
I sometimes feel like I'm a pretty damn good programmer.

I might build a cool feature that took me hours or even days to figure out how to build.

Or maybe I learn a new feature of TypeScript/Solidity that I think is awesome.

Or I come up with a design for a solution that I think is particularly smart.

Or I refactor old code others have written and turn it from what I thought is a mess with potential bugs (because it didn't use TS strict) to something that is actually quite readable and probably doesn't have bugs.

And I feel really good about myself. 🌞

Like "_wow, I'm really smart. Look at what I've done. And I don't even have 3 years of experience... I must be a damn genius_". 🧠

## But it's not always like that ⛈

Almost always before I open a PR, I test my code, read it again, use the linter and just generally try to do anything in my powers to spot anything bad before somebody else does it for me in a code review (or worse, the CI fails).

After I open the PR I'm literally just waiting there, looking at the CI process happening before my eyes. Scared that maybe I missed something.

And sometimes it turns out alright. CI passes, the code review suggest some changes, but nothing major. I feel relieved, I feel good. 😮‍💨

But sometiems, the CI fails for some reason or the code review finds a mistake so big and (in hindsight) so obvious that I feel my whole world crashing down. 📉

It feels to me that I have not only dissapointed someone, but also that **I have wasted the precious time of this senior engineer**.

"_They have better shit to do than to spot my mistakes. I should be self-reliant!_" or so I think.

The real problem stems from me comparing myself to them.

I look at their PRs when they ask me to review and I almost never have any real changes to suggest.

It makes me feel like a useless moron. Like I don't deserve my job.

But I recently read [a reddit post](https://www.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/comments/e8akgn/junior**developer**feelings**useless**compare**to/) and one of the commenters said:

> Well of course CTO writes better code than junior dev

And he's right. And it's completely obvious.

Of course the engineer that has 6+ years of professional experience is better than \*you\*. You have less than a half of his experience.

It'd be crazy if he didn't write better code than you. It'd be crazy if he didn't make any suggestions on your PRs. It'd be crazy if he couldn't get you unstuck. 🤯

## Do your best, but don't beat yourself down 🙏🏻

My point is (and this is as much for you the reader, as it is for me the writer): **understand that it's fine, expected even, to make mistakes**.

That's why CI processes and code reviews are there. To keep mistakes from reaching production.

And even though you do need support, you're probably still productive to a good enough degree that they'll keep you around.

The reality is that, unless you lied to them on the interview, they probably knew what they were getting when they hired you, right? 😅

Lastly, even though seniors may not make as many mistakes as juniors, **they still make mistakes themselves. Aaand, they were juniors at one point too.** 😉



[Adam Spiers](https://twitter.com/adamspiers), a senior architect shared some knowledge on async comms with me while I was at ETH Amsterdam. I agreed with pretty much everything he said and he also presented me some blogs that I read.

_Side note:_ I can't find those blogs right now, but I'll try to and update this article at the bottom and here if I can.

Today I want to further share this knowledge and add my experiences to it.

## The obvious advantage ⌚️

Communicators don't have to be available at the same time. Everyone knows and understands this benefit, but they usually still push for meetings (whether in person or on Zoom) because they think that's more effective.

Which is actually completely wrong. And I'll prove it by reminding you of a few situations which I am sure have happened to you.

## Talking over each other 🗣

I'm pretty much 100% sure that either you had someone talk over you or you had to talk over someone at some point in your career.

You resent the people that talk over you. And feel like an asshole when you do.

In the worst case, talking over each other can degenerate into very chaotic conversations where nothing is truly communicated. Thankfully, that never happened to me.

In a not worst, but still pretty bad case, you'll have some people that just retreat from the conversation.

I might be brash enough to intrerrupt people (I still try to be polite) if needed to point out something I want to stand behind. But not everybody is like that. Some people are shy and quite simply don't do well in a meeting because of that.

With written communication there is no talking over each other or intrerrupting people. Yay 🎉

## Not being able to formulate good arguments on the spot

Have you ever felt that something someone said is off, but you can't quite put your finger on why instantly?

