vbh21

I always seek new challenges. I have found few organizations, established or new alike - are able to offer me the tech challenges I need to survive in this industry. Without challenging problems and with petty office politics, I tend to become numb in an organization - usually within a few months of joining. Then it becomes a slog, and I don't want to lie like a mundane and just-another employee who is going through the same motions.

I don't know if there's a solution..:(

I have had a few successful contributions to an Apache 2.0 licensed software package.

This package is developed as open source but offered as an enterprise SaaS offering.

Now, the founders, being of European origin - have different ideas on development/design. And I don’t like it. But I want to work on that product and release my own offering, after forking their codebase - which I have already done.

I know Apache 2.0 is a permissive license. I am wondering if I’ll get into legal trouble later when I float my own company. I will use some of their code although I’ll make major changes.

I want to play it safe and avoid legal battles over copyright.

I have a fear of office politics now, having been in situations where coworkers were not polite/out for themselves at the expense of others, including me. I couldn't survive/cope well in such a scenario and now I am looking for a new job.

Having had such a bad experience, I was not sure if I'll ever be 'normal' again, wherein I trust my coworkers and am able to do my best work for any company.

I know this can be solved. Just looking for opinions, and advice.

--V

I just fail to see why people at my workplace fight over petty issues. It affects me personally that people would be so short-sighted and not see the bigger picture/impact of our work.

At previous workplaces we saw how our work benefitted millions of people(I worked on y! mail) and I was happy being a part of the team.

What has affected my work most is, beyond earning a paycheck, nobody cares. They’re all content and I am the only one who wants to change systems for the better.:)

Obviously this might not fit well over the longer term, but beyond moving to a better workplace, what are some of the tricks you’ve applied to navigate such a workplace where everybody seems to be complacent and not invested in their work as much I seem to be.

I just fail to see why people at my workplace fight over petty issues. It affects me personally that people would be so short-sighted and not see the bigger picture/impact of our work.

At previous workplaces we saw how our work benefitted millions of people(I worked on y! mail) and I was happy being a part of the team.

What has affected my work most is, beyond earning a paycheck, nobody cares. They’re all content and I am the only one who wants to change systems for the better.:)

Obviously this might not fit well over the longer term, but beyond moving to a better workplace, what are some of the tricks you’ve applied to navigate such a workplace where everybody seems to be complacent and not invested in their work as much I seem to be.

Hi HN: Out-of-work dev here. And I have a ton of experience working in tech as a top-level dev.

Now, after having left work due to personal reasons, I don’t feel like returning to work at smaller companies/faang due to fear of office politics and lack of challenging work.

I can work on open-source and my own projects but seem to not want to go back into work-life as it was before the pandemic struck.

Any advice you have for me will be much appreciated. I seem to have lost passion for my work but I need to be able to pay my bills.