Everything Is For Sale

I'm living in a zone, that had experienced tough times during the WW2, from deportations, shelling, and hunger to hyperinflation. In 1944 in public places you could see people selling artwork, rare books, or even household objects, because there were no jobs.

Major natural disasters, civil unrests, or devastating wars are reshaping the local society. Depending on the cultural and educational backgrounds of the community members, the spontaneously emerging market-based relationships may degrade into command-and-control based relationships, or continuous warfare between rival groups.

Either way, the market continues to operate, and in zones with electricity and Internet coverage the online market will connect people. 

In the 90's the former COMECON countries went through major economic restructurings, and in certain former Soviet states the barter was the king, many factory workers received products instead of payment. In addition to supplying their friends and families with goods received as salaries, people were placing announcements into free advertising brochures - the predecessors of the online marketplaces.

The proliferation of the Internet has brought with him the more and more specialized marketplaces, complementing the web-shops, and local advertising websites. 

It's not a new thesis, that the structure of a given population's supply and demand is characteristic to the state of their local economy, but the job market looks to me even more interesting, because it says a lot about how people controlling significant resources are thinking about the future of their industries and/or geographic zones.

As a long term telecommuter I've seen the rise, consolidation and restructuring of various freelancer marketplaces. After 2015 the numerous junior and middle level programmer job offers have been replaced gradually by a reduced number of offers for senior level specialists in development, QA, and cloud infrastructure. 

Currently there is high demand for marketing wizards, sellers, and managers expected to run smaller companies or teams. It looks like business people aren't into investing in jobs, they are mostly after cash. Since less jobs does mean less purchasing power, the "everything is for sale" psychosis looks like a signal of upcoming changes in the macroeconomic landscape.

Domain Knowledge First

 Since the appearance of computer software there have been ongoing debates about software development approaches.

When I started to use MS Visual Studio, the product has already offered support both for  the "database first" and the "code first" approaches. 

The proliferation of websites, web applications, and then the mobile apps have created demand for rapid software development tools, and have contributed to the acceptance of the "UI first" software development approach.

While the "database first" approach is still relevant to industries with slowly changing technological and business processes, the "UI first" approach is the best bet for agile teams.

Interviewing users, keeping in touch with the aim of refining the user interfaces, and then getting the client's approval require both soft skills and specific domain knowledge. 

When I was collaborating with an agency specializing in bespoke software, I was encouraged to ask questions about the business logic, in order to uncover possible gaps in the UI drafts and flows.

Missing a task, a parameter, or a criterion from the user's processes leads to issues during software design and implementation. Catching and resolving those issues as early as possible is important, fixing them later in time requires more resources (waste), and produces frictions between developers and users.

"Domain knowledge first" is about preventing the mentioned waste and frictions. Whatever software a team is going to develop, at least one of the team members needs to take up the business analyst's role, to learn about the business processes, to stay in loop with users, and to review the UI drafts and flows.

10-15 years ago the high demand for websites and apps have produced high demand for front-end developers, and in short time a diversified market offer of education in the field of front-end development. Up to a point, the newly certified or graduate task force has been absorbed by the job market. 

Then the second generation cloud technologies have contributed to the proliferation of the SaaS products. Due to the competing offers of cloud-based office tools, visual designers, and other utilities, these products have become affordable to most companies. 

Consequently, these days a front-end developer needs to diversify his/her skills to stay employed, and learning more about the company's processes (domain knowledge) might be a perfect starting point.

Dream Big?

Most business, career, or personal development books are encouraging the reader to dream big, and the authors do exemplify their advice with presenting the histories of well-known people, who achieved their dreams against all odds.

Those presentations rarely depict the numerous failures interwoven with lessons learned and changes applied, and the years of "stand up and fight" exercises teaching us that success is a by-product, gathering and keeping nearby the right team is the biggest value we can be proud of. 

Last year, in a podcast a freelance reporter stated that in his opinion there are two types of community cultures: "mantis" (searching for resources, and using up everything found), and "cautious" (capping the consumption, so to assure the renewal of resources for future needs).

I think the same mentalities are driving one's actions when we are working on finding our way in life, transforming our dreams in projects, and shaping our human relationships.

Mantis individuals are easygoing when it comes to using, learning from, and stepping over their colleagues and partners. They aren't necessarily greedy or malicious, just all their trips are business trips, and you need to have a developed sense of humor to enjoy their company on the long run.

Cautious individuals are slow in building relationships, and the other party is usually feeling enriched by some useful know-how, an achievement, or a nice friendship resulting from their interactions.

The history is showing that both mantis and cautious people may become well-known professionals, influencers, company leaders, or even presidents. The difference is in how they've touched the lives of others.

The cautious versus mantis mentality may decide the fate of a relationship, a startup, a business, or even a country. Dreaming big is great, changing our own mindset, attitude, and priorities is hard.