Has it ever happened to you that you think of the perfect counter-argument but only 2 hours after the decision has been made?

Well, it's normal. We're not machines that have instant access to all the data and information in our heads. We can't always process or understand concepts immediately.

Many times, it takes some 'fermentation time' to create and formulate your argument/counter-argument and present it in a good way.

Things can come out incomplete or even sound stupid when you think as you talk.

A 1 hour meeting doesn't allow for 'fermentation time'. Async written communication does.

## Info gets lost 🔍

What if you couldn't make the meeting? Or you want to review the discussion to think further about it?

Unless there is a recording, you're out of luck.

And, let's be real, even if there is a recording... you don't really want to spend an hour watching it. You probably won't watch it.

![Ain't nobody got time for that](/nobody-got-time.jpeg)

## Meetings can be slow / wasting time 😪

Have you ever been in a meeting where you have to listen to someone talk about something that doesn't really matter to what you do?

Have you had to witness people in meetings deviate from the meeting's subject/agenda?

That was wasted time (for you). And I'm sure you have wasted other people's time in a similar fashion too. I definitely must have done it.

Most of the information from a meeting can usually be conveied in written form and be read much faster then it'd take to go through a meeting. Also, people can skim over the parts that are not relevant to them.

## People are late to meetings 😡

This is kind of a personal pet peeve. I do my best to always be a few minutes early to any meeting.

Some people are late. That's fine... especially if it only happens once in a while and it's no more than 5 minutes late.

I don't blame or resent people for it.

Maybe your kid wanted to talk to you for 5 minutes just as you were about to enter the meeting. Or maybe you lost your internet connection.

Hell, maybe you just finished a meeting where someone was dragging it past the alloted time.

I totally, fully understand. It's not your fault.

But we can fix this easily, by reducing the amount of meetings we hold. 🔧

## The right way to communicate async

I'm hopeful that the above examples had shown you a few very regular problems with meetings and sync communication.

But what's the alternative here?

**Use Notion & Linear, not Slack or Discord!**

I wish I had links to the blog articles I mentioned above, but the main argument against IM or chats is that information gets lost very easily in there. It also still implies sync communication.

Now, when you use Notion to have a debate to decide the best course of action for a project, you don't have all of these issues mentioned above.

People can't talk over each other, they have the time to formulate their ideas and organize them in a way that's easy/fast to read. And they can pitch in as their time allows.

More so, all the communications are there either on the Notion page or in its history. It's very easy to search and find information. It doesn't get lost as it would in a meeting or on Slack.

Linear is more specific to engineers, but it's an amazing tool.

If I get blocked when fixing a bug, I could share it in a meeting or on Slack, yes. But if I tag you in linear with a link to GH so you can see the code, I think that's more useful.

Not only is the code there to see, but also everyone knows what issue (in the tracker) my problem relates to. The information is easy to find.

All the above benefits are valid for Linear too (not talking over each other, having time to formulate what you want to communicate, etc).

## Conclusion ⁉️

I'm not saying meetings should be completely purged.

Some are good for different reasons. A standup improves team chemistry. A pair programming session can improve productivity.

I'm just saying you probably can shed a few from your weekly schedule. 🗓



## I made almost $20k last year freelancing and I quit

If you've read [this article](/why-i-quit-freelancing) you already know that back then I had decided that I want to try my luck getting a job/contract as a dev in a crypto company, even though freelancing wasn't that bad and I was on the up and up.

I did that because:

- Web3 development is generally better paid than web dev;
- It's a grind to find and negociate with new clients all the time;
- I wanted a challenge.

## I announced all of my clients and started looking

This may be something a lot of you don't have the stomach to do, but I simply announced all of my clients I won't be freelancing anymore before having even 1 lead as to getting a job.

I got a tip that [inverse.finance](https://inverse.finance) is hiring and so I started being active on their discord, helping how I could. I also started buggering them about a job.

