go back to what I’ve been doing over the past three years, managing a team of developers, nurturing young talent and give freedom and cover to senior developers to do its thing?
Or should I keep it small, build the hand-full of services I would like to build, not something that is brand spanking new, but my own personal view how those systems should be work? Be one more SaaS out there, selling my work directly to companies?
Should I go back to the factories, or go for the boutique?
I honestly don’t know yet… There are still somethings I would like to do, that are only available at a factory. But the thing is, one of the major decisive points to leave my previous employer was that I could not longer control the quality of the work my team was doing, and that is a position where I never want to be again.
Quality happens only when someone is responsible for it. And I want to be that someone, somewhere. Just not sure where that will be.