Building a playground for top developers

Note: TopDev is a fictional company, something i would like to build at some point.

There’s a Japanese word that describes what it’s like to fully commit to an activity and immerse yourself in it — kamiwaza. Literally translated, it means “like the gods.” That might sound terribly arrogant, but it’s simply not.

Prolific and controversial writer, Bukowski, talks about this “no other feeling like this” in his poem, All the way.

“You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire”.

When was the last time you felt an urge to work on something?

Things change when a group of people challenge the way things currently work. TopDev is doing just that.

Society doesn’t benefits as much as it could, when you’re toying with that Excell spreadsheet, or working on something that’s outside your area of interest. You do your best work when you actually want to work on something.

To each, his own, and there’s enough (development work) for everybody. There are enough products to be built, to make everybody rich.

I won’t talk about how many things go south at your current job. You know it all to well, and i feel no need to bring you down. Not after Bukowski’s poem.

Let’s talk about the future. Your future, the impact you could be making and kamiwaza. TopDev provides work you love doing, and gives you the tools to benefit directly from it.

How?

TopDev has put together a software specification tool. Each functional component in the product has been captured in a unit or integration test. Also, each functional component has a reward attached to it. Make it pass, and you get the reward. Choose what you want to work on, in terms of mission, impact or technology. What needs to be done has been already laid out.

Once you get the reward, you can cash out immediately, or you can keep it as a stake in the company.

Here’s a brief article, introducing the technology and another one that serves as a demo. Here’s one about the economics of the platform. And one studying the effects of implementing this.

If you’re the entrepreneurial type, you might want to read about how projects get selected, and how you can start your very own.

Above all, we want to share TopDev with you. The goal is to have the initial co-founders have less than 1% stake in the platform.

Join us now, do great work and take direct control of your finances, time and challenges!

This story is published in The Startup, Medium’s largest entrepreneurship publication followed by +423,678 people.

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