andrew carter

Last Friday was my final day at Pure Networks. I spent about 7 months there. In the end, it just wasn’t the right place at the right time for me. What I wanted to do wasn’t very compatible with what Pure Networks needed done right now.

So now what? I’ve never spent more than about 3 weeks off at any time since high school. And when I was off, I was always preparing/planning/thinking about what I would be doing when I got back to work. This time is a little different. I don’t know what I’m going to do next. I do know that I am burned out. I should have taken time off after Microsoft.

I have some ideas for what I want to do next. Seattle is extremely active right now with cool technology startups. I’ve slowly developed a network of contacts around town that give me plenty of options to work for someone else. But I think my real desire is to do my own thing. It’s what I’ve wanted to do for as long as I can remember. I have this fantasy of being my own boss, doing it my way. Do I really understand what that means? Of course not. I’ve got to learn many new skills and find how to set my expectations. I’ll look at how people like Brent Simmons, Gus Mueller, and the Panic guys have done it. They all have found a way to work on what they want and make a good living at it. The good thing is that I have an idea for an application that I want to build. I think that is a start.

I’m going to split my time between relaxing and working on my prototype. I’ll spend time with my daughter, maybe play some golf. I’ll finally get to immerse myself in Cocoa and OS X. After a month or so, I’ll get some opinions on my work and decide what to do next. No matter what, it will be fun to sit down and write some Cocoa/Objective-C code.

Everyone at Pure Networks was supportive of my decision. I thank them for that. Most suggested I take at least the whole summer off. Everyone agrees on one thing - life is too short to not pursue what makes you passionate.