26th August 2009
Nathaniel Talbott Interview
Excellent communicator, passionate about business and software, opinionated, well-connected, and somewhat expensive. Founder of Terralien, Inc.
I was doing a contract project, and the client didn’t care what I used
so I used Ruby. This was back in 2003, before Rails came around.
Where, and how, do you search for work now? Can you give me some advice on the best ways to find Ruby related work?
Most work comes to me, in the form of people finding Terralien and
getting in touch about projects. This is insufficient, though, and I’m
always trying to find better and more reliable sources of work.
For a solo guy like yourself, it largely depends: are you looking for
freelance work? Or are you looking for full-time employment. In either
case it’s all about networking – talking to people, getting the word
out about what you do – but it’s two different networks. My suggestion
would be to read “My Job Went to India” or its newer edition, “The
Passionate Programmer” – Chad does an amazing job of giving you the
same sort of advice I would give you if I had the time to write it all
down!
What advice would you give a Ruby beginner without any projects ready to show?
Two things: work on open source projects, and get involved in the
community. For community, look for local folks to get together with,
go to a conference or two, and spend time on mailing lists and in
forums contributing to the discussion.
What have you learned in the past about working with Ruby, clients, how to find good clients, etc.? Many people dream about changing the past for a better present moment … anything you want to share?
I wish I’d found ways to work on side projects with other people
sooner than I did. Tackling something with a couple of other folks
increases the learning by an order of magnitude, since you get to
learn from each other.
What books, or sites, or recipes, or whatever else you can recommend (they may be about productivity, or negotiation, or thinking – anything you think will help me live a better life as a programmer)?
I always recommend reading and applying “Getting Things Done” by David
Allen. It will give you the tools to build a productive system that
works for you.
How do recommend becoming a successful and profitable programmer?
These days I spend most of my time doing business, not programming.
From what I’ve seen, the key to being profitable long-term is to spend
time on long-term projects. In particular, start building a business
(or two or three) on the side that can make money outside of your day
job. Side businesses are both great for learning and also have the
potential to become full-time jobs that are much more consistent than
either freelance work or working for a company.
What should every programmer know?
I think more about what every programmer should *be*: they should be
so passionate about programming that they would do it even if they
couldn’t get paid for it. Cultivate that passion, and you’ll find it
easier and easier to get paid to put it into practice.
I hope this helps – I’m impressed with your initiative to put this
interview together!
Thank you very much, Nathaniel!
It was very interesting to read your advices.