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The Job vs. The Work

September 2025

Dave Rupert1 wrote a piece called "Many years on the job and I still don't get it2". It's a contemplation of what a job doing web dev looks like. Listing all the parts of a gig that aren't writing code.

I haven't had a job for a few years. I've been working on various projects. Both personal and open-source, but always as a solo developer. It's given me a new perspective of work. A view into the difference between a job in web dev and the work of web dev.

Here's what my version of Dave's list looks like:

  • Checking email
  • Scheduling calls
  • Writing release notes
  • Contributing to newsletters
  • Documentation (code and otherwise)
  • Making spreadsheets
  • Demystifying the work I do to teammates
  • Clarifying decisions
  • Having technical conversations with teammates
  • Having non-technical conversations with teammates
  • Investigating weird browser behaviors
  • Babysitting servers and build processes
  • Reviewing PRs
  • Manual QA on branch deploys
  • Attending meetings
  • Attending talks (internal/external)
  • Cross-org contributions
  • Learning
  • Planning
  • Dreaming
  • Scheming
  • Community Ops
  • Moving cards across a board
  • Reading thru backlogs
  • Associating tickets to PRs
  • Closing out old tickets
  • Reading specs
  • Giving feedback on web standards
  • Eating lunch
  • Taking walks
  • Cleaning my home office

No Comms

It all comes down to communication. Working solo eliminates 95% of it.

The thing that's wild for me is realizing how much time and energy communication in a gig takes. I though I knew how much of an impact meetings were having on me. I was off by an order of magnitude.

The Job Multiplier

Of course, there's no way to eliminate the communication requirements from a job. That is, as they say, the cost of doing business.

Dave ends his piece encouraging folks not to be hard on themselves when you hit period where you don't get much coding done. Let me echo that with emphasis.

Comms cost energy. Way more than you think until you don't have to spend it. Go easy on yourself when they take everything you've got.

~a

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Footnotes

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