In the preparation for my leap back into the world of start-ups, I’ve been wondering why I don’t prefer to consult full-time. Consulting has a bunch of pros:

  1. Excellent pay
  2. Challenging projects
  3. Turn your brain off at 5pm

It struck me today - that the main reason I don’t enjoy doing javascript / rails consulting is because I can’t do it all day long. I can do 4-5 hours of it and stay in flow, but after that it’s a real struggle. Sure I can churn out more code and fix bugs, but I’m not being creative, I’m overexercising the part of my brain that writes code.

And in a small business, that’s the perfect time of day to put away your text editor, open up skype, imovie and mail.app, and start down some of that marketing work.

I think this all comes back to Heinlein.

Specialization is for Insects

I want to be able to play the cello, climb a multipitch, fix a car, nurse a child, write a book, rally a crowd, run a marathon, pontificate on a beer, console a friend or any of a million more things.

Small business takes away your safety net, but it lets you try out as every act in the circus.