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Welcome to the fifty-first issue of De Programmatica Ipsum, dedicated to Freelancing. In this edition, we learn the principles of running a healthy business as independent software engineers; in the Library section, we review the software economics knowledge of Barry Boehm; and in our Vidéothèque section, we learn from Mike Monteiro how to ask nicely for payments.
It is hard to make a living in the software industry without crossing the path of a software developer dreaming of becoming independent. Imagine the bliss: no more bosses, no more timesheets, just you and your favorite programming language, day in, day out. Let us be honest: we all dream of building the SaaS or the mobile app of our dreams and living out of its monthly recurring income. Or, in the worst case, at least to have a nice consulting gig that pays for a full year of salary in just six months.
Erika Hall and Mike Monteiro founded Mule Design, a design consultancy in San Francisco, around 20 years ago. Mike was (in)famously known around a decade ago on Twitter, where his profanity-laden rants about design, ethics (or lack thereof), unionization, and open condemnation of fascism, reached peaks of popularity and retweets.
We have often talked about software economics in this magazine. For example, when we enumerated Eric Sink’s perspectives on the software business, discussed platforms as a paradigm for economic analysis, or talked about how Brad Cox advocated for an object-oriented economy. But there is a more extraordinary author about the subject, one we mentioned a few times in this magazine and who sadly passed away last August: Barry Boehm.