Jovan Cicmil's Blog

How to Find Meaningful Work

November 3, 2020

What is meaningful work? The answer to this question changes from age to age and from society to society, but only on the surface. The essence remains the same because it comes from the very core of our humanity. “Deprived of meaningful work, men and women lose their reason for existence; they go stark, raving mad.” — Fyodor Dostoevsky Philosophy is no match for evolution For hu...

How To Adopt Radical Open-Mindedness

October 21, 2020

I recently read Ray Dalio’s book, Principles. Dalio is one of the most successful investors in history, and a person of remarkable breadth and vision. In this book, he outlines the principles that he built over a long and rich career, and that we can use to guide our life and work. Out of all the concepts in the book, possibly the most important (and certainly the most widely applicable) is r...

What Web Development Agencies Get Wrong

October 2, 2020

If somebody wants to pay you to build a wooden cottage for them, what do you do? Do you: Name a price for building a wooden cottage. Offer to build them a mansion with a swimming pool, solar panels, garage, alarm system, and an exotic garden, then try to bill them for that. Common sense says that everyone should choose the former option. Yet, web development agencies routinely choose th...

How to Choose a 21st Century Career

September 17, 2020

How many times have you heard a sentence that started with the words “I wish I had…”? College graduates wish they had understood how the world works before they chose their majors (or, indeed, whether to attend university at all). Middle-aged men and women wish they had chosen this industry over that. Everybody has 20/20 hindsight, but peering into the future is a completely different ani...

Six Ways to Monetize Your Upwork Profile

July 30, 2020

I’ve been a freelancer for 9 years. Upwork has provided me with the sort of work that I never thought possible before that. The sort of work that you can enjoy doing and make good money while you’re at it — all on your own schedule. But, that’s not the whole story. Contrary to popular belief, there is great value to be found in a successful Upwork profile beyond the obvious “do a proj...

Applying Lessons From Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” to Your Business

June 17, 2020

One doesn’t need to be a literary expert to understand one thing — if a literary work survives for millennia, there is value in it that is intrinsic and timeless. There are messages within that have found application to the lives of people across centuries and continents. Thus, such works must not be ignored by anyone seeking to educate themselves. The Art of War isn’t merely a collection...

How To Upsell to Clients as a Freelancer

April 30, 2020

If I have learned something in ten years of freelancing, it is that the best kind of client is a repeat client. The overhead of searching for new projects, applying, interviewing, vetting clients and acquainting yourself with the project is immense. This is why it’s very important to regularly search for opportunities to extend your relationship with your existing clients. The trick is doing it ...

Price’s Law Is Going to Kill Your Company

February 20, 2020

Have you noticed how, in every group, team or organization, a small number of people seem to be dragging everyone else forward? Whether you’re in a group chat organizing a trip or in an office building a startup, do you sometimes feel that a few people are pulling more than their fair share of the weight? Well, there’s a name for that. Physicist and historian of science Derek John de Solla ...

How I Made Over $150k on Upwork

February 4, 2020

Just so we’re all clear that I’m not making this up, you can visit my Upwork profile here. Once there, you will find out two things: I am not making anything up. I did not make that money by writing. Most of the earnings came from software development projects, with a bit of consulting here and there. But, I do invite writers and marketers to go through the points below — most of ...

How I Built, Promoted, and Sold a Product with No Investments and No Marketing Budget

January 14, 2020

It doesn’t even involve a special kind of product, but it does entirely hinge on your relationship to the product. Eight years ago, I was a beginner programmer with little technical experience and no business acumen whatsoever. I had built no interactive websites, published no viral apps and written no recondite articles on software architecture. What I had was a desire to play fantasy football ...

The Declining Value of a University Education

December 25, 2019

How many people do you know that went off to university with admirable academic goals and returned disillusioned, broke and scandalously unprepared to contribute anything productive to the economy? This has become the norm rather than the exception, but why? In theory, we go to university to acquire knowledge which allows us to join the ranks of our desired profession. In practice, we stumble a...