Why I went freelance

What made me go freelance wasn't primarily a question of day rate. It was the chance to access more interesting projects, and a freedom that implies a responsibility I was actually looking for: being accountable and autonomous over managing my own career, rather than delegating it to whatever trajectory a company decides for me.

More interesting projects

As a freelancer, I choose the engagements I take on. I can prioritize subjects I'm genuinely interested in (architecture, counterparty risk, AI-assisted development) instead of inheriting a scope set in advance by a hierarchy.

Freedom as responsibility, not comfort

That freedom isn't a comfort: it's a load to carry. Nobody else decides for me which engagement to accept, when to train, how to organize my own progression. That responsibility is precisely what I wanted: being solely accountable for the choices that build my career, rather than just going along with them.

What this actually means in practice

That autonomy demands more personal discipline than a permanent role does: nobody plans my skill development for me, nobody challenges my default architecture choices. That's part of the role AI plays in my daily work, as a thinking partner: it partly compensates for the absence of a permanent team to challenge my decisions with.