A passion for programming. How I refused the $ 300,000 Microsoft offered me in exchange for a full-time job on GitHub
< 6. Do not listen to your parents | 7. Be a generalist>
Tom Preston-Werner (Tom Preston-Werner)
2008 was a leap year. This means that 366 days ago, almost at the same moment, I was sitting in the sport bar “Zeke's Sports Bar and Grill” on third street in San Francisco. I usually didn’t wander through the sport bars, but then it was Thursday - the night “I may have Ruby”. I think even this way “I can have _” and anything can be inserted here. The ICHR was a half-closed meeting of “Rubistov”, which usually willingly turned into a night binge. Usually these nights were like my hangover in the morning, but this night was different. It was the night GitHub was born.
I think I sat alone in the bar, because I ordered Fat Tire (the name of a Belgian brewery beer), and needed a short break from intercourse, which was what happened at the long tables in the dimly lit back of the bar. From the sixth sip, Chris Wanstrath entered. Hard to remember if Chris and I were on friendly terms at the time. We knew each other through meetings and conferences of Rubistov, and it was only in passing. Like, “Hey, I think your code is awesome.” I don’t remember what made me do it, but I motioned him to me and said, “Dude, check it out.” About a week ago, I started working on a project called Grit, which allowed me to access from Ruby, in the form of OOP, Git repositories. At the time, Chris was one of the few Rubistes who began to take Git seriously. He sat down, and I began to show him what I had. I didn’t have that much, but it was enough to notice that it hurt Chris. Sensing this, I launched my half-baked ideas on the site, which acted as a hub for coders, where they could publish their Git repositories. I even had a name: GitHub. Maybe I will rephrase, but his answer was like a very decisive “I am in business. Let's do it!". The following night (Friday, October 19, 2007, at 10:24 pm), Chris made the first commit to the GitHub repository and carved our joint venture on a digital stone. So far, we have not had any agreement on how things will be next. We were just two guys who decided to put together something that sounded cool. For the next three months, Chris and I spent a ridiculous amount of time planning and coding GitHub. I continued to work on Grit, and developed the user interface. Chris tweaked the Rails application. We met in person every Saturday to make design decisions, tried to find out what, nevertheless, would be our tariff plan. I remember one very rainy day, we talked for a good two hours about different pricing policies. We did all this by fulfilling other obligations. For example, I worked full-time at Powerset as a tool developer for the Ranking and Relevance team.
')
In the middle of January, after three months, nights and weekends, we launched in private beta mode, sending invitations to our friends. In mid-February, PJ Hyett joined, and made us three times stronger. We publicly launched the site on April 10th. TechCrunch was not invited. At the moment, it was still three twenty-year-old guys without a penny of investment. I was still working full time at Powerset, July 1, 2008, when we learned that Microsoft had just purchased Powerset for $ 100 million. It was interesting. Because of this acquisition, I had a choice before I planned. I could either continue as a Microsoft developer, or devote a full-time to the GitHub project. When I was 29 years old, I was the eldest of the three GitHubber and accumulated a proportionately large amount of debt and monthly expenses. I'm used to my six-figured lifestyle.
This is followed by the mixed question of the return of my wife Teresa from Costa Rica. I am soon from a frivolous bachelor to become a married man. I hesitated, Microsoft's offer was juicy. Salary, plus $ 300,000 for three years sounded tempting. This money is enough for anyone to think twice. So, what I faced: a safe job, with a large amount of guaranteed money working for Microsoft, or a risky job with an unknown amount as an entrepreneur. I knew that relationships with other GitHub developers could become extremely tense if I stayed in Powerset much longer. Having accumulated some money and recently becoming freelancers, they began to devote all their work time to improving GitHub. It was a “make or die” time. Either choose GitHub and go for it, or make a safe choice by exiting GitHub and get a bag of Microsoft money.
If you want a recipe for restless sleep, I can give it to you. Add one piece “What would my wife think?” And 3,000 pieces of Benjamin Franklin (portrait on a $ 100 bill), stir into “beer when you want” and put on top a chance for financial independence.
I began to feel much better when I told my employer the bad news that I was leaving the company to do something better. I reported the news to my boss at Powerset on the exact day of the cooperation offer. Like any big boss, he was stunned, but understood. He did not try to seduce me with big bonuses or anything else. I think in his heart he knew what I was going to leave. I may have had even a greater incentive to stay than others, given my risk of flying. Those Microsoft managers crafted, I tell you. In addition to the science itself, they are also interested in incentive bonuses, well, except for cases when you confuse an entrepreneur - a shark of business. Everything is foolish when there are any such people in the district. In the end, just like Indiana Jones, I could never miss the opportunity to find the Holy Grail, I could not miss the chance to work for myself, on what I really love, and no matter how reliable the option is. When I grow old, I want, looking back at life, to say: “Wow, this was an adventure,” and not “Wow, I felt comfortable.”
