A little while back I left a stable consulting job to go build something of my own.
On paper it was an awful trade. I walked away from a comfortable salary, five years of relationships with clients renowned for their data platforms, and a senior / tech-lead role with the manager promotion close on the horizon. I left all of it for a path I have no map for, chasing something that may or may not work, on a bet I have no clue how it'll play out.
Going by the age-old fairytale of school, then a cushy 9 to 5 (996, more realistically, in this industry), then living happily ever after, it probably sounds batshit crazy. And tbh, I don't have nearly enough experience yet to truly debunk it. But here's what keeps it from feeling crazy to me.
The industry that coined "move fast and break things" doesn't really do that anymore. At scale, the big platforms traded speed for stability and process for reasons that make sense for them. But that spirit didn't die with them. It's alive in startups, small teams, and people chasing their own ambitions, where experimentation still wins out over process. That's the world I wanted to build in so I decided to go independent to get back to it.
Which brings me to what I'm actually building. I'm launching a project in the next few weeks that bumped this site up my priority list. It lives in a space where a lot of the patterns are still being worked out in real time, including by me, and I'd rather think and share in the open than wait until everything's clean and the "right way of doing things" is well established.
The rest is a little selfish. I've never done this before. I'm an engineer, not a founder, and most of this is uncharted water for me. Writing it down helps me consolidate what I'm learning and gives me something to look back on. And if any of it ends up useful to someone weighing the same leap, that's a win I'll take even if my own bets don't pan out.
If that sounds interesting, make sure to stick around.