That depends on your incentive structure. You may well be right if you work as a contract programmer. If you work as a salaried employee in a large company the calculation could look different.
Yes, absolutely. The former path (working or contracting for many small companies) is the one I’d heartily recommend to novices. The latter path… scares me.
I write maintainable code anyway, and I’m friends with several people who maintain my past code and don’t seem to complain. No, working at BigCo scares me because it tends to be a very one-sided activity. Employees at small companies and contractors face much more variety in what they have to do every day.
That depends on your incentive structure. You may well be right if you work as a contract programmer. If you work as a salaried employee in a large company the calculation could look different.
Yes, absolutely. The former path (working or contracting for many small companies) is the one I’d heartily recommend to novices. The latter path… scares me.
Maybe you are scared because you are aware that writing maintainable code is harder than writing code without that constraint?
I write maintainable code anyway, and I’m friends with several people who maintain my past code and don’t seem to complain. No, working at BigCo scares me because it tends to be a very one-sided activity. Employees at small companies and contractors face much more variety in what they have to do every day.