They were friendly when talking to me (even though I was clear I knew nothing about web3 yet). They told me to learn and build a portfolio using Solidity, ethers.js, hardhat and they'd consider me.

This lead me to build [this](https://github.com/lazaralex98/voting-contract). It's a contract + dApp where you can make proposals for me to make YT videos and vote on existent proposals.

_Side note: I have a [YT channel](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBTlMP2ODwm0_Apy4wMoy5g)_

After presenting it to them they told me they are looking for a senior (I obviously don't fit that description yet 😂).

It kinda pissed me off as they could've let me know from the get go, but I did have on small web3 project in my portfolio now, so I moved on.

## An unlikely event presented me another opportunity

I somehow met Frank Turtle ([and I did an interview with him too](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KxMbgragJY)), and he was also looking to break into web3.

He pointed me to [Toucan.earth](https://toucan.earth). They were looking to hire plenty of devs.

So I went straight to their discord and offered to help by building [a Discord Bot that praises people](https://github.com/lazaralex98/toucan-discord-praise-bot).

![Discord Praise Bot](/how-i-got-into-toucan.png)

Literally without any promise (or knowledge about discord bots), I started building this project.

In about 20 days of full-time work on this (quitting all of my client work did have its benefits, you see) I had a ERC20 customised token, a discord bot and a website for authentication.

After showing it to [James](https://twitter.com/positonic) (he's the CTO), he asked me if I want to be paid for the bot.

![How I asked James for a job](/how-i-asked-james-for-a-job.png)

I obviously said no, but I did request a job.

## My trial month

After a short discussion on Zoom (or whatever we used), me and James decided to do a trial month to see if we're a fit.

_Funny fact: He had asked me "when can you start?" twice (before the call and during the call) and I answered "today" or "right now" on both occasions. I think they loved my enthusiasm._

I learned **A LOT** during that trial month. Also, I fell in love with the team & culture, and I guess they liked me too since I got employed full-time. 💚

## Remember the drawbacks talk when I decided to quit freelancing?

I was a bit afraid that maybe I'll be less free/flexible if I got a job vs freelance.

The reality (for me at Toucan), is that I'm just as free, if not more free. I make my own schedule. I can take a day off whenever I feel like it. They don't care where I work from.

And, because this is a full-time position, I actually have better work-life balance.

My teammates are also super cool. I get paid far more per year than I did freelancing. I couldn't be more happy at Toucan.

One of the best decisions I've made.

P.S.: I also want to thank a friend of mine who is the one that initially adviced me to give web3 a shot. He's name is Sam, but I think he may want to stay anonymous. If you're reading this, thanks again Sam 🙏🏻



Before we dive in the discussion, fun fact, see that bridge in the image on the right? It's in my college town.

It's much longer than it seems in the image. Wind makes it dwindle and I've only crossed it once because I'm genuinely afraid of heights.

Back to the topic, the software engineering field is an amazing [field to be in](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/software-developers.htm).

The demand for good engineers is high and going up. The average income is high, the unemployment is low, you can work remote, you can freelance/contract.

Also, it’s a field that allows for a lot of pivoting either within it (full-stack to frontend) or to other engineering fields (sysadmin, network, cybersecurity, web3).

But, one thing I questioned once was...

> What if we were in an economical crisis?

There hasn't been any data looking at software engineers (avg income, unemployment) in a real crisis. I'm talking the bad kind, not like 2008.

I'm thinking something like the 1930s depression era.

We can't see how **software** engineers would fare in such a crisis, but we can see how engineers in general have done in that era.

## Life as an engineer in the Great Depression

I have aggregated data from quite a few places (including a book!) and this blog post has lived in my iCloud notes for a while now, so you will have to take my word with these numbers. Sorry 🤷🏻‍♂️.

Anyways...

In 1929 to 1934 (worst of the depression), engineer unemployment was at most 10,1%. Whereas the general average unemployment reached a peak of 24,9% at one point.

