This newsletter is now full fidelity again. If you really enjoyed the lo-fi text only version. Weigh in by replying. I imagine links will work better here but otherwise I'm not opposed to going plaintext.

Coming up:

• Code BEAM Stockholm Lite (12th of May), just going with a friend, say hi if you go :)
• ElixirConf Africa (end of May), do I have a talk in me?
• Trying to figure out if I have material for a video about the ElixirConf trip, see blog for details :D

All about the technical skill?

As a teen with ideas about being a motorcycle-riding freelance writer-coder vagabond I had a very simplistic way of thinking about code work. The sketch, the outline of a professional relationship. A company would want my (future self's) elite coding and I would provide it and that was that. A commercial exchange. Pretty simple. Finding a client, closing a sales conversation, getting a contract and then keeping the contract thoughout, these were not part of the sketch. See also the rest of the fucking owl.

Developers inside organizations are often protected and guarded from the realities of the customer relationship. It tends to slip through in bursts of sudden priority shifts from the people that do talk to customers.

Fundamentally my technical skillset is the reason I can provide my services. They are not how I find clients, they are not how I close a sale, they are not how I finalize a contract and they are not how a relationship is maintained. Those are intensely human relationships and interactions. It is all about inspiring faith in your ability to do what you say and once that faith has been placed, transforming that into an enduring trust. This is typically done by achieving the things you claimed you could. Often it is also, counter-intuitively, achieved by being very clear about what you can't do, what you don't believe in and questioning decisions.

Developers are generally good at the questioning and skepticism. That really needs to be tempered with a general attitude of possibilities. We can do things. We can achieve things. But I will tell you, warn you, advice you when I think an idea is bad or where things are about to go off the rails. That engenders trust.

Running your own business entails a variety of skills that you should acquire or outsource over time. I don't do my taxes myself. I have a poor affinity for detailed dull work that I don't see the meaning of. It is necessary but doesn't feel meaningful to me. I think I had a sense as a teenager that I would enjoy doing a variety of things. I absolutely did not have the sense that talking to people with business needs would be a critical part of how I make a living.

I just got off the phone with a client. Things are shuffling around a bit in their org, nothing major but he wanted to confirm that I was steady with whatever shifts were coming and it was a good conversation. The client confirmed that he was really happy with a number of my contributions and the experience of working together. I could reaffirm that he had nothing to worry about with regards to whatever change was happening. None of it had much to do with tech. My most recent achievement in his eyes was contributing ideas during a brainstorming session. My primary purpose for that client is taking responsibility for the technical development of their product, not really producing code.

Similarly the way I find clients is all about people. Taking some risk, putting myself out there, reaching out. Having conversations. Finding the right fit. I spoke to a prospective client yesterday. The idea was that they might want some contract work from my team. Turns out they almost definitely want help recruiting instead. Conversation, figuring out goals, finding shared advantage. I enjoy it. Teen me wouldn't have thought this was worth very much.

A reader recommended me Sandi Metz when I asked for people that they appreciate. I found the talk they sent me very interesting. She covers How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie in that talk and refers Sarah Mei's summary of the book which I think I could both do better at and which I think is key to all this:

"Act as if others are interesting and you will eventually find them so."
-Sarah Mei

There are a lot of subtle strokes in the finished owl. You can make a great living focused on the tech. But if you want to do your own thing, run your own thing, it is all about relationships and people. Business, all about people. Open source, all about people. Conferences, all about people. Opportunity, all about people.

Do you just want to tech? Is it what you always imagined it to be? Do you people at all? I always appreciate getting your thoughts in email or federated at me via lars@underjord.io or as @lawik@fosstodon.org.

Thanks for reading. I appreciate it.