Sell yourself, sell your work

My standard advice:

For any young programmers: live within your means, invest the difference, become independent, and work on what you enjoy. It’s the best (work related) gift you can give yourself. Skip the self promotion politics unless you enjoy it.

I get what you (intended to) mean, but living within your means doesn’t leave anything to invest - you just don’t have a growing mountain of debt.

I'm sorry, but this advice can sometimes sound like "sell one of your kidneys so you can eat". What if your means are not sufficient to avoid hunger? Investing negative difference? What if on top of that you're trying to do the work you enjoy and your means - incomes - stop completely? Do you see the problem with advice?

Programmers tend to be paid well?

“Passion is bullshit”.

I don’t hate work. But at the end of the day, it’s a means to exchange labor for money.

Out of the million of things I enjoy, helping the bottom line of a for profit company isn’t one of them. It’s a necessity.

And I actually like the company I work for. It’s one of the best companies I’ve ever worked for (10 in almost 30 years).

The self promotion politics is the only way you get ahead in large companies with a structured promotion process where you have to show “scope” and “impact”.

Respectfully disagree. If you're maxing out your spend so at the end of the month there is no surplus you aren't living within your means. For a lot of folks this is an ugly necessity, but programmers generally aren't in this group.

Naturally not everyone is lucky enough to have the income to do this.

The first part though is key - living within your means. It assumes you have means, and that it's possible to live within them.

The advice is good - whether you use it or not is up to you, and of no consequence to the advice giver. Whether you are in a position to take the advice or not is up to you.

For those who can though I can agree with it. Forgoing a new car now might mean retiring a year earlier. Financial freedom (aka retirement) means doing work on your terms, not beholden to your employer. It doesn't mean "not working".

Of course the best way to a better job, more pay, and a sooner retirement is indeed to "sell yourself" making both yourself and your work more valuable.

Do this advice is a corollary to the article, not a repudiation of it.

I actually enjoy when my work isn't just fun and good, but also contributing to a bigger picture. It's bot just that it gives meaning. It's also that the added design constraints are intriguing, and help me determine when I can stop polishing.

It's not about self promotion, but building with a clear goal set fir me I have found to be much more rewarding than when I have to think of my own goal. The worst is when a fake goal is set, it's the thing about university I liked the least. If I can't interrogate or question the 'why' for the goal, because it is just 'to test me' then it isn't a real goal, just an artificial constraint.

I think you might modify the advice to be something like:

If you're a programmer, and you're paid well, don't assume that will last forever. Don't spend all your money (and beyond) on cars and rent. Invest as much as you can with the goal of being financially independent.

> What if your means are not sufficient to avoid hunger?

Not all advice is applicable to everyone. It's up to you to decide if you can and want to follow it. The advice was for young programmers and it is solid advice, but again, not applicable to everyone. It is applicable to a majority (probably even large majority). If you are young and earning a sw engineer salary it is very rare to not be able to cover your basic needs and have something left. Most people spends what is left in luxuries, lifestyle creep, etc; which is what the advice is trying to warn people about.