So, if you were an engineer you were doing observably better than the average person from this regard.

Also, I'm sure at least some of that 10,1% were unemployed by choice.

The ones that weren't unemployed by choice, I'm willing to assume that at least some of them weren't that greatly skilled to begin with.

My point? **If you were good at your skill & willing to work, you'd likely have kept your job or found another.**

Let's talk about average income as well:

The average yearly income in the 1930s was $1.368, whereas an average engineer with 2 years of experience would earn around an average of $2.000 per year.

Adjusted to official inflation, that today would have been [$22.235](https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1929?amount=1368) and [$32.508](https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1929?amount=2000) respectively.

Side note: I urge you to [reconsider the validity of official inflation numbers](https://inflationchart.com/spx-in-m3).

## My conclusion?

Even in a major economical crisis, if you are an engineer you will be ok. Even more so if you are a software engineer, I recon.

If you are in tech, you are in an amazing position. You will likely always have a good income so long as you are willing to work.



## I made almost $20k this year and I'm quitting 🤯

If you've read [this article](https://alexlazar.dev/posts/about-me) you already know a bit about how I got here and you know that I made almost $20k in 2021 freelancing as a web developer.

Which is shit if you live in New York, but it's pretty cool if you are a 24y old in Romania were the average person earns like $12k.

_Yes, I know on paper Romania's average income is $5,7k but that's just wrong. A lot of people in this country do not report their income or pay taxes._

There's a few caveats though:

1. I spent some of that $20k on business stuff (a new macbook, programming courses, software, referral commissions, etc)
2. I didn't work full time. I had about 3 months where I didn't actually get ANY paid work.

That said, it was a pretty good year, and I had good prospects/leads for next year.

So...

## Why did I choose to quit freelancing? 🧐

There's a few reasons. Let's recap them at first, and then dive into each of them.

- There are higher paid fields than web, like crypto & web3;
- It's a grind to find new clients and negociate rates with them;
- It kinda gets boring to build the same landing pages & blogs time and time again.

## I can make more in web3 💸

Probably the first reason to quit freelancing is that I could earn more as a software engineer in the crypto/web3 field.

And it's very important to note that, unlike web development, the crypto field has more opportunities for employees or long-term contractors than for freelancers.

According to [CryptoCurrencyJobs a Solidity dev earns $80k a year on the low end](https://cryptocurrencyjobs.co/salaries/solidity-developer/).

Isn't that great?

The reality is, even if I'd work full time as a web dev freelancer, I'd probably still fall short of that. Unless I'd hire people and scale, but then you have the issue of finding enough work to keep them all busy.

Marketing & sales **IS NOT EASY**...

## Finding clients & negociating deals is a grind, especially when...

Especially when you also need to fulfill the work.

It's far easier to do one or two things within your business than to handle: web design, frontend development, backend development, deployment, sales, marketing, lead generation, creating content, etc.

By getting a job, I can focus on far fewer things and it makes my life easier & less stressful.

## I'm bored 🥱

Web3 problems are novel to me. Therefore, more interesting than building a landing page or blog or eCom store.

These are things that I have done already quite a few times and it really does get boring.

## Drawbacks?

Freelancing obviously gives me the most freedom & flexibility in terms of how much I work, when I work, how I work, etc.

A job can be more restrictive, but it's not necessarily that way.

In fact, in the world of crypto where most companies are DAOs (decentralised autonomous organisations) there's a lot of freedom.

It's a bit like the wild west. They don't ask for a college degree, they don't require you to be available 9-5 within a certain timezone and there is little bureaucracy.

So long as you get your work done, you're more or less good in most crypto companies.

Which means there isn't that much of a freedom drawback IF I stick to crypto/web3 companies.

Which is what I intend to do.

## Conclusion?

More money, more stability, funner challenges and similar freedom.

In theory it sounds great, right?

That's why I'm giving it a shot. I'm in the middle of learning & building a web3 portfolio and DMing companies.

