Developing as a lone wolf has some great advantages. Writing all the code yourself ensures that everything is written in a consistent manner and towards your own vision. No more compromises to fit in with a team leader or technical architect’s idea of how things should work.
My experience so far also indicates that you tend to write a higher quality of code. When you know that your income will depend on the quality of what you create it concentrates the mind wonderfully. Instead of being happy to produce good code, now the only benchmark that makes me happy is great code. It has to be just right.
Of course, what is considered good or great is subjective. My great code might be only average from your point of view and visa versa. But the important point is that you are writing code at the limit of your ability and would be happy to be judged by it.
The down side to being a lone developer is that you have no one to turn to when you get stuck. If you have a tricky decision to make there is no one to bounce ideas off, no alternative point of view to attack a problem with. But there is a solution of sorts.
I have just enrolled on the Microsoft ISV Buddy program. This is a scheme from Microsoft that pairs you up with a developer inside Microsoft, giving you a direct line to an internal developer. Even if they cannot answer the problem themselves, they probably know someone else who can.
If your developing for .NET and working either on your own or in an ISV then I recommend you give it a try. Here is the link…
http://msdn.microsoft.com/isv/isvbuddy/default.aspx
