Today we read how meaning and responsibility can be more important than flexible hours. It was based on a Hacker News post where a "middle aged" developer felt "as a loser":
"I might be going through midlife crisis. I am feeling a bit lost and a bit failure. I have a soul-sucking but decent job at one of major tech companies. But I never cared for my day job, as I had been focused on my side projects."
This reminds us that side projects are good to keep up motivation. Working at a big company, doing a small part, not really caring about what the company is building, and not seeing the direct results of your work doesn’t matter that much anymore when you can later in the evening work on your own side projects, taking them step by step closer to being profitable themselves.
And with so many remote startups offering flexible hours, you don’t even need to work on your microstartups (or call them side projects) in the evenings and weekends, but as you can plan your own work days, you can switch between them easily.
So, your full-time job at a flexible remote startup pays your bills until you start earning enough money with your microstartup to quit your job and go full-time on your own startup.
Is it fair that you work on your own side projects while working for the company? Well, you are more motivated to do your day job when you find meaning and motivation from your side projects, and the company benefits from it.
In fact, many remote startups even encourage you to work on your microstartups, like Gumroad:
"I’m starting a new company: http://circle.so! I’ll be sharing more about it in the coming weeks, but today I wanted to show gratitude to the life situation that made this possible: contracting for a flexible remote startup — @gumroad. It wouldn’t have happened without it." – @sidyadav on Twitter
