One of the great things about America is that you can start all over again by moving to a new town, or by just simply doing the thing you are afraid to do.
I had the offer letter in my hand. It was for a profitable company that just secured enough VC to outlast the Great Depression, The Sequel. Experience told me that this was the most sensible thing to do, so I signed the offer letter. I would be making more money that any previous job I had, and the position would be this cushy middle-ware coder.
But something nagged at me. So much of life is an illusion. For some reason, I felt that the secure, money-maker of a job was an illusion. I also felt that I was taking myself away from the game of business where I would right all the wrongs done to me. I am still aching freshly from some wounds that people gave me; people who dishonored me by claiming I was a coder of poor quality when just weeks before they were saying I was the best of coders. I worked weekends for these people when none of the other developers would. I volunteered the most for being on-call, and they dishonor me.
Anyway, dear Readers, you in the industry know who these dishonorable people are, and because I decided to take the harder road of freedom, I am free to speak of them here. Why? Because in a world where faint praise is damning, there is no amicability in that. Because I will never, ever use the dishonorable as a reference. I will only use honorable references from honorable men, if I have to, but I really just want to free myself from references altogether. I will hack things out project by project and by the skin of my teeth, and be free.
I turned the offer of security down.
I chose total personal freedom.
The crumb of freedom tastes better than the banquet of slaves.
I have been learning so much in the situations that I’ve been in these past few days.
My code is my reference.
What would you choose? Security or Freedom?