Discussion on: I have been a professional developer for 31 years and I'm 53 now, Ask Me Anything!

[John Munsch]

1. It actually took me a while to develop the discipline necessary to work remotely. When I first tried working on my own earlier in my career I was distracted as hell. Now I can sit down and work as efficiently as if I were in an office. We actually work from home once a week and a couple of times I've worked remotely for a couple of weeks at a time while on vacation in another city. We use Sococo + a VPN and that takes care of most everything for us (though don't count that as an endorsement for Sococo; we would replace it if we could find something better).
2. I'm not sure about the answer to the second one. I have worked over the years with programmers who did not have a formal education in it (including one or two really great ones) but I've never hired one myself. I wouldn't rule one out, but I've not met any in a long time who could show the expertise needed. I'm really sorry I'm not more helpful on this.
3. I'm a terrible person to ask on this. I have only one significant entrepreneurial sprint and it was around 1997-1999. It did result in a company that sold to another one some years later so you would think that I would be really sold on building up companies. But really I'm sold on reasonable work hours, vacations, and health insurance. So, since that has worked well for me, here's what I'm going to advocate for you. Do some of both. Don't do one or the other exclusively. Work for yourself some and work for others some.