Tom Preston-Werner (Tom Preston-Werner) co-founder of GitHub.
Tom Preston-Werner (Tom Preston-Werner)
2008 was a leap year. This means that 366 days ago, almost at the same moment, I was sitting in the sport bar “Zeke's Sports Bar and Grill” on third street in San Francisco. I usually didn’t wander through the sport bars, but then it was Thursday - the night “I may have Ruby”. I think even this way “I can have _” and anything can be inserted here. The ICHR was a half-closed meeting of “Rubistov”, which usually willingly turned into a night binge. Usually these nights were like my hangover in the morning, but this night was different. It was the night GitHub was born.
I think I sat alone in the bar, because I ordered Fat Tire (the name of a Belgian brewery beer), and needed a short break from intercourse, which was what happened at the long tables in the dimly lit back of the bar. From the sixth sip, Chris Wanstrath entered. Hard to remember if Chris and I were on friendly terms at the time. We knew each other through meetings and conferences of Rubistov, and it was only in passing. Like, “Hey, I think your code is awesome.” I don’t remember what made me do it, but I motioned him to me and said, “Dude, check it out.” About a week ago, I started working on a project called Grit, which allowed me to access from Ruby, in the form of OOP, Git repositories. At the time, Chris was one of the few Rubistes who began to take Git seriously. He sat down, and I began to show him what I had. I didn’t have that much, but it was enough to notice that it hurt Chris. Sensing this, I launched my half-baked ideas on the site, which acted as a hub for coders, where they could publish their Git repositories. I even had a name: GitHub. Maybe I will rephrase, but his answer was like a very decisive “I am in business. Let's do it!". The following night (Friday, October 19, 2007, at 10:24 pm), Chris made the first commit to the GitHub repository and carved our joint venture on a digital stone. So far, we have not had any agreement on how things will be next. We were just two guys who decided to put together something that sounded cool. For the next three months, Chris and I spent a ridiculous amount of time planning and coding GitHub. I continued to work on Grit, and developed the user interface. Chris tweaked the Rails application. We met in person every Saturday to make design decisions, tried to find out what, nevertheless, would be our tariff plan. I remember one very rainy day, we talked for a good two hours about different pricing policies. We did all this by fulfilling other obligations. For example, I worked full-time at Powerset as a tool developer for the Ranking and Relevance team.
')
In the middle of January, after three months, nights and weekends, we launched in private beta mode, sending invitations to our friends. In mid-February, PJ Hyett joined, and made us three times stronger. We publicly launched the site on April 10th. TechCrunch was not invited. At the moment, it was still three twenty-year-old guys without a penny of investment. I was still working full time at Powerset, July 1, 2008, when we learned that Microsoft had just purchased Powerset for $ 100 million. It was interesting. Because of this acquisition, I had a choice before I planned. I could either continue as a Microsoft developer, or devote a full-time to the GitHub project. When I was 29 years old, I was the eldest of the three GitHubber and accumulated a proportionately large amount of debt and monthly expenses. I'm used to my six-figured lifestyle.
This is followed by the mixed question of the return of my wife Teresa from Costa Rica. I am soon from a frivolous bachelor to become a married man. I hesitated, Microsoft's offer was juicy. Salary, plus $ 300,000 for three years sounded tempting. This money is enough for anyone to think twice. So, what I faced: a safe job, with a large amount of guaranteed money working for Microsoft, or a risky job with an unknown amount as an entrepreneur. I knew that relationships with other GitHub developers could become extremely tense if I stayed in Powerset much longer. Having accumulated some money and recently becoming freelancers, they began to devote all their work time to improving GitHub. It was a “make or die” time. Either choose GitHub and go for it, or make a safe choice by exiting GitHub and get a bag of Microsoft money.
If you want a recipe for restless sleep, I can give it to you. Add one piece “What would my wife think?” And 3,000 pieces of Benjamin Franklin (portrait on a $ 100 bill), stir into “beer when you want” and put on top a chance for financial independence.
I began to feel much better when I told my employer the bad news that I was leaving the company to do something better. I reported the news to my boss at Powerset on the exact day of the cooperation offer. Like any big boss, he was stunned, but understood. He did not try to seduce me with big bonuses or anything else. I think in his heart he knew what I was going to leave. I may have had even a greater incentive to stay than others, given my risk of flying. Those Microsoft managers crafted, I tell you. In addition to the science itself, they are also interested in incentive bonuses, well, except for cases when you confuse an entrepreneur - a shark of business. Everything is foolish when there are any such people in the district. In the end, just like Indiana Jones, I could never miss the opportunity to find the Holy Grail, I could not miss the chance to work for myself, on what I really love, and no matter how reliable the option is. When I grow old, I want, looking back at life, to say: “Wow, this was an adventure,” and not “Wow, I felt comfortable.”
Tom Preston-Werner (Tom Preston-Werner) co-founder of GitHub.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/196426/
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