There is, of course, a chance I might not like working as an employee in a DAO and I end up coming back to freelancing. That's fine, I still feel I need to take this shot.

**Fun fact:** I am actually DMing these guys. The primary means of communication in the crypto world is Discord. No email or anything corporate.

P.S.: Check out [my first ever smart contract right here](https://github.com/lazaralex98/voting-contract).



## My first PC 👨🏻‍💻

I remember having my first PC when I was 5 and the internet when I was 7. This was back in the early 2000s in Romania when most people didn't yet have a PC nor an internet connection.

(Thanks mom & dad!)

While I was primarily using it only to entertain myself or my friends, I believe that becoming 'computer literate' is the first prerequisite towards becoming a software engineer.

Having a PC & an internet connection was also the start of me learning English. Which is also a major part of me being where I am at today.

## My first encounter with computer programming

I remember first coding back in 7th grade in school. Our IT professor was supposed to teach us a bit of PASCAL, among other IT skills like Excel and whatnot.

I had an inclination for it and was first in my class at it. It was super fun to create logical sequences of if/else statements which would make the terminal do what I wanted it to do.

What happened though is my family, which was pretty wealthy **at the time**, pulled me out of school for a few weeks so we could go on a ❄️ winter vacation.

We went to Dubai ✈️ for a week and then we visited a few ⛰ mountainous cities/towns in north Romania.

_As a side note, I was as priviliged & spoiled as you could be in Romania at the time. Altough my parents were very strict regarding my school grades, I was given everything I wanted._

The point is, by the time I got back to school, the class was so far ahead on PASCAL that I couldn't catch up to them.

My little flame of interest towards programming estinguished and I took up boxing.

## Years passed, the wealth was lost & I had to figure something out

Over the years my father was imprisoned, my family lost a big chunk of its wealth and I found myself in my early twenties not knowing what to do next.

I was 'groomed' to inherit and take over the familiy businessess, but these businessess did not exist anymore.

So, I had to set out & blaze my own path.

I've wandered a bit. A few things happened:

- a car crash where I caused the death of a person (it's a hard topic for me still and it's also what got me on probation)
- I quit boxing for the most part
- many drunken parties & a lot of wasted time
- a short stay in the UK where I hoped I would find better opportunities
- a layman job in construction job under my father's company (what was left of it)

Eventually, in October 2019, I happened upon my now good friend [Abuamerican](https://twitter.com/abuamerican). We were strangers, he mentioned on Twitter that he needed a website & I emailed him saying I could do it for him.

I didn't know much besides being able to set up a basic WordPress website. But I figured that was still better then the broken Wix website he used to have at the time.

And that's how I got into web development...

## Being a web freelancer 🤑

At this point, I figured that for the first time in my life I'm onto something. I had the hope that I might be able to build a business of my own.

So, I started doing 2 things:

1. I learned more about building websites
2. I emailed more people to offer my services

In my first 12 months I made like $2-3k. Which is kinda shit, but I saw progress so I stuck with it.

_It's important to note that, even with my family being far poorer, I still didn't have to worry about rent, utilities or food. For the most part, I could spend most of my money on my desires._

In my second year I made somewhere around $20k, but I also learned a ton from a technical aspect.

It's also of note that I never really worked full time... at least not for long periods.

Whereas at the beginning of my career I was a WordPress 'developer' after 1 year I was building custom web apps with plain PHP. And by now, December 2021, I have already graduated to Next.js, testing and Github 🤯.

I can only now honestly call myself a real software engineer to be honest.

## What's next?

I'm learning Solidity and web3 and I'm looking to break into this industry and have my first real job. 👨🏻‍💼

Wish me luck! 🍀



I've put in a good 3 days into building this .md file based blog, and I actually really like it.

I'm too spent to write anything right now though.

But... **hello world**, welcome to my blog.

Cheers!

P.S.: I actually still need to integrate ConvertKit in that newsletter form you see, but whatever. Aaaand I need to deploy to my domain which I'm having transfer issues with 😅🤯


I'm Alex