I am a web developer for a company in southern California. As any good thinking worker should be, I love to be lazy. I try my best to minimize my efforts and maximize my returns. For my development this is done by maximizing my reuse of code, using automation tools, and trying to dove-tail tasks. Being lazy doesn't mean not approaching tasks with all due diligence but it does mean using your brain so that you don't have to put the same effort into doing the same tasks or similar tasks the next time.
One of the problems with laziness is that sometimes its unassuming cousin, procrastination, rears its ugly head. Procrastination has kept me from moving forward with my ideas for months, and in some cases years.
In the case of my first startup, the subject of this blog, I procrastinated reading my Amazon Web Services book, instead choosing to get consumed with learning Lean/Scrum techniques, reading all those lovely Pragmatic Programmer books, and hacking around with my G1. So what could I do?
I had to pay for it.
As long as I was relying on myself to learn the amazon API and build the core piece of functionality needed for my startup, I was never going to get started, because there was always something more fun to learn and play with. I also needed to act like I was running a business if I was ever going to realize running a business. So I outsourced. Simply by putting money on the line I gained a sense of ownership and realism with my startup.
I used rent-a-coder. I tried my hand at oDesk, but I found the developers to be wishy washy. I consider myself an senior level Rails developer and these guys were iffy on talent at best. I also started dialogue with two or three developers only to have them flake out, LA style, and stop responding. Interestingly enough, rent-a-coder has the money put into escrow before the developer is allowed to start a project. This makes the relationship between buyer and seller real. With money on the line, the partnership is given credibility, and real stakes. The job either gets done in a business like manner or someones reputation gets tarnished. Rent-a-coder will ban parties who attempt to pull one over. Each project is also assigned a liaison, in my case its Julia who called me and helped me through the process.
My outsource team is in Bangalore. And I have spoken to them twice.
I have dipped my baby-toe into the water and I am ready to go for it.
As with most things in life, some people talk*, and some people just do it.
*I am a talker, I am trying to be a doer.
