For the etymology of the term "501 Developer", click here

The 501 Developer Manifesto

We are software developers who take pride in our work but choose not to be wholly defined by it.

As such, we are proud to say that we value:

Our families over the commercial goals of business owners

the commercial goals of business owners Free time over free snacks

free snacks Living our lives over maintaining our personal brands

maintaining our personal brands Sustainable pace over muscle-man heroics

muscle-man heroics Our personal creative projects over commercial products the world doesn't need

commercial products the world doesn't need Having money for stuff over getting free swag and work overtime

getting free swag and work overtime Playing fußball in the pub with our friends over playing fußball in the office with our team leader

playing fußball in the office with our team leader Not being a dick over being a rockstar

That is to say, we value the things on the left more than we value the things on the right. And some of the things on the right aren't even on our radar.

Write a technical blog

Contribute to open source projects

Attend user groups in your spare time

Mostly only read books about coding and productivity

Push to GitHub while sitting on the toilet

Are committed to maximum awesomeness at all times, or would have us believe it ...we respect you for it. There's probably some pity in there too, but honestly, it's mostly respect. If you:...we respect you for it. There's probably some pity in there too, but honestly, it's mostly respect.

We recognize that your willingness to allow your employment to penetrate deeply into your personal life means that you will inevitably become our supervisor. We're cool with this.

In return, you must recognize that the success of the projects on which we work together depends largely upon the degree to which you treat us with respect, both as skilled professionals and as a diversity of autonomous living people. Get that right, and we'll do a great job. Get it badly wrong, and there's a risk that we'll piss all over your fireworks. There are more of us than there are of you.

To us it is just a job, but we still do it well.

Revived 2020-04-08.

Created 2012-04-17. Email. Full respect to Scott Hanselman and to the authors of the Agile Manifesto, which I have so lamely pastiched. Sorry about the ugly HTML - I'd fix it, but I'